Playbook · Action / Shooter
Action / Shooter Steam capsule art: four directions from your own assets
FPS, third-person action, hack and slash, tactical, extraction.
First sheet free. Paste a Steam link on the home page instead.
The four directions every action / shooter sheet gets
One panel each, in this order, so the four are built to disagree: commercial, atmospheric, poster, and one swing.
Direction 1
Hero-Shot Commercial Key Art
The big-budget cover. Protagonist or squad large in frame with gear readable.
- ·Protagonist dominates one side, confident but not cheesy pose, motivated by the game's fantasy
- ·Weapon, tool, or signature gear readable at thumbnail size
- ·Environment as supporting atmosphere with depth haze, not clutter
- ·Big readable logo occupying the free side
Direction 2
Cinematic Set-Piece Moment
A single frozen moment of gameplay drama shot like a film still.
- ·Wide composition, strong sense of scale, hero small against something huge
- ·One clear event: a breach, a drop, a standoff, a chase. Never a generic explosion wall
- ·Atmospheric lighting: dust in beams, tracer light, rain, smoke as shape
- ·Title small and elegant or integrated into negative space
Direction 3
Graphic Poster Treatment
Bold, flat, designed. Screen-print or stencil energy.
- ·Two or three color high-contrast palette, subject reduced to a strong graphic silhouette
- ·Large condensed or stencil display type as a design element
- ·Texture from print process, halftone or risograph feel, controlled
- ·Feels like a limited-edition poster, not a game menu
Direction 4
Concept-Driven Angle
The wildcard. A fresh framing idea clearly different from the other three.
- ·Pick ONE: first-person POV hands and weapon with target far away, extreme close-up of a helmet or visor reflection, drone or top-down frame, bullet-time freeze of debris, split-screen duel, magazine-style profile shot, night vision or thermal view, silhouette in a doorway of light
What the art director is told
The playbook below is the actual guidance the model receives for action / shooter games, minus your brief and assets.
Compositions that work
- Hero left, logo right
- Squad staggered in depth
- Extreme low angle
- Over-the-shoulder POV
- Backlit silhouette against explosion-free bright sky
- Framed by architecture
Lighting
- Hard directional key with rim light
- Dust beams
- Muzzle-flash as single practical
- Overcast diffuse with strong contrast in the grade
- Neon city night
- Golden hour dust
Palettes, one per panel
- Steel and Ember: gunmetal, charcoal, one warm ember accent
- Desaturated Field: olive, sand, concrete gray, off-white
- Night Op: deep navy, black, cyan practical lights
- Bleached Sun: overexposed white, dust beige, hard black shadows
Typography
- Condensed bold sans
- Stencil display
- Wide industrial grotesque
- Thin uppercase tracking for cinematic treatment
- Military-inspired but restrained
Typography to avoid
- Chrome bevels
- Fake metal textures
- Excessive glow
- Generic 'gamer' fonts
- Tiny titles
Texture that helps
- Film grain
- Lens dirt
- Anamorphic flare used once
- Halftone on poster concept
- Slight chromatic aberration
Texture that hurts
- Stock explosion overlays
- Grunge on every panel
- Bullet-hole clipart
Never
- Cliché teal-and-orange overdose
- Explosion collage
- Muscle-bound power poses
- Cluttered debris
- Random HUD elements
- Centered hero with title underneath on every panel
Your action / shooter game, four ways, in about a minute.
Built from your own screenshots and logo. Sizes Steam actually uses. No key, no account for the first sheet.