create-game-assets

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: create-game-assets
description: Plan, generate, source, normalize, and validate cohesive visual game assets. Use for art direction, style bibles, sprites, tilesets, backgrounds, UI art, icons, textures, concept art, or 3D asset briefs.
---

# Create Game Assets

Turn a game's visual intent into a consistent, engine-ready asset set. Treat image generation as
one production tool inside a controlled pipeline, never as proof that an asset is shippable.

## Core workflow

1. **Inspect before inventing.** Find existing screenshots, concept art, sprites, models, fonts,
   import settings, camera framing, target resolution, and naming conventions. Preserve a coherent
   existing direction unless the user asks for a redesign.
2. **Lock the technical frame.** Record engine, 2D/3D, camera/view, native display size, asset
   dimensions, world scale, transparency, palette, filtering, animation frames, texture budget,
   and target platforms. Use `assets/art-direction-brief.md` as a copyable brief.
3. **Name the visual system.** Define shape language, silhouette priorities, value structure,
   palette roles, materials, lighting, detail density, edge treatment, and motion character. Use
   concrete visual properties; do not substitute a living artist's name for an art direction.
4. **Make an asset manifest.** Copy `assets/asset-manifest.json`, then list every required asset,
   state, variant, size, pivot, collision role, source, license, and approval status. Separate
   production assets from disposable greybox placeholders.
5. **Approve one visual target.** Create or select a representative hero asset or small style
   board before producing a full set. Judge it at actual game scale and against a gameplay
   background. If the user delegated the choice, pick the strongest viable direction and record
   the decision instead of blocking.
6. **Produce related assets as families.** Reuse the approved target as an edit/reference input.
   Keep palette, view, proportions, lighting, outline, and texture density invariant. Generate
   small coherent batches; avoid unrelated one-off prompts that drift.
7. **Normalize deterministically.** Crop, size, anchor, slice, name, compress, and check alpha with
   ordinary image/DCC tools. Never trust generated grids, transparency, seams, pivots, topology,
   or dimensions without inspection. Use the bundled scripts for raster QA and contact sheets.
8. **Import with engine-native settings.** Set filtering, mipmaps, pixels-per-unit/world scale,
   color space, compression, sprite slicing, texture types, materials, and collision deliberately.
   Read the relevant engine skill before editing engine files.
9. **Validate in context.** Inspect a contact sheet and the actual game at native resolution.
   Check silhouette, scale, animation stability, seams, legibility, palette, collision fit, memory,
   and compression artifacts. Iterate on the source asset, not only on runtime compensations.
10. **Record provenance.** Keep the source URL/tool, license or generation note, edit history, and
    restrictions beside the manifest. Preserve embedded provenance metadata when the pipeline can.

## Choose the production path

| Need | Default path |
|------|--------------|
| Existing asset needs a controlled change | Edit the original/reference; state what must remain unchanged |
| New 2D visual family | Approve seed → generate/source family → normalize → preview → import |
| True pixel art | Use generated work as a draft; enforce grid, palette, clusters, and frames with pixel tools |
| Tileable surface or tileset | Produce a small family; repair seams; test repeated 3×3 before approval |
| UI art or icons | Keep text and interaction code-native; prefer SVG/vector for simple geometric symbols |
| 3D model or material | Use concepts as reference; author/clean in a DCC; validate topology, UVs, scale, pivots, and LODs |
| No generation/edit tool is available | Build the brief and manifest; source licensed assets or ke