How can you unify the look of your game?

1 Define your art direction

Before you start creating any assets, you need to have a clear vision of what you want your game to look like. This means defining your art direction, which is the set of guidelines and principles that inform your artistic choices. Your art direction should reflect your game's core idea, story, setting, and genre. You can use mood boards, concept art, reference images, and style guides to help you define and communicate your art direction.

2 Choose a color palette

One of the most important aspects of your game's look is its color palette. Color can convey emotions, atmosphere, contrast, and harmony. It can also help you differentiate your game elements, such as characters, environments, items, and UI. To choose a color palette, you need to consider your game's theme, mood, genre, and lighting. You can use tools like Adobe Color, Coolors, or Paletton to help you generate and test different color schemes.

3 Use consistent assets

Another way to unify your game's look is to use consistent assets. This means that your assets should match your art direction and color palette, and have a similar level of detail, quality, and style. You should avoid mixing different types of assets, such as 2D and 3D, realistic and cartoonish, or pixel art and vector art. You should also use a consistent scale, perspective, and proportion for your assets.

4 Apply visual effects

Visual effects can add polish and flair to your game's look. They can also enhance your game's mood, feedback, and immersion. Visual effects include things like particles, lighting, shadows, reflections, post-processing, and animations. You should use visual effects that suit your game's genre, theme, and art direction. You should also balance the amount and intensity of visual effects, so that they don't overwhelm or distract your players.

5 Test and iterate

The final tip to unify your game's look is to test and iterate. You should playtest your game regularly and get feedback from other people. You should check if your game's look is clear, coherent, and appealing. You should also look for any inconsistencies, errors, or improvements that you can make. You should be open to change and experiment with different options until you find the best solution for your game.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?