We often talk about game art in terms of style, mood, and beauty—the breathtaking landscapes, the iconic character designs, the cohesive visual worlds. But there’s another, arguably more fundamental, layer to game art that often goes unmentioned: visual communication.
Whether you’re a solo developer wearing all hats, a programmer sourcing assets, or an artist learning to code, understanding this concept is crucial. It’s the bridge between your game’s design (its mechanics and rules) and the player’s ability to understand and interact with it. Poor visual communication doesn’t just look bad—it breaks gameplay. Imagine a vital health potion that looks like a spiky, red vial of poison. The player’s instinct will be to avoid it, creating frustration and halting progress.
This isn’t just about guesswork or convention. It’s grounded in well‐established theories of cognitive design, borrowed from graphic design, UX, and product design. Let’s break down the two most powerful tools in your visual communication toolkit.
Rooted in Gestalt psychology (from early 1900s graphic design), visual hierarchy is the practice of arranging elements to signal their importance and relationship. Our brains are wired to see groups and patterns. In game UI and environments, we can use this to our advantage.
A Practical Example from My Game, Dirt World:
The resource bar at the top of the screen has keys and hearts on the left, coins and crystals on the right. This simple layout uses proximity and grouping to communicate vital information without a single word:
Left Group (Keys/Hearts): Implied relationship—these are likely tied to survival/loss conditions.
Right Group (Coins/Crystals): Implied relationship—these are likely currencies or collectibles.
Even a player who’s never seen a game before would intuitively sense these groupings. That’s Gestalt in action.
How to Apply It:
UI: Use size, position, color, and spacing to show what’s most important. The player should know where to look first.
Environment: Make the player character a contrasting color so they stand out instantly. Use color coding—like making all interactive “key” objects share a distinct hue (I use a bright teal).
Prioritize Clarity Over Realism (Early On): Don’t get bogged down in detailed textures for your first prototype. A clear, communicative grey‐box is infinitely more valuable than a pretty but confusing scene.
The Power of Motion:
Animation is hierarchy’s dynamic partner. Animated numbers counting up when you grab a coin, or a health bar that “chunks” down when damaged, use movement and contrast to grab attention and communicate change, even from the periphery of the player’s vision.
Affordance theory, popularized by Don Norman in The Design of Everyday Things, explains how an object’s appearance suggests its possible uses. A mug has a handle affording grabbing. A button appears pressable.
In games, we use affordances to bridge the gap between real‐world intuition and game logic.
Applying Affordance Thinking:
Doors: A door blocked by visually heavy rubble affords “cannot pass.” A door with a shiny, prominent handle affords “interact here.”
Collectibles: In my game, blue crystal shards are designed to look like valuable, brittle minerals. Their shape and context (found in breakable rocks) afford “smash and collect.” The final shiny VFX polish comes later, but the core affordance is established from the start.
Environmental Storytelling: A post‐apocalyptic setting isn’t just for mood; it justifies welded‐shut doors and collapsed tunnels, using visual affordances to explain gameplay boundaries.
You don’t need to memorize terms. The goal is to appreciate that effective design isn’t magic—it’s based on a deep understanding of human perception. Knowing why we group certain elements, or how an object signals its function:
Accelerates Your Decisions: You spend less time guessing and more time making intentional choices about asset design and placement.
Moves Beyond Imitation: You learn the principles behind conventions, allowing you to innovate thoughtfully rather than just copy.
Improves Team Communication: It gives designers, artists, and programmers a shared vocabulary rooted in player psychology.
| Principle | Core Idea | Game Application |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Hierarchy | Arrange elements to guide attention and show relationships. | UI layout, character contrast, environmental signage, grouping related items. |
| Affordance | Design objects to visually suggest their use. | Interactive props, collectible design, environmental barriers/passages. |
| Movement & Contrast | Use dynamics to highlight change and importance. | UI animations, damage feedback, highlighted interactive elements. |
The Key Insight: Visual communication is not a final coat of paint. It’s a foundational concern from the earliest prototype. By applying these principles, you build games that are not only beautiful but intuitively understandable, creating a seamless and satisfying experience for your players.
Want to dive deeper into Gestalt principles? I’ve linked a great primer in the video description. Now go make your game’s mechanics crystal clear!
Article is inspired by Game Art is Cognitive Design from Indie Games Clinic