ATLAS / IDEAS

Game design atlas

Find a mechanism, understand its tradeoffs and smallest useful scope, then build your game with a design card and sample project.

192 Mechanisms32 Mechanism domain48 Art styles12 Genre guides

Art styles My research shelf Rain Canopy Workshop · Try the complete prototype Pixel toolkit

Art styles

Stitched fabric and plush

Seams, stuffed volumes and stable textile surfaces create a plush appearance. The focus is fabric panels rather than exposed strands.

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Let seams support construction
Keep textile scale consistent
Give stuffed forms clear silhouettes

Reference gamesSackboy™: A Big Adventure · LittleBigPlanet 3

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Art styles

Miniature dioramas

Model-like scale, concentrated composition and controlled focus make a world feel like a small scene you can handle. This presentation need not be physically filmed.

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Establish scale with doors and props
Prioritize silhouette and layers over tiny detail
Keep the active play area in focus

Reference gamesTiny Glade · Townscaper

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Art styles

Retro low-resolution 3D

Low-resolution textures, simplified geometry and limited image precision shape retro 3D. Image sampling matters more here than in clean, flat low-poly art.

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Keep texture pixel density consistent
Separate actors and background values
Keep noise and jitter off essential clues

Reference gamesSIGNALIS · Crow Country

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Art styles

Painterly-surface 3D

Designed color masses, brush marks and exaggerated forms sit on 3D volumes. Surface marks remain attached to objects as the camera moves.

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Unify volume and silhouette proportions
Align marks with surface form
Keep lighting from erasing painted values

Reference gamesDishonored · Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition

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Art styles

Rounded cartoon 3D

Rounded masses, clean materials and expressive motion create approachable 3D worlds. Rounded shapes need not make every object rubbery.

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Make major shapes recognizable at distance
Separate functions through color and material
Keep contacts and landing points credible

Reference gamesASTRO BOT · Super Mario Odyssey

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Art styles

Pixel characters in 3D scenes

Pixel characters share space with dimensional sets, lighting and cameras. This hybrid needs consistent scale rather than blur applied to a flat background.

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Unify pixel density and character scale
Ground sprites with clear contacts
Keep routes and goals ahead of focus effects

Reference gamesOCTOPATH TRAVELER II · TRIANGLE STRATEGY

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Art styles

Drawn sprites in 3D worlds

Paper-like or drawn sprites inhabit navigable 3D spaces, retaining graphic characters and spatial perspective. Contour and animation rules distinguish this from pixel hybrids.

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Define sprite-facing rules
Use shadows and foot contacts to explain space
Keep 3D edges subordinate to drawn contours

Reference gamesDemon Turf: Queens Edition · Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

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Art styles

Antique print and engraving

Fine hatching, open paper and historical print composition evoke illustrated books. Print-like visuals do not imply a physical printing process.

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Align hatching to volume
Keep major contours clearer than internal lines
Unify paper color and line density

Reference gamesAviary Attorney · The Bridge

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Art styles

Bold-outline flat cartoons

Closed bold outlines and simple flat fills keep small characters readable in busy scenes. Reusable simplified forms matter more here than elaborate comic illustration.

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Use consistent stroke weights at the same scale
Separate actors and props by major shape
Keep effects from filling silhouettes

Reference gamesCastle Crashers® · BattleBlock Theater®

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Art styles

Black-figure pottery graphics

Terracotta grounds, dark profile figures and ornamental bands evoke ancient Greek pottery. This is a specific graphic language rather than a label for all ancient settings.

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Make profile poses and props clear silhouettes
Limit terracotta/dark value relationships
Use bands to frame structure and regions

Reference gamesApotheon

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Art styles

Plastic-brick construction

Discrete parts, connection rules and plastic surfaces form a construction world. An original project needs its own part and connector language.

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Unify part scale and connectors
Make joins understandable
Keep gloss off essential placement cues

Reference gamesLEGO® Builder's Journey · LEGO® Bricktales

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Art styles

Physical miniature production

Physical sets or figures enter games through photography, scanning or digital integration. Unlike digital dioramas, physical fabrication is part of the workflow.

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Choose capture or scanning first
Match physical scale and digital collision
Unify lighting, camera and color management

Reference gamesLumino City · Harold Halibut

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Art styles

Soft-bodied toy 3D

Blunt forms, yielding contacts and physical motion make characters feel graspable. This digital treatment implies neither stitched cloth nor a particular soft-body solver.

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Keep body masses simple
Make contacts and weight shifts visible
Distinguish actors with shapes and markers

Reference gamesHuman Fall Flat · Gang Beasts

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Art styles

Cinematic realistic 3D

Credible materials, anatomy, environmental scale and cinematographic lighting support realism. Cinematic framing still needs clear information for continuous play.

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Establish scale and material references
Light actors and routes clearly
Match detail density to camera distance

Reference gamesRed Dead Redemption 2 · Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

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Art styles

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.

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Relate mark scale to object volume
Keep moving contours readable
Separate solids, atmosphere and effects

Reference games11-11 Memories Retold · Dreams

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Art styles

Wireframe digital worlds

Lines, grids and a few luminous surfaces define digital space. Designed structure and interaction hierarchy matter beyond a debug wireframe view.

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Control line weight and density
Encode functions with color
Preserve depth through transparency and occlusion

Reference gamesRez Infinite · Darwinia

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Art styles

Point-cloud exploration

Sample points gradually reveal space, making observation part of exploration. This differs from continuous wire surfaces and random particle effects.

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Use point density to explain surfaces
Give sampled colors clear meaning
Keep discovered routes traceable

Reference gamesScanner Sombre

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Art styles

High-contrast noir 3D

Strong values, selective detail and staged lights organize 3D space. Unlike flat silhouettes, cameras, cast shadows and volumetric occlusion keep changing.

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Hierarchy comes from dark/light areas
Separate essential edges from dark backgrounds
Do not identify interactions by light hue alone

Reference gamesWhite Night · MADWORLD

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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.