Reactor Realms is in hands-on prototype development: printing and testing physical cards, working through local production options, and putting the rules through real tabletop matches before a broader release.
The current work is not a mockup-only phase. Cards are being printed, cut, handled, sleeved, shuffled, and played so problems can be found before a larger physical release.
Reactor Realms is not the output of a one-click game generator. It is a long-term independent project built through years of worldbuilding, rules design, card data, software development, visual direction, printing, testing, revision, and production work. AI is one tool inside that larger process.
AI has real limitations and should be used thoughtfully, but it can also be an accessibility and opportunity tool. For independent creators — including people with disabilities, learning or attention differences, limited time, limited money, or skills that are strong in one area and weaker in another — assistive tools can make parts of a large creative project possible that might otherwise be out of reach.
That does not remove the work. It changes what one person can reasonably attempt: building custom software, keeping hundreds of card records consistent, exploring visual ideas, revising writing, preparing production files, testing alternatives, and learning unfamiliar parts of development without needing a full studio staff.
Reactor Realms is being created by William McCollom — an independent game designer, husband, father of six, and lifelong gamer building the project one piece at a time.
What began as an idea for a card game grew into five distinct Realms, hundreds of card concepts, physical prototypes, original lore, custom development tools, packaging, and a game now preparing to reach its first public players.
The five Realms are not direct copies of the people in my life, but family has shaped the way I think about them. People can share the same home, history, and struggles while still developing completely different personalities, strengths, fears, beliefs, and ways of facing the world.
A lot of Reactor Realms comes from those differences — and from my own experiences with responsibility, setbacks, rebuilding, perseverance, and trying to create something better from what is available.
I have built Reactor Realms while living the same kind of life many families live every day — working, raising children, paying bills, trying to make ends meet, and still finding enough time and energy to make something meaningful.
Part of my goal is to create opportunities for my family and to leave behind something positive that can keep opening doors beyond the years I personally spend building it. Reactor Realms is about building with what you have, learning when something fails, and continuing anyway.
Not every family can afford an expensive trading card game. That is one reason the Reactor Realms Preview is available through free browser-generated Print & Play PDFs.
If a family can download the cards, take the files to a local print shop, have them printed and cut, and sit down together to play, I want them to be able to do that. Professionally manufactured products can support the project, but being short on money should not automatically mean being excluded from the table.
The world of Reactor Realms is filled with people trying to survive what came before them, protect what they still have, and build something better from what remains. Maybe that is why this world has always felt personal.
Reactor Realms is being built in Cheyenne, Wyoming — one card, one playtest, and one Realm at a time.
This surviving 2012 card-layout prototype is one of the earliest pieces of the project. It is preserved here exactly as development history, not as a current Reactor Realms card.
The prototype used four tracked resources — Space, Energy, Money, and Supplies — alongside Attack Points, Moral, and Defense Points. Its card categories were labeled Unit, Event, Ability, and Equipment.
The public creative timeline follows the major visual and worldbuilding milestones that shaped Thornbound, Gloomborn, Duskforged, Sunshatter, Starweave, and the older First Age peoples.
These are surviving card renders from an earlier Reactor Realms build. The frames, terminology, rules presentation, icon language, and even some card roles changed as the game moved from an early Untap.in test set toward the current physical prototype.
They are shown here as development history, not as current playable cards. Keeping the old work visible makes it easier to see how much of the game was tested, rebuilt, and refined instead of appearing fully formed overnight.
Thornbound and Gloomborn remain the two public Preview factions. Each free faction deck contains 42 cards total. 2 of the 42 are Guardian Dragons that are set aside during setup; the remaining 40 cards form the Silverpool. Settlements are shuffled into the Silverpool and are not a separate card pool.
The Community hub is useful even without public posting: players can reach the free game, private feedback, development updates, and the Card Forge. When the shared Community backend is connected, the Vault also supports public concepts, optional artwork, voting, and share links.
Current physical work is focused on printing and testing at home. Kickstarter and larger manufacturing come after the cards, rules, and presentation have survived enough real play.