Claude-Code-Game-Studios/.claude/skills/art-bible/SKILL.md

---
name: art-bible
description: "Author the Art Bible — visual identity gating asset production. Run before /map-systems."
argument-hint: "[--review full|lean|solo]"
user-invocable: true
allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Write, Edit, Agent, AskUserQuestion
model: sonnet
---

!`source "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/.claude/hooks/yaml-helper.sh" 2>/dev/null && resolve_config --keys review_mode,automation,workflow,docs.density`

Resolved above — use as-is; `--review` overrides `review_mode`. No block →
defaults in `.claude/docs/config-resolution.md`.


## Phase 0: Parse Arguments and Context Check


See `.claude/docs/director-gates.md` for the full check pattern. Individual gate definitions live in `.claude/docs/director-gates/[gate-id].md` — the spawned agent reads its own gate file; do not read it in the parent session.


Every `AskUserQuestion` call follows `.claude/docs/automation-modes.md`
(collaborative asks always · guided major-only · autonomous logs and proceeds;
`automation_always_ask` categories always prompt).

**`docs.density`** — it controls per-section *depth*, where `workflow`
controls which sections exist. `modes.rigor` sets both together; set
`docs.density` explicitly to vary depth alone: `terse` = each section a bulleted list of
constraints + references; `balanced` = paragraphs explaining each visual choice
(default); `thorough` = full prose including style explorations, references, and
rationale per choice. Apply it to every section you author.

**`workflow`** (see `.claude/docs/workflow-modes.md`):
- `full` — all 9 art bible sections required.
- `standard` — required only if visual asset stories exist in the project;
  sections 1–4 are the minimum when required. `workflow_overrides.art_bible_strict:
  true` forces all 9 sections regardless of tier.
- `minimal` — not required. Can still be run voluntarily.

Read `design/gdd/game-concept.md`. If it does not exist, fail with:
> "No game concept found. Run `/brainstorm` first — the art bible is authored after the game concept is approved."

Extract from game-concept.md:
- Game title (working title)
- Core fantasy and elevator pitch
- Game pillars (all of them)
- **Visual Identity Anchor** section if present (from brainstorm Phase 4 art-director output)
- Target platform (if noted)

**Retrofit mode detection**: Glob `design/art/art-bible.md`. If the file exists,
build the status table **without reading the document** — you are about to author
only the *incomplete* sections, so loading the complete ones is loading exactly
what you will not touch:

```
Grep pattern="^## " path="design/art/art-bible.md" output_mode="content" -n
Grep pattern="\[To be designed\]|\[TBD\]|\[To be written\]|^_?TODO" path="design/art/art-bible.md" output_mode="content" -n
```

- The first grep gives the section headings and their line numbers — the gap
  between consecutive headings is that section's size.
- The second gives placeholder markers and where they fall.
- A section is **Complete** if it has substantive distance to the next heading and
  no placeholder marker inside it; **Placeholder** if a marker falls in its range;
  **Empty** if consecutive headings sit adjacent.
- Where the two greps leave a section genuinely ambiguous, read *that section's*
  line range with `Read(offset, limit)` — never the whole file.
- Build a section status table:

```
Section | Status
--------|--------
1. Visual Identity Statement | [Complete / Empty / Placeholder]
2. Color Palette | ...
3. Lighting & Atmosphere | ...
4. Character Art Direction | ...
5. Environment & Level Art | ...
6. UI Visual Language | ...
7. VFX & Particle Style | ...
8. Asset Standards | ...
9. Style Prohibitions | ...
```

- Present this table to the user:
  > "Found existing art bible at `design/art/art-bible.md`. [N] sections are complete, [M] need content. I'll work on the incomplete sections only — existing content will not be touched."
- Only work on sections with Status: Empty or Placeholder. Do not re-author sections that are already complete.

If the file does not exist, this is a fresh authoring session — proceed normally.

Extract performance budgets and the engine for asset standard constraints: read `performance.*` and `engine.name` from `project.yaml`; for any key absent or empty (including when `project.yaml` has no `performance` or `engine` block), fall back to `.claude/docs/technical-preferences.md`.

