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

A cel-shaded robot courier leaps between rooftops with crisp outlines and hard shadows.

Art styles

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.

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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

Reference gamesHi-Fi RUSH · GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-

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Art styles

Watercolor

Pigment blooms on paper, edges keep some white, and the wash has depth. The mood can be soft, but paths, people, and danger need a darker stroke or a ring of paper.

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Important objects use a darker edge or a white gap, not a sealed ink line
One hue varies like a water stain, and pure black is rare
Paper grain stays light enough to leave motion readable
Interactive things keep one stable mark, such as a darker ring

Reference gamesGRIS · Dordogne

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A pastel sunset over the sea, mint palms, marble arches and a checkerboard terrace.

Art styles

Vaporwave aesthetic

Dusk pink, electronic cyan, and a perspective grid share the frame. The nostalgia comes from outdated statues and interface shapes, not from a distress filter.

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Pink, cyan, and purple lead; yellow is only a small sign
One grid, one column, or one palm is enough
Gradients are large and shapes are few; any lettering is part of the picture
Glitches and scan lines stay sparse so hotspots remain readable

Reference gamesParadise Killer · Broken Reality

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Art styles

Clean contour drawing

Clear contours, sparse internal marks and open space describe figures and objects. Flat color is possible without ink washes or dense volume hatching.

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Character: few clear contours; Scene: grouped lines and open space; UI: heavier symbols and clean text fields
Keep stroke width and closed forms stable; poses can communicate direction before effects.
Can you distinguish targets, decoration and text, and do neighboring lines merge when reduced?

Reference gamesHidden Folks · TOEM: A Photo Adventure

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A cyclist among terracotta hills, simplified pines and a river made of clean flat shapes.

Art styles

Flat vector

Shapes are simple, edges are smooth, and fake depth is almost absent. Size, color, and position carry the information, so a rule can be read as a diagram.

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An object is one complete geometric shape, with little interior detail
A shadow, if any, is a shifted flat color
One job keeps one color
Corner radius and stroke weight stay consistent across world and interface

Reference gamesMini Metro · Florence

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A paper fox explores a river village built from layered cardstock and folded trees.

Art styles

Papercraft

The world is paper cut into layers. Depth comes from the stack, a narrow edge, and one hard shadow. Color can stay pure.

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Characters and scenery are separate sheets, so motion shows who is in front
Thickness is a narrow side, and the shadow is short and hard
Creases and uneven paper are welcome, but the scene should not become a photo
Tears and holes can be boundaries the player passes

Reference gamesTengami · Paper Mario: The Origami King

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Visible impasto brushstrokes describe an autumn lake, a warmly lit inn and mountains.

Art styles

Painterly brushwork

Visible brushwork, color masses and varied edges build the image. Portraits and layered scenes have distinct production needs, beyond one generic oil-painting label.

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Character: readable color masses and brush direction; Scene: separate depth layers; UI: quiet fields and concise icons
Move brushwork coherently with assets and check character/background contacts first.
Do marks support form and routes, and does the character survive a dense background when reduced?

Reference gamesDisco Elysium · The Master's Pupil

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A cyclist silhouette crosses a bridge in a navy city lit by cyan and magenta neon.

Art styles

Neon-night aesthetic

Most of the frame stays dark, and only a few glowing edges do the work. Readability comes from light lines on a dark ground, not from lighting everything.

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The background is held down; neon outlines an edge or a small patch of floor
Glowing colors stay within three, at different brightness
Rain and reflections can extend the light without melting the silhouette
Danger keeps one stable bright color, and collectibles use another

Reference gamesSayonara Wild Hearts · Katana ZERO

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A handmade clay snail, mushroom cottage and garden with tactile sculpted surfaces.

Art styles

Clay-like forms

Rounded masses, tool marks and tangible surfaces suggest modeled clay. Physical stop-motion and digital 3D can both achieve the look through different production routes.

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Character: clay masses with sparse tool marks; Scene: coherent handmade scale; UI: clear text and clay-like symbols
Choose continuous 3D motion or deliberate stop-motion holds; mixing them needs a clear rule.
Are tool marks/material scale consistent, and do details shimmer in motion?

Reference gamesArmikrog · Claybook

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Cylinders, arches and stairs form a minimal path for an orange sphere in open space.

Art styles

Minimal geometry

Use circles, squares, lines, and a few colors. Every shape needs a job. Decoration that does not help a decision comes out.

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One shape keeps one meaning
The background stays open, and motion is the main performance
Depth comes from size and overlap, not gradients
Sound and animation supply the feedback the shape cannot

Reference gamesMonument Valley · Thomas Was Alone

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Indigo and vermilion woodblock shapes depict a mountain village, river and traveler.

Art styles

Ukiyo-e

Flat color areas and clean printed edges make the space feel like a sheet that has been laid open. Front and back come from overlap, not from strong perspective.

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Few inks, with a clean edge on every shape
Waves, clouds, and wind may repeat, while the character stays quiet
Space can be scattered; order comes from which shape covers another
Seals and frames easily compete with buttons, so use them rarely

Reference gamesGetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon · Okami HD

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A lighthouse, island and rowboat built from navy and cream checkerboard dither patterns.

Art styles

Limited dither

When there are too few colors for a gradient, a fixed dot pattern mixes two of them into a middle tone. The texture comes from the limit, and shadow has a pattern.

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Two to four colors are typical, and the dot pattern stays fixed instead of crawling every frame
Important contours stay solid; dither handles only the midtones
The direction of the dots can suggest rain, shadow, or material
Text avoids dense dither or it turns fuzzy

Reference gamesReturn of the Obra Dinn · WORLD OF HORROR

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Art styles

Graphite and hatching

Hatching density, pencil pressure and erased highlights describe volume. A spatial scene still reads as marks on paper.

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Hatching follows form
Density separates values without a gray overlay
Leave clean paper around key contours

Reference gamesMundaun · Neverending Nightmares

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Art styles

Ballpoint drawing

Fine single-color marks preserve repeated strokes and cross-lines on paper. Blue or black ink follows one consistent drawing system.

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Keep a related line weight
Model with cross-lines and spacing
Separate focal contours from paper

Reference gamesInked: A Tale of Love · Ballpoint Universe - Infinite

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Art styles

Crayon drawing

Color behaves like grainy crayon on paper, leaving gaps along edges and fills. Simple shapes still need clear feedback.

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Scale marks with objects
Keep stable paper gaps in fills
Make interaction marks deliberate

Reference gamesCrayon Physics Deluxe · Yoshi's New Island

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Art styles

Manuscript illustration

People, buildings, text and ornament belong to a shared page. Flat pictorial space and page structure work together.

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Use contours and flat color fields
Ornament leaves room for reading
Keep functional text legible

Reference gamesPentiment · Inkulinati

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Art styles

Classical painting collage

Painting fragments form new scenes through consistent scale, light and narrative relationships. Cutting and recombining are visible design choices.

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Align figure and building scale
Balance values across fragments
Keep contacts and occlusion understandable

Reference gamesFour Last Things · The Procession to Calvary

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Art styles

Decorative storybook art

Plants, roofs and characters share decorative shapes and motifs. Ordered repetition creates richness while targets retain breathing room.

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Share shape rhythms across plants and buildings
Reserve patterns for secondary regions
Highlight interactables with value and outline

Reference gamesWytchwood · The Wild at Heart

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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.