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 dark traveler crosses a broken bridge, with pale fog separating forest, falls and a tower.

Art styles

Monochrome silhouette

Value and outline explain space before a few fog layers add distance. With very few colors, the character, usable edges and hazards must still be instantly distinct.

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Separate characters and interactive ground by value so black forms do not merge
Distant layers tend to be lighter; depth comes from grouping rather than surface pattern
Hazards differ in shape as well as color
Lighting and fog support navigation while important landing edges stay visible

Reference gamesLIMBO · BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition

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Ink contours, blue-red color blocks and halftone dots depict a courier jumping a street gap.

Art styles

Comic halftone

Ink contours, solid color groups and regular printed dots build an interactive comic image. Dots handle tone; panel-like framing and motion marks emphasize events without hiding rules.

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Contours separate character and scenery before dots add selected midtones
Dot size is designed for the final display so thumbnails avoid distracting moire
Motion strokes, framing and impact shapes highlight events rather than filling every moment
Text and interaction markers sit on clean areas away from shaded texture

Reference gamesVoid Bastards · XIII - Classic

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Art styles

Pixel

Aligned color blocks and a small palette explain the character, the ground, and the danger. Clarity comes from silhouettes and a few keyframes, not from tiny brushwork.

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The outline is readable before the details, even on a small screen
Shadows are usually a deeper step of the same hue
A few keyframes, flashes, and landing dust matter more than gradients
A pixel grid makes footing and collisions look honest

Reference gamesCeleste · Hyper Light Drifter

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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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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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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.