Dreaming of a career as a game artist? If you enjoy game art and a healthy level of competition, then becoming an esports game artist is a career path that’s worth considering.
Here are some things you’ll need to know before breaking into this rewarding field.
Defining Esports-Ready Game Art
In esports specifically, game art refers to the creation of a game’s characters, environments and user interfaces. When it comes to esports design, there are some important factors to keep in mind.
Clarity, Consistency and Competitive Integrity
In game art designed for esports, clarity and consistency are key to ensuring that players can quickly identify and understand essential gameplay information while maintaining a sense of fairness and competitive integrity.
Spectator-First Design and Broadcast Constraints
With more spectators tuning into esports broadcasts, game artists need to design not just for players, but audiences as well. With this in mind, game artists must consider things like accessibility, the availability of dedicated spectator modes and easy-to-use interfaces for non-players.
Reading at a Glance: HUD, Icons and Motion Discipline
Well-designed heads-up displays (HUDs) and clear, standardized game icons can also have a positive impact on the player experience, enabling players to access the information they need with a quick glance without being distracted from gameplay.
Visual Hierarchy and Readability
When it comes to designing elements for esports, maintaining a clear visual hierarchy is key to ensuring readability and a smooth gaming experience.
HUD Legibility: Typography, Contrast and Spacing
More specifically, game artists should opt for clear typefaces that are easy to read on screens (such as sans-serif options) with highly contrasting colors and consistent spacing for added readability.
Color Systems: Team Differentiation and Color-Blind Modes
The use of colors can also be highly effective in esports branding and design, with the use of consistent color palettes and high-contrast differentiate between teams. Likewise, game artists may rely on color-blind modes that use cues other than color (such as symbols or icons) to distinguish between teams.
Iconography Standards: Silhouette, Pictogram and Cooldown States
During periods of fast-paced gameplay, iconography in the form of silhouettes and pictograms can also go a long way in helping players quickly identify specific game components. Meanwhile, cooldown states within a game’s user interface (UI) can readily indicate to players that an item is temporarily unavailable for use.
Map and Environment Design for Competition
In the competitive world of esports, environment design is especially important in creating tactical spaces that maintain a sense of balance and fairness.
Landmarks, Callouts and Navigational Cues
Esports players rely on prominent features to orient them during gameplay, so game artists need to ensure that landmarks, callouts and other navigational cues remain consistent.
Effects Management: Particle Economy and Noise Reduction
Another challenge faced by game artists and designers is that of balancing both visual and sound effects to adhere to technical constraints while optimizing the gaming experience. This includes following specific strategies (like object pooling) to minimize performance issues while reducing unwanted noise that could negatively impact gameplay.
Lighting for Visibility Across 1080p – 4K Streams
Game designers and artists alike also face the shared challenge of perfecting their lighting setups in an esports environment. For most 1080p-4K streams, a basic three-point lighting system will provide optimal visibility without too much latency.
Character, Skin and Equipment Guidelines
In designing characters for esports games, artists have a lot to consider, not just in terms of aesthetics, but also gameplay.
Silhouette Integrity and Fairness (No Visual Advantages)
In esports specifically, ensuring that all relevant character information is instantly recognizable is a critical aspect of what’s known as silhouette integrity. Adherence to these principles enables game artists and designers to consistently guarantee fairness.
VFX Language: Hit Confirms, Damage and Buff/Debuff Readouts
Likewise, the use of clear VFX language is critical to communicating information about relevant gameplay events in esports, such as hits or other effects.
Animation Clarity: Anticipation, Action and Recovery Timing
Finally, from a character standpoint, game artists must ensure that animations are clear to maximize responsiveness and strategic gameplay. This includes offering visual cues when an action is about to occur, and proper recovery timing after an action.
Branding and Identity Systems
In esports, especially, the use of branding and team logos is crucial to creating an authentic gaming experience. In incorporating branding and identity systems, however, game artists need to keep a few things in mind.
Team Logos, Colorways and Jersey-to-UI Translation
When translating team logos and colorways into the esports experience, designers need to prioritize readability with practical UI elements (including clear minimap design), the use of scalable logos and strategic placement of branding elements for the best results.
