Isometric Art Direction

Overview

The difference between a hobby project and a polished game is consistency. This skill produces a one-page style sheet that every other asset skill must obey, so 200 generated assets look like one game instead of a random asset dump.

When to Use

• Before generating the first tile, sprite, or building.
• Assets already look mismatched and need a unifying standard.
• Multiple people or sessions will generate art.

Process

1. Fix the projection: true 2:1 isometric (dimetric). Write it down.
2. Fix the light direction (e.g. top-left) and keep it identical on every asset.
3. Define a tight color palette (8-12 swatches) and forbid off-palette colors.
4. Define the tile base size in pixels (e.g. 128x64) and the anchor point.
5. Pick ONE shading style (soft painterly / cel / pixel) and one reference image.
6. Write all of this into a single STYLE.md and link it from every asset prompt.
7. Generate 3 test assets and confirm they look like the same game before scaling up.

Rationalizations (Stop Lying to Yourself)

Excuse	Reality
"I will keep the style consistent in my head"	Your head is not version-controlled. Write the style sheet.
"I can fix the style later"	Restyling 150 assets later costs 10x more than agreeing now.

Red Flags - STOP if you catch yourself:

• No written style sheet exists.
• Light direction changes between assets.
• Color palette grows uncontrolled with every generation.

Verification

You are NOT done until every box is checked:

• A STYLE.md exists with projection, light, palette, scale, anchor, shading.
• 3 test assets visibly belong to the same game.
• Every asset prompt references the style sheet.