# Anti-Patterns Kill List

These are unconditionally banned. If you find yourself producing any of these, revise before proceeding to the critique step.

## Visual / decorative

- **Glowing borders or magic shimmer** — no `box-shadow: 0 0 ... glow`, no pulsing neon edges. This is not a magic-system game.
- **Parchment-textured div with no content density** — a parchment background is decoration without content; earn the texture with substance beneath it.
- **Pseudo-runes or fake-Norse/Elvish glyphs as decoration** — generic fantasy, not The Free Companies.
- **Drop shadows on every panel** — use sparingly; one level of elevation per surface, not stacked shadows.
- **Saturated neon status pills** — the palette is muted gold, muted green, muted red. No electric blue, hot pink, or lime.
- **Stock medieval clip-art** — crossed swords, skull-on-banner, castle silhouette. Earned iconography only.
- **Faux-letterpress emboss effects** — no `text-shadow` trying to fake stamped type. The fonts carry the era.

## Layout

- **Centered-everything layout with three-column features below** — this is a game UI, not a landing page. Information belongs in panels, tables, and cards, not hero sections.
- **Blue-tinted "magic" UI or sci-fi neon-on-black** — the palette is warm ink-on-dark, not Tron.
- **Symmetric 50/50 two-column "comparison" layouts** — strategy game information is hierarchical, not comparative side-by-side.

## Typography

- **Comic-sans-adjacent display fonts** — use IM Fell English or Cormorant Garamond. No novelty fonts even if they look "medieval."
- **All-caps body text** — illegible at density; reserve all-caps for short labels and HUD elements only.
- **Lorem ipsum or "Soldier Name" placeholders** — every string must be real game content or a plausible invention in the game's voice.

## Interaction

- **Hover-only affordances with no touch equivalent** — all targets must be reachable on iOS Godot client; ≥44pt minimum.
- **Loading spinner as the only feedback** — pair with disabled state on the triggering element and updated label text.