This document discusses maintaining a consistent art style across all media for a game called Free Realms. It emphasizes defining the core style in pre-production through concept art, style guides, and collaboration. During production, the team iterated on assets, ensured consistency, and collaborated externally. In post-production, the goal was to maintain the style long-term by establishing processes and guidelines during earlier phases. The results were a large team with a unified vision and style that encouraged creativity while providing a common goal.

1. The FREE REALMS Filter:
Creating and Maintaining an Art Style
Across all Media
Rosie Rappaport
Sebastian Strzalkowski

2. INTRODUCTION
• Style
– gives a game its identity
• Consistency
– Ties identity to all media
• Commitment
– Ensures consistency of style across all
departments

3. Pre-production
• Define the style: 2D and 3D
Production
• Build and iterate
• Keep the team and everyone else on style
Post Production
• Continuing Support
• Continued Content Creation

4. PREPRODUCTION
Developing The IP Style

5. Core words
Whimsical, Playful, Hand-crafted, Vibrant

6. Concepting
• Concept art is a critical element in developing
consistency within the game. Maintain flexibility
and willingness on the team for resets and
redo's
• Goal - to develop a "style filter" that can be
applied to anything to make it look consistent
with the game.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define the
terms of look and feel

7. Types of Concept Art
Concept art and building out
• establish silhouette, form language and line for
all assets (show examples)
• environment paintings- establish style through
color palettes, textures, and shapes (show
examples)
• Character development (show examples for
concept to completion)

8. Color Keys

9. Color Keys

10. Character Design Iteration

11. Silhouettes

12. Environment Shapes

13. Building and Iterating - Slices
• Build
• Review
• Check point with stakeholders to
recalibrate goals
• Iteration (Focus and Polish) – being
flexible, each time going forward
take a small risk,
Acknowledge constant risks and
failings, moving forward based on
successes

14. Building and Iterating - Slices
“Focusing the lens”

15. Character Design Iteration

16. Environment Design

17. Environment Design

18. Style Guides
Development of Style guides for artists
• Environments
• Characters
• UI and 2D presentation including Mini-games
• Special Effects

19. Form Rules

20. Color Palettes

21. Texture Palettes

22. Characters

23. In-game Presentation
• Strong color associations
with in-game categories

24. Contextual Color Scheme

25. Icon Style Guide

26. Recurring 2D Imagery

28. Recurring 2D Imagery

29. Recurring 2D Imagery

31. PRODUCTION
Maintaining the Style

32. Building and Iterating – The Whole Pie
• Daily sub team meeting for schedule progress review and questions.
All completed assets are then reviewed and approved or returned to
the artist with noted changes. (DevTrack and Bulletin Board)
– Daily sub team meetings
– Scrum card reviews
– Weekly reviews
• Iteration – being flexible, each time going forward take a small risk,
acknowledge constant risks and failings, moving forward based on
successes
• Check point with stakeholders to recalibrate goals
– Scrum + Devtrack

33. Clothing

34. Character Consistency

36. Consistency through re-use

37. Collaboration with External Stakeholders
• Development of Key Art - Collaboration with Ad Agency
to use the established style to develop branding building
blocks which are then integrated into the game.
• Embedded marketing artist
– Embedded artists from other departments sit with the
Dev team and take direction from the Art Director
• Development of website, collaboration with web
developers (show examples)
• Embedded web dev artist

38. Collaboration with External Stakeholders

39. Logo Development

40. Mascot

41. Branding Key Art

46. Branding Key Art

47. Branding Key Art

48. Web games

49. Comic Book

50. Web development

51. Website UI Elements

52. Web banners

53. Trading Card Game

54. Trading Card Game
Development of Trading Cards
The style of the individual artist should shine
through but also conform to the "style filter“
color, line weight and character and environment
portrayal
Style guides and thorough feedback on the roughs
and finals

55. Characters in various media

56. Characters in various media

58. Television

59. Television

60. POSTPRODUCTION
Maintaining the IP Over The Long Haul

61. Becoming more hands off
• Investment in keeping the art style consistent
through feedback and approval process during
previous phases ensures other departments can
now move forward with clear understanding of
key elements that keep the style consistent.

62. Successes
• Large team with a unified vision of style
– “MMORPG Quote”
• Consistent style gave artists tools that
encouraged creativity and innovation
• Commitment to style provided common goal
• Developed strong and trusting work
relationships