---

## Phase 1: Framing

Present the session context and ask two questions before authoring anything:

Use `AskUserQuestion` with two tabs:
- Tab **"Scope"** — "Which sections need to be authored today?"
  Options: `Full bible — all 9 sections` / `Visual identity core (sections 1–4 only)` / `Asset standards only (section 8)` / `Resume — fill in missing sections`

  **Mark the option the resolved `workflow` tier actually requires as
  (Recommended), and say why** — the tier already decides this and the user
  should not have to know the tier table to answer:
  - `full` → **Full bible** — all 9 sections are required at this tier.
  - `standard` → **Visual identity core (sections 1–4 only)** — that is the
    documented minimum when an art bible is required at all. Say: "Sections 1–4
    are what `standard` requires; 5–9 are available if you want them."
  - `minimal` → no art bible is required. Say so before asking, and offer
    sections 1–4 as the useful-if-you-want-it option rather than defaulting to 9.
  - `workflow_overrides.art_bible_strict: true` → **Full bible** regardless of tier.

  This is the single biggest cost lever in this skill: every authored section
  carries a specialist spawn, so authoring 9 sections where the tier requires 4
  more than doubles the run for artifacts nothing downstream will check.
- Tab **"References"** — "Do you have reference games, films, or art that define the visual direction?"
  (Free text — let the user type specific titles. Do NOT preset options here.)

If the game-concept.md has a Visual Identity Anchor section, note it:
> "Found a visual identity anchor from brainstorm: '[anchor name] — [one-line rule]'. I'll use this as the foundation for the art bible."

---

## Phase 2: Visual Identity Foundation (Sections 1–4)

These four sections define the core visual language. **All other sections flow from them.** Author and write each to file before moving to the next.

> **Spawn policy for this phase.** Section 1 is delegated on its own — it is
> foundational and the user chooses between anchor directions before anything
> else can build on it. Sections 2–4 are then delegated in **one** `art-director`
> call, not three: they are the same agent receiving the same inputs (Visual
> Identity Statement + pillars), and mood, shape and colour are interdependent —
> an art director defines them together, not in isolation. Three separate calls
> re-sent the same context three times and asked the agent to reason about
> colour without knowing the shape language it had just written.
>
> **This is not reduced specialist involvement** — every section is still
> authored by the specialist, which is the point `.claude/docs/effects-map.md`
> makes about art-bible delegation being mandatory. It is one call instead of
> three for the same three sections. Per-section user approval and
> write-to-file-immediately are unchanged.

### Section 1: Visual Identity Statement

**Goal**: A one-line visual rule plus 2–3 supporting principles that resolve visual ambiguity.

If a visual anchor exists from game-concept.md: present it and ask:
- "Build directly from this anchor?"
- "Revise it before expanding?"
- "Start fresh with new options?"

**Agent delegation (MANDATORY)**: Spawn `art-director` via `Agent`:
- Provide: game concept (elevator pitch, core fantasy), full pillar set, platform target, any reference games/art from Phase 1 framing, the visual anchor if it exists
- Ask: "Draft a Visual Identity Statement for this game. Provide: (1) a one-line visual rule that could resolve any visual decision ambiguity, (2) 2–3 supporting visual principles, each with a one-sentence design test ('when X is ambiguous, this principle says choose Y'). Anchor all principles directly in the stated pillars — each principle must serve a specific pillar."

Present the art-director's draft to the user. Use `AskUserQuestion`:
- Options: `[A] Lock this in` / `[B] Revise the one-liner` / `[C] Revise a supporting principle` / `[D] Describe my own direction`

Write the approved section to file immediately.

### Section 2: Mood & Atmosphere

**Goal**: Emotional targets by game state — specific enough for a lighting artist to work from.

For each major game state (e.g., exploration, combat, victory, defeat, menus — adapt to this game's states), define:
- Primary emotion/mood target
- Lighting character (time of day, color temperature, contrast level)
- Atmospheric descriptors (3–5 adjectives)
- Energy level (frenetic / measured / contemplative / etc.)

**Agent delegation for Sections 2–4 — one call, issued here.** Spawn
`art-director` via `Agent` with the locked Visual Identity Statement and pillar set,
and ask for all three sections in a single brief:

1. **Mood & atmosphere** — "Define mood and atmosphere targets for each major game state in this game. Be specific — 'dark and foreboding' is not enough. Name the exact emotional target, the lighting character (warm/cool, high/low contrast, time of day direction), and at least one visual element that carries the mood. Each game state must feel visually distinct from the others."
2. **Shape language** — "Define the shape language for this game. Connect each shape principle back to the visual identity statement and a specific game pillar. Explain what these shape choices communicate to the player emotionally."
3. **Colour system** — "Design the color system for this game. Every semantic color assignment must be explained — why does this color mean danger/safety/reward in this world? Identify which color pairs might fail colorblind players and specify what backup cues are needed."