Event Brand Systems: Key Art, Stingers, Lower Thirds
Game artists also rely on different components to form cohesive event brand systems in esports, including:
- Key art, or foundational images to capture the attention of an audience.
- Stingers, or short, branded animations/effects often used as transitional elements in gaming.
- Lower thirds package, or areas of informative text and graphics in the lower portion of the gameplay screen.
Sponsor Integration Without Visual Clutter
Esports games may appear and feel more authentic when real sponsors are incorporated into the experience. Still, game artists must exercise caution to ensure that sponsors are integrated subtly and seamlessly, minimizing visual clutter and distractions.
Motion Graphics for Broadcast
In esports, games and tournaments are often broadcast to live audiences, creating additional demands for game artists and designers alike.
Openers, Stingers and Transitions at Tournament Pace
For starters, game artists may need to create and implement additional graphics in the form of openers, stingers and transitions specifically for tournaments. In doing so, they may need to integrate certain branding or colors while maintaining a sense of consistency in their designs.
Information Density: Draft Phases, Scorebugs and Timelines
Game artists and designers may also need to strike a delicate balance between providing enough relevant data for users to make sound decisions and avoiding information overload. This may be done through the strategic use of draft phases (as in games like League of Legends), scorebugs/HUDs and ongoing timelines for quick reference.
Compression-Aware Design: Avoiding Banding and Artifacts
Because live esports broadcasts may be compressed, designers and artists need to make conscious decisions to avoid unwanted banding and artifacts during streams. This may be done through the use of dithering, filmic noise and color stops where needed.
Accessibility and Inclusive Design
Accessibility and inclusivity are also essential considerations in esports design. Game artists can use some specific methods to optimize accessibility for all.
Color-Vision Deficiency Modes and Pattern Overlays
Game artists may rely on color-vision deficiency (CVD) modes and even pattern overlays to address color blindness, offering color-blind mode options to make gameplay possible for people with various types of color blindness.
Audio-Visual Pairing for Critical Events
Another option to improve accessibility in esports game design is the creative use of audio-visual pairing to signify critical events and provide real-time information for players who may need it.
Interface Scaling for Arena Screens and Mobile Streams
Because today’s esports competitions are broadcast across a variety of devices, game artists and designers must also approach interface design with scaling and compatibility in mind. This means that designs should be easy to view on not just on large screens with scoreboard design components.
Tools, Pipelines and Performance
In esports game design, tools ranging from game engines to design systems can make the work of even the most experienced and skilled game artists a bit easier.
Source of Truth: Design Systems and Tokenized UI
For many game artists, design system tokens serve as a single source of truth for a game’s design-related decisions. This tokenized approach to UI ensures consistency across the board, including across different teams and even platforms.
Engine Implementation: Materials, LODs and VFX Budgets
Game artists and other members of game design teams also need to take such factors as budgets, level of details (LOD) and materials into play when choosing and implementing a game engine. The right engine can help teams optimize materials and do more with smaller budgets.
QA for Spectator Modes and Observer Tools
From a quality assurance (QA) perspective, designers and game artists must also test esports spectator modes and observer tools to ensure functionality and performance, taking measures to address bugs and other usability issues before the game is released to the public.
Case Studies: Global Perspectives
To gain a better understanding of the impact that game art and design can have on the gaming experience, it can be helpful to examine some real-world examples for yourself.
Riot Games- League of Legends Worlds and VCT Visual Systems
Developed by Riot Games, both League of Legends and the Valorant Broadcast Champions Tour (VCT) rely on in-depth worlds and visual systems to maximize the player and spectator experience. This includes the use of both large-scale screens for broadcasting, augmented reality (AR) systems and a comprehensive style guide for consistency in League of Legends UI.
Valve- Dota 2 The International and CS Esports HUD Evolution
Over time, HUDs in esports and other games (like the popular Counter Strike HUD) have become increasingly complex, now displaying large amounts of information for players and spectators alike. This can be seen in such examples as Dota 2 HUD, where major redesigns have added more player-centric features and exclusive HUD skins for those willing to make a purchase.
Blizzard- Overwatch League Broadcast Packages
Blizzard Entertainment has created the Overwatch League, an open ecosystem esports program with live tournaments and events broadcast throughout the year. They’ve even taken things up a notch by partnering with major broadcasters, including Disney and ESPN, to offer paid packages to subscribers.
