How to Build a Consistent Art Style Across a Video Game Team

Art style consistency in games is all about making sure that every single element - whether it is characters, environment, UI, lighting or VFX feels like it belongs in the same world.

When done correctly, players don’t notice the hard-won consistency. But when done incorrectly, players notice it immediately and their immersion breaks.

Well before the game is released, the consistency needs to be maintained across the team, even as it grows. Large productions often involve hundreds of artists, outsourcing studios, and contributors working across different time zones, each bringing their own tastes, interpretations, and creative instincts to the table.

Inconsistency doesn’t just affect aesthetics. It impacts player immersion, slows down production through rework and miscommunication, and weakens a game’s brand identity. A lack of clear art direction becomes expensive in budget, time and creativity.

Research and Vision

At the start of a project, defining the art style is largely about exploration and research. This usually means gathering photo and video references that helps to communicate the idea of the mood, tone and visual direction for the game. These references form the foundation of your visual language.

Once the project is ready, concept artists are important to helping you to defining your art style. They help translate abstract ideas into concrete visuals and explore multiple directions quickly. Often, styles that sound great in theory don’t work once you see them in practice whether they clash aesthetically, don’t support the game’s tone, or introduce technical challenges. Discovering this early saves enormous amounts of time later down the road.

The Art Director or Creative Director (or both) plays a key role here. They hold the overarching vision of the game and are responsible for guiding the team toward it.

It’s also important to remember that art style isn’t just about how something looks. It must support gameplay and narrative. A gritty, grungy visual style would completely change the tone of a cute farming simulator. Likewise, turning a game like The Last of Us into a side-scroller would fundamentally alter gameplay possibilities. Art, gameplay and story must reinforce each other.

Without a clearly defined vision that’s established early on, long productions are vulnerable to an art style that will drift from the path to where assets slowly diverge until the game no longer feels cohesive.

Concept art helps define the look and feel of a space quickly, without the need to move straight into 3D. By exploring and deciding on the vision early, it prevents costly mistakes later in development and ensures the team moves forward with confidence and direction.

Creating (and updating) your Art Bible

Documentation isn’t glamorous, but it is essential. A project needs a single, central source of truth that everyone can refer to at any time. This is where the Art Bible comes in.

Early in development, the Art Bible will change frequently as the style evolves and decisions are made. Over time, updates should become less frequent as the direction solidifies. What matters most is that the document is always current and accessible to your team.

You can host the Art Bible online using tools like Confluence, Google Slides, or Notion to make sure that everyone sees the latest version without needing files resent or clarified if they are up to date.

A strong Art Bible is highly visual. It should include:

• Concept art and visual development created for the project
• Photo references, film stills, and game references
• Clear do/don’t examples - always very helpful!
• Guidance on detail levels and realism versus stylisation
• Technical information e.g engine, poly count, etc

It should also define color palettes, lighting rules, and shape language. For more stylised projects, this extends to line weight, proportions and material treatment. The clearer these rules are, the easier it is for artists to make decisions independently.

Processes and Technical Constraints

Creating clarity for your team doesn’t just mean visual, it is technical too.

While the Art Bible focuses most on the art style, separate documentation can outline asset pipelines and workflows. For example, if your team uses a specific approach and pipeline to hand-painted textures, writing that process down makes onboarding faster and prevents inconsistent results.

This documentation should also define technical constraints such as:

• Poly count budgets
• Texture sizes and formats
• Naming conventions
• Folder structures (especially in-engine)

These rules may feel restrictive at first, but they prevent confusion, reduce errors, and ultimately give artists more freedom to be creative within known boundaries. Clear constraints are what allow teams to scale easily.

Communication and Feedback

Regardless of team size, regular art reviews and feedback are essential. They keep production moving forward and ensure issues are caught early.

Good feedback is clear and actionable. Vague comments slow teams down and lead to frustration for everyone. Paintovers are especially effective whether simple redlines or more detailed edits while references can help convey intent when words fall short.

Strong communication saves time and budget. It also creates a healthier working environment where artists understand expectations and feel confident in their decisions.

Good feedback is clear and actionable.

Future-proofing Onboarding

Once your documentation is in place, onboarding becomes dramatically easier. New hires and external partners can quickly understand expectations, visual direction, and quality bars by reviewing the Art Bible, other documentation and existing assets.

When working with outsourcing studios, references are everything. Treat external partners the same way you would a new internal team member: give them access to documentation, example assets, and clear guidelines. Regular check-ins help ensure work stays on track and provide opportunities for course correction early.

Communication is the cornerstone of successful outsourcing relationships. The more aligned everyone is, the better the results will be.

Recommended Tools

Theory only goes so far but the right tools make consistency happen.

For documentation, Confluence is an excellent choice for centralizing knowledge and keeping it editable and up to date.

For visual collaboration, tools like Miro allow teams to sketch, annotate, and gather references in one shared space, often in real time.

Version control is non-negotiable. Tools like Perforce prevent multiple people from overwriting the same assets and allow teams to roll back changes when needed. Whether you’re a two-person indie team or a AAA studio, version control protects your work and your sanity!

Progress Without Breaking Everything

Art styles naturally evolve during development but evolution shouldn’t mean everything breaks!

As issues arise, whether artistic or technical, those adjustments should be documented. For example, if character outfits stop reading well in darker environments, that solution should be added to the Art Bible so the mistake isn’t repeated later.

The deeper you are into production, the more locked down your style needs to be. Changes at this stage require updating documentation and existing assets, which can be costly if handled poorly.

Clear communication is critical whenever changes occur. If the team isn’t aligned on the updated direction, inconsistent assets will continue to slip through and nothing undermines a game faster than a less than cohesive art style on final release.

Final Thoughts

Art consistency isn’t about rigid rules but it is about aligning your team throughout the entire development of your game.

Strong leadership, clear communication, and living documentation are what allow teams to scale without losing cohesion.

When art direction is treated as an ongoing process rather than a one-time decision, teams can adapt, iterate, and grow while still delivering an incredible experience for players.

Get the foundations right early, support your team with clear tools and guidance, and consistency will follow.

Athena Productions is a game art outsourcing studio powered by a team of seasoned video game artists. We help studios maintain a clear, cohesive art direction by delivering high-quality concept art, visual development, and UI/UX design for projects ranging from AAA productions to indie gems. Ready to bring your next project to life with a consistent, standout art style? Contact us today!