Art stylesHigh contrastBright
Cel shading
Form is reduced to a few deliberate light steps, like an animation cel. Color stays clean, and the shadow edge is a designed shape.
Traits
- Two or three light steps are enough; shadow shapes are drawn, not left to a lamp
- Outlines keep a steady width, or color blocks separate layers with no line
- Character and background sit on different values
- Hits read through a freeze or speed lines, not extra texture
Play that fits
It suits fighting, musical action, and adventure where a hit must be readable in one beat.
Reference games
Make a coherent game art set
Suggested asset specification
- Character: controlled contours/shadow regions
- Scene: restrained materials
- UI: coherent color blocks and impact graphics
Motion and feedback
Coordinate poses, holds and speed accents; uniform line thickness at every distance can break depth.
Main production effort
The challenge is maintaining authored shadows and facial readability through turns and lighting changes.
Start with this small scene
One character, two shadow bands and a small scene with controlled lighting.
Simplify for a smaller budget
Begin with fixed camera/light directions and fewer facial angles or realtime lights.
What to check
Do eyes and shadows remain clear from new angles, and do effects spare action cues?
Take the art specification
Includes localized visual rules, asset suggestions, scope and sources. This is a specification; assets still need production for your project.
Art specification v1 · Original editorial and examples · Reference-game assets not included
Prompt examples
Cel-shaded character jumping across roofs, two hard shadow steps, flat vivid colors, designed shadow shapes, clear silhouette, no realistic texture, no text
Cel-shaded small robot, three light steps, cyan body and coral cape, a white highlight block, plain background
Common pitfall
An outline alone is not a cel look; poses and shadow shapes must read too.
Observations and sources
Cases refer to public documentation. Developers and community wikis are credited separately; document review is not a claim of hands-on testing.
- Hi-Fi RUSH
Compare hard-edged 3D shadows with flat rhythmic effects, not outlines alone.
- GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-
Observe characters retaining a drawn-animation appearance through turns and key poses.
Brief for the studio
Opens the AI studio with the brief below in the input. You can edit it. Nothing starts automatically.
Make a cel-shaded rhythm action game: every four beats, a target appears and the player taps or presses to hit it. Use two hard shadow steps, a clear silhouette, and a one-frame freeze on a hit.
Related entries
Volumetric brushwork 3D
Brush-like marks and loose color masses help form spatial volumes with open, painterly edges. This describes a visual result, not one shared rendering technique.
Cinematic realistic 3D
Credible materials, anatomy, environmental scale and cinematographic lighting support realism. Cinematic framing still needs clear information for continuous play.
Low poly
Volume is built from a few flat faces. Each face has one color, light is the difference between faces, and edges stay faceted.
Covers are original AI-generated style illustrations. Game names reference publicly visible design choices and remain the property of their owners. This atlas does not supply screenshots or assets from those games. Prompts and combinations are original drafts for new games.