Psyonix- Rocket League Readability and Arena Branding
In Psyonix’s Rocket League, game artists and designers experimented with unique arena branding, incorporating visual themes into arenas with otherwise standardized layouts. This, in addition to special audio visual cues, have improved the gaming experience for many.
Moonton- Mobile Legends MPL Mobile-First UI
In Montoon’s Mobile Legends HUD, game artists centered their efforts around playability and user experience specifically on mobile devices with features that include a simplified layout, enhanced visuals, intuitive navigation and performance optimization across all devices.
Epic Games- Fortnite Competitive: Iconography and Killfeed
For those who play Fortnite competitively, game artists have incorporated the use of killfeed iconography to convey important, real-time information to players. More specifically, game artists have designed special icons (such as a skull and crossbones to signify player elimination) for easy recognition and a seamless experience.
Tencent- Honor of Kings Esports: Team Color and Mini-Map Clarity
Finally, in Tencent’s Honor of Kings, game artists have utilized features such as small-scale maps (mini maps) that are easy to read and navigate — in addition to distinguishable colors — to enable players to recognize their place in the game easily.
Education, Portfolio and Career Pathways
Aspiring game artists who are interested in working specifically in esports should prioritize getting a quality education, gaining real-world experience, and building a robust portfolio to enter the field.
Building an Esports UI Kit and Motion Reel
As a professional game artist, having a repository of reusable buttons, icons and other UI components can make you much faster and more efficient in your work — so it’s never too early to start building a UI kit that you can use in building motion reels, prototypes and real interfaces.
Live Service Iteration: Patch Notes and Art Changelogs
Game artists should also get into the habit of building trust with the gaming community by regularly updating patch notes and changelogs to reflect fixes, patches and other aspects of development as they unfold.
Cross-Discipline Collaboration With Observers and Casters
Ultimately, regular collaboration between observers and casters is essential to creating a more engaging and informative broadcast experience for esports enthusiasts.
Learn More in a Game Art Program
With esports becoming increasingly popular, the need for skilled game artists who understand the unique challenges and opportunities of esports-ready game art is likely to grow as well. Are you up for the challenge? If so, then it may be time to build your skills and knowledge in a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Art program at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. With both online and on-campus options available, you can choose the format that best suits your needs.
Drop us a line to request more information about any of our programs, or get started with your application for admission now.
FAQs: Game Art in Esports
Q1: What makes esports UI different from standard game UI?
The user interface in esports differs from that of standard gameplay in that the UI in esports prioritizes instant readability for spectators in addition to players. This includes using a strict hierarchy, color-safe team IDs and motion limits that survive broadcast compression.
Q2: How do I avoid pay-to-win visuals in skins?
Pay-to-win visuals in skins can be avoided by preserving the silhouette, size and animation timing across all characters. Game designers and artists may also consider keeping VFX brightness, opacity and hit cues within standardized ranges documented in a public style guide for consistency.
Q3: How should team branding appear in-game?
Game artists should take care to map logos and colorways to neutral UI regions (including nameplates, banners and overlays). They should also use contrast-safe palettes and avoid replacing any colors that may be critical to the gameplay experience.
Q4: What are best practices for color-blind accessibility in esports?
Game artists may be able to optimize color-blind accessibility by offering multiple CVD presets, adding pattern/shape redundancy to team IDs and validating via simulation tools/CVD user testing before events.
Q5: How do we design effects that look good on stream?
To maximize the appearance of design effects on esports streams, game artists should opt for crisp shapes with limited particle counts, and short-lived bursts. Likewise, testing effects at 1080p/60 with standard bitrates may be helpful in checking for smear, banding and aliasing.
Q6: Which deliverables should be in an esports artist’s portfolio?
Esports gaming artists looking to build their professional portfolios may consider adding modular HUD kits, icon sets, event overlay packages, stinger animation features, map readability passes and a brief demonstrating accessibility and broadcast tests to appeal to potential employers.
Q7: How do observer tools influence art decisions?
Observer tools can impact game art decisions because they require scalable icons, data panels and colorways that remain legible when zoomed or reframed. Because of this, game artists and designers should design with camera sweeps and replays in mind.
