Even the smallest game development project can run more smoothly if a few key standards are established early on. In an earlier post, I discussed how documentation is a crucial part of project management. One of the most important documents in that toolkit is a style guide, which serves as a backbone to maintain consistency across assets, code, and workflows. By having these standards in place, teams can work more efficiently, reduce confusion, and stay aligned, making the overall project management process easier, whether the team is large or small.
What is a Style Guide
A Style Guide specifies design strategies and standards for all assets, code, and version control systems to maintain consistency in visual and audio elements.
In game development, style guides play a crucial role in maintaining clarity and cohesion throughout the design and development process. They can be broadly categorized into two main types:
- Art Style Guides: Define the visual direction and aesthetic elements of the project. This includes color palettes, typography, character and environment design, UI components, animation styles, and iconography. Art style guides ensure that all visual assets feel cohesive and align with the intended look and feel of the game.
- Technical Style Guides: Establish scripting, coding, and workflow standards. This covers naming conventions, code formatting, commenting practices, file organization, version control guidelines, and general development procedures. Technical guides help maintain consistency, reduce errors, and make it easier for team members to collaborate effectively.
When Style Guides Are Developed
Style guides are typically created alongside the Game Design Document (GDD), during the pre-production phase, and they serve as a central reference for design, art, and development teams, ensuring that the vision outlined in the GDD is implemented consistently across the project. Establishing standards early prevents costly inconsistencies later.
Throughout the production phase, the style guide is actively referenced and updated to maintain consistency as assets are created, code is written, and the game evolves. Actively referencing the guide keeps the project aligned and efficient.
Why Style Guides Matter
Style guides are essential because they keep a game project cohesive, clear, and efficient.
Art style guides ensure visual consistency, preventing a disjointed player experience. For example, if a game has multiple artists designing characters, an art style guide ensures everyone follows the same proportions, line styles, and color palettes, so all characters feel like they belong in the same world. Without such guidance, players might notice inconsistent styles that break immersion. Similarly, having a technical or visual reference for exact color values or standardized design elements saves developers and designers from repeatedly checking or guessing, speeding up production.
Technical style guides reduce ambiguity in code, making collaboration smoother and production faster. For example, standardized variable names ensure that everyone uses the same terminology and avoids confusion. Let’s say a game has a currency system; are the values called “credits,” “coins,” “money,” or “gold”? If one part of the code (like the bank system) uses one term and another (like the shop system) uses a different one, it can lead to confusion and make tracking errors much harder.
Beyond consistency, style guides save time by providing quick references that reduce back-and-forth decisions. They also make onboarding new team members easier and help the project scale smoothly without losing clarity or quality.
Reusability of Technical Style Guides
One of the added benefits of a technical style guide is that many of its standards can be reused across multiple projects. General rules for naming classes, methods, variables, and other coding structures, as well as version control workflows, often remain consistent regardless of the specific game. By maintaining a base guide with these standards, development teams can kick-start new projects more efficiently, only needing to add project-specific elements, rather than reinventing the wheel. This reduces guesswork, minimizes onboarding time, and ensures that new projects start with clear, consistent practices from day one.
The primary goal of any style guide is to ensure that every team member adheres to agreed-upon standards, facilitating a unified vision for the project and smoother collaboration. This documentation should not be overlooked; it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of starting development and jump in without a plan. Taking the time to establish a clear style guide early helps prevent inconsistencies, reduces confusion, and sets the team up for a more efficient and cohesive development process.