How do you write a game art brief that outsourced artists can follow?

Outsourcing game art can save months, or cost them. The difference is rarely talent. It is usually the brief. When artists receive “make it look cool, like these five games”, they guess, and you spend weeks on revisions. This post gives you a practical game art brief template and explains each section, so outsourced artists can deliver assets that match your style, fit your engine and run on your players’ devices. If you would rather hand the whole art pipeline to a team, see our game art outsourcing service.

Quick answer: A good game art brief covers eight things: the game and its audience, platform and engine, camera view, style references with notes on what to take from each, style rules (palette, shapes, proportions), technical budgets (polygons, texture sizes, materials, naming), a prioritised asset and animation list, and the delivery and review process, starting with a single art test. Fill in each section before you contact artists.

Why most art briefs fail

Briefs fail for predictable reasons:

• References without explanation. The artist cannot tell whether you like a game’s colours, characters or lighting.
• No technical limits. Beautiful assets arrive that are far too heavy for a phone.
• No asset list. Scope creeps, and so does the bill.
• No review process. Feedback arrives late, from several people, and contradicts itself.

A clear brief fixes all four before the first sketch.

The game art brief template

Copy the sections below into your own document and fill them in. Where you do not know an answer, write “to agree with the art team” rather than leaving it blank, so it gets discussed.

1. Project overview

• Game name (working title is fine)
• Genre and one-sentence description of the game
• Target players: age range, regions, casual or experienced
• Where the game is in development: idea, prototype, production
• What this art job covers: characters, environments, UI, all of it

2. Platform, engine and camera

• Platforms: Android, iOS, web, PC
• Minimum supported device or PC spec
• Engine and version: for example Unity or Unreal Engine 5, and the exact version
• Render pipeline if known
• Camera: top-down, side-on, isometric, third-person or first-person, and roughly how close

Camera matters more than most people think. A character seen from far above needs a strong silhouette and simple detail; one seen up close in third person needs a detailed face and clean deformation.

3. References, with notes

Collect five to ten references in one board. Under each, write one line on what to take from it: “the warm, saturated palette”, “chunky, rounded proportions”, “the soft painted textures”. Also add one or two images of what you do not want. Make clear that the work must be original and should not copy specific characters or designs.

4. Style rules

• Colour palette, including brand colours if any
• Shape language: rounded and friendly, or sharp and aggressive
• Character proportions: realistic, heroic or chibi
• Outline or no outline, and line weight for 2D
• Texture finish: flat, painted, stylised PBR or realistic
• Lighting mood: bright and cheerful, moody, or neutral

If you already have art, attach your best examples and say “match these”.

5. Technical budgets

This is the section most briefs skip, and the one that saves the most rework. Ask your developer to fill it in.

Item	What to specify
Polygon or triangle range	Per asset type: hero character, enemy, prop, building
Texture size	Maximum resolution per asset type
Texel density	Consistent detail across assets so nothing looks blurry next to something sharp
Materials per asset	Fewer materials mean fewer draw calls, which matters on phones
Texture atlases	Which assets should share one texture sheet
Scale and units	Real-world scale, and which way is up and forward
Pivot points	Where each asset’s origin sits, for example at the feet
Skeleton	Shared rig for similar characters, bone count limit
Naming convention	A pattern for files, meshes, materials and textures
File formats	FBX or glTF for 3D, sprite sheets or layered files for 2D, plus source files

Unity’s guide to importing models shows the kind of import settings that these budgets feed into.

6. Asset list with priorities

List every asset, one per row, with:

• Name and short description
• Type: character, prop, environment piece, UI, icon, effect
• Priority: must-have for launch, nice-to-have, later
• Variations needed: colours, damage states, seasonal versions
• Reference image if one exists

A complete list is the best protection against scope creep, and it lets the art team give you an accurate, fixed quote.

7. Animation list

For each animated character or object, list the animations: idle, walk, run, jump, land, attack, hit, celebrate and so on. Note which must loop, which blend into others and any timing requirements, such as an attack that must land in a set number of frames.

8. Delivery, review and rights

• Art test first. Ask for one sample asset in your style, tested in your engine, before batch production.
• Review stages. Concept, model or sprite, texture, final in engine.
• Revision rounds. A set number per stage.
• One decision-maker. Name the person who gives final feedback.
• Delivery schedule. Weekly batches are easier to review than one big drop.
• Rights. Who owns the finished art and source files, and when.

Example: one filled-in asset entry

Here is what a single row of a good asset list might look like for a casual 3D mobile game. Your developer would supply the exact numbers.

Field	Entry
Name	Chef Rani, player character
Type	Hero character, 3D
Description	Cheerful street-food cook, apron and rolled sleeves, carries a ladle
Camera	Third person, mid distance, mostly seen from behind
Style notes	Rounded, chunky proportions; warm palette from the reference board; no outlines
Budgets	Triangle range, texture size and bone limit as set by the lead developer
Animations	Idle, walk, run, jump, land, stir, serve, celebrate, stumble
Variations	Two outfit colours for festive events
Priority	Must-have for launch
Delivery	FBX plus Blender and texture source files, set up in the Unity project

With entries like this, an artist can plan the work, estimate it accurately and deliver something that fits first time.

Writing feedback artists can act on

A brief sets the start; feedback keeps the work on track. Good feedback is:

• Specific. “The sword is too thin to read at phone size” beats “it doesn’t feel right”.
• Visual. Paint over the image or mark it up, rather than describing changes in long messages.
• Consolidated. Collect everyone’s comments and send one agreed list.
• Judged in engine. Review assets inside the game with its lighting and camera, not as pretty renders.

Mistakes to avoid

• Briefing art before the gameplay is settled. If a mechanic changes, assets may need redoing. Prototype first.
• Skipping the art test. Fifty assets in the wrong style cost far more than one.
• Mixing asset store packs and custom art without a style guide. The game ends up looking stitched together.
• Forgetting UI and icons. Menus in a different style from the world feel cheap.
• Unlimited revisions. It sounds generous but slows everything down. Agree rounds up front.
• No source files. Without them, future changes mean starting again.

Art brief checklist

• Project overview and target players
• Platforms, minimum device, engine version and camera
• Reference board with notes, plus “not this” examples
• Style rules: palette, shapes, proportions, finish, lighting
• Technical budgets filled in by your developer
• Prioritised asset list
• Animation list per character
• Art test, review stages and revision rounds agreed
• One named decision-maker
• Rights and source file hand-over stated

Art is usually the largest line in a 3D budget, so a good brief also keeps costs predictable; our guide to 3D game development cost factors explains why.

How Omebly can help

Omebly creates 2D and 3D characters, environments, props, modular level kits and full level designs, delivered ready for Unity or Unreal Engine 5, as part of our game development service. We start with one art test in your engine, write the budgets down with you and deliver in weekly batches reviewed inside your project. If you need the whole game built around the art, see our 3D game development and 2D mobile games pages. Projects are led by our founder, Nazmul Hussain, who has 10+ years building websites, apps and digital products.

Send us your brief, even a rough one, and we will help you fill the gaps. Explore our game art and level design services or contact us to get started.

Have a half-finished brief? Share it with us and we will tell you what an artist would still need to know.