Require the three to be **mutually consistent** — the palette must serve the mood
targets and the shape hierarchy — and returned as three separately labelled
blocks so each can be approved and written on its own.

Then present **Section 2** to the user, approve it, and write it to file
immediately before moving to Section 3. Do not present all three at once: the
batching is in the delegation, not in the review.

### Section 3: Shape Language

**Goal**: The geometric vocabulary that makes this game's world visually coherent and distinguishable.

Cover:
- Character silhouette philosophy (how readable at thumbnail size? Distinguishing trait per archetype?)
- Environment geometry (angular/curved/organic/geometric — which dominates and why?)
- UI shape grammar (does UI echo the world aesthetic, or is it a distinct HUD language?)
- Hero shapes vs. supporting shapes (what draws the eye, what recedes?)

**Draft source**: the Sections 2–4 delegation issued under Section 2 — use the
shape-language block it returned. Do not spawn again.

Write the approved section to file immediately.

### Section 4: Color System

**Goal**: A complete, producible palette system that serves both aesthetic and communication needs.

Cover:
- Primary palette (5–7 colors with roles — not just hex codes, but what each color means in this world)
- Semantic color usage (what does red communicate? Gold? Blue? White? Establish the color vocabulary)
- Per-biome or per-area color temperature rules (if the game has distinct areas)
- UI palette (may differ from world palette — define the divergence explicitly)
- Colorblind safety: which semantic colors need shape/icon/sound backup

**Draft source**: the Sections 2–4 delegation issued under Section 2 — use the
colour-system block it returned. Do not spawn again.

Write the approved section to file immediately.

---

## Phase 3: Production Guides (Sections 5–8)

These sections translate the visual identity into concrete production rules. They should be specific enough that an outsourcing team can follow them without additional briefing.

### Section 5: Character Design Direction

**Agent delegation for Sections 5–6 — one call, issued here.** Both sections
were separate spawns of the **same agent with the same input** (`sections 1–4`),
which is pure duplication: the second call re-sent the whole visual identity to
an agent that had just been given it. Spawn `art-director` once with sections
1–4 and ask for both:

1. **Character design direction** — "Cover: visual archetype for the player character (if any), distinguishing feature rules per character type (how do players tell enemies/NPCs/allies apart at a glance?), expression/pose style targets (stiff/expressive/realistic/exaggerated), and LOD philosophy (how much detail is preserved at game camera distance?)."
2. **Environment design language** — "Cover: architectural style and its relationship to the world's culture/history, texture philosophy (painted vs. PBR vs. stylized — why this choice for this game?), prop density rules (sparse/dense — what drives the choice per area type?), and environmental storytelling guidelines (what visual details should tell the story without text?)."

Require characters and environments to be **legible against each other** — a
character silhouette must read against the environment texture density the same
brief defines. Return two separately labelled blocks.

Present **Section 5** first, approve, write to file, then Section 6.

### Section 6: Environment Design Language

**Draft source**: the Sections 5–6 delegation issued under Section 5 — use the
environment block it returned. Do not spawn again.

Write the approved section to file.

### Section 7: UI/HUD Visual Direction

**Agent delegation**: Spawn in parallel:
- **`art-director`**: Visual style for UI — diegetic vs. screen-space HUD, typography direction (font personality, weight, size hierarchy), iconography style (flat/outlined/illustrated/photorealistic), animation feel for UI elements
- **`ux-designer`**: UX alignment check — does the visual direction support the interaction patterns this game requires? Flag any conflicts between art direction and readability/accessibility needs.

Collect both. If they conflict (e.g., art-director wants elaborate diegetic UI but ux-designer flags it would reduce combat readability), surface the conflict explicitly with both positions. Do NOT silently resolve — use `AskUserQuestion` to let the user decide.

Write the approved section to file.

### Section 8: Asset Standards

**Agent delegation**: Spawn in parallel:
- **`art-director`**: File format preferences, naming convention direction, texture resolution tiers, LOD level expectations, export settings philosophy
- **`technical-artist`**: Engine-specific hard constraints — poly count budgets per asset category, texture memory limits, material slot counts, importer constraints, anything from the performance budgets (`performance.*` in `project.yaml`, falling back to `.claude/docs/technical-preferences.md`)

If any art preference conflicts with a technical constraint (e.g., art-director wants 4K textures but performance budget requires 2K for mobile), resolve the conflict explicitly — note both the ideal and the constrained standard, and explain the tradeoff. Ambiguity in asset standards is where production costs are born.

Write the approved section to file.

---

## Phase 4: Reference Direction (Section 9)

**Goal**: A curated reference set that is specific about what to take and what to avoid from each source.

**Agent delegation**: Spawn `art-director` via `Agent` with the completed sections 1–8. Ask: "Compile a reference direction for this game. Provide 3–5 reference sources (games, films, art styles, or specific artists). For each: name it, specify exactly what visual element to draw from it (not 'the general aesthetic' — a specific technique, color choice, or compositional rule), and specify what to explicitly avoid or diverge from (to prevent the 'trying to copy X' reading). References should be additive — no two references should be pointing in exactly the same direction."

Write the approved section to file.

---

## Phase 5: Art Director Sign-Off

**Review mode check** — apply before spawning AD-ART-BIBLE:
- `solo` → skip. Note: "AD-ART-BIBLE skipped — Solo mode." Proceed to Phase 6.
- `lean` → skip (not a PHASE-GATE). Note: "AD-ART-BIBLE skipped — Lean mode." Proceed to Phase 6.
- `full` → spawn as normal.

After all sections are complete (or the scoped set from Phase 1 is complete), spawn `creative-director` via `Agent` using gate **AD-ART-BIBLE** (`.claude/docs/director-gates/ad-art-bible.md`).

Pass: art bible file path, game pillars, visual identity anchor.

Handle verdict per standard rules in `director-gates.md`. Record the verdict in the art bible's status header:
`> **Art Director Sign-Off (AD-ART-BIBLE)**: APPROVED [date] / CONCERNS (accepted) [date] / REVISED [date]`

---

## Phase 6: Close

Before presenting next steps, check project state:
- Does `design/gdd/systems-index.md` exist? → map-systems is done, skip that option
- Is an engine configured — `engine.name` present in `project.yaml`, or a configured Engine field (not `[TO BE CONFIGURED]`) in `.claude/docs/technical-preferences.md`? → setup-engine is done, skip that option
- Does `design/gdd/` contain any `*.md` files? → design-system has been run, skip that option
- Does `design/gdd/gdd-cross-review-*.md` exist? → review-all-gdds is done
- Do GDDs exist (check above)? → include /consistency-check option

Use `AskUserQuestion` for next steps. Only include options that are genuinely next based on the state check above:

**Option pool — include only if not already done:**
- `[_] Run /map-systems — decompose the concept into systems before writing GDDs` (skip if systems-index.md exists)
- `[_] Run /setup-engine — configure the engine (asset standards may need revisiting after engine is set)` (skip if engine configured)
- `[_] Run /design-system — start the first GDD` (skip if any GDDs exist)
- `[_] Run /review-all-gdds — cross-GDD consistency check (required before Technical Setup gate)` (skip if gdd-cross-review-*.md exists)
- `[_] Run /asset-spec — generate per-asset visual specs and AI generation prompts from approved GDDs` (include if GDDs exist)
- `[_] Run /consistency-check — scan existing GDDs against the art bible for visual direction conflicts` (include if GDDs exist)
- `[_] Run /create-architecture — author the master architecture document (next Technical Setup step)`
- `[_] Stop here`

Assign letters A, B, C… only to the options actually included. Mark the most logical pipeline-advancing option as `(recommended)`.

> **Always include** `/create-architecture` and Stop here as options — these are always valid next steps once the art bible is complete.

---

## Collaborative Protocol

**Applies in `collaborative` mode (the default).** For `guided` and
`autonomous` modes, see `.claude/docs/automation-modes.md` — the rules below
describe what collaborative mode requires, not universal behavior.

Every section follows: **Question → Options → Decision → Draft (from art-director agent) → Approval → Write to file**

- Never draft a section yourself — every section's content comes from the
  relevant specialist. One delegation may cover several sections (2–4 share a
  call, as do 5–6), but no section may be written from the orchestrator's own
  judgement instead of an agent's.
- Write each section to file immediately after approval — do not batch **the
  writes or the approvals**. Batching applies only to the delegation call; the
  user still sees, approves and commits one section at a time.
- Surface all agent disagreements to the user — never silently resolve conflicts between art-director and technical-artist
- The art bible is a constraint document: it restricts future decisions in exchange for visual coherence. Every section should feel like it narrows the solution space productively.

---

## Recommended Next Steps

After the art bible is approved:
- