Playbook · RPG / Fantasy
RPG / Fantasy Steam capsule art: four directions from your own assets
JRPG, CRPG, action RPG, high fantasy, adventure.
Make my rpg / fantasy sheet
First sheet free. Paste a Steam link on the home page instead.
The four directions every rpg / fantasy sheet gets
One panel each, in this order, so the four are built to disagree: commercial, atmospheric, poster, and one swing.
Direction 1
Painted Ensemble Key Art
Classic illustrated cover: hero or party plus antagonist, painterly, rich.
- ·Hero or small party arranged with clear hierarchy, antagonist or creature looming behind or opposite
- ·Painterly rendering with believable light, not plastic 3D
- ·Logo prominent with an ornate but readable treatment
- ·Warm heroic light against cooler shadow
Direction 2
World-Scale Vista
The journey. Tiny traveler, enormous world.
- ·Vast landscape or city, small figure for scale, path leading into the frame
- ·Atmospheric perspective, layered depth, one landmark as focal point
- ·Title elegant and quiet, placed in sky or negative space
- ·Sense of wonder and distance over action
Direction 3
Iconographic Emblem
Crest, sigil, artifact, or weapon as a bold designed centerpiece.
- ·One symbolic object rendered with material richness on a restrained background
- ·Ornamental framing, engraved or illuminated-manuscript influence, kept clean
- ·Type integrated with the emblem, serif or blackletter used tastefully
- ·Feels like a collector's edition box
Direction 4
Intimate Concept Moment
The wildcard. A quiet or striking single idea.
- ·Pick ONE: dragon eye reflecting the hero, hand on a sword hilt, stained-glass panel, a map with a bloodstain, campfire faces, throne room seen from the floor, mirror of a possessed knight, a tarot-card layout
What the art director is told
The playbook below is the actual guidance the model receives for rpg / fantasy games, minus your brief and assets.
Compositions that work
- Triangle of characters
- Hero facing away into the world
- Emblem centered with heavy negative space
- Antagonist as backdrop silhouette
- Diagonal path through frame
Lighting
- Golden rim light
- Torch and moonlight
- Sunbeams through canopy
- Magical light as single practical source
- Overcast stormlight
Palettes, one per panel
- Royal Dusk: deep blue, gold, crimson accent, parchment
- Verdant Old-World: forest green, moss, bronze, warm cream
- Ashen Grimdark: charcoal, ash, ember, bone
- Dreamlike: lavender, teal, pale gold, soft pink
Typography
- Classic high-contrast serif
- Engraved or inscribed lettering
- Elegant blackletter kept readable
- Tall ornate display serif
- Clean humanist serif for premium tone
Typography to avoid
- Lord-of-the-Rings font clones
- Overdone glow and drop shadows
- Chrome
- Illegible ornate script
Texture that helps
- Paint strokes
- Canvas grain
- Gold-foil emboss on emblem concept
- Soft vignette
- Ink bleed
Texture that hurts
- Plastic 3D render sheen
- Random particle spam
- Lens flares everywhere
Never
- Generic 'epic' orange-blue grading
- Floating particle clutter
- Six characters all the same size
- Cheap glowing runes
- Plastic skin
Your rpg / fantasy 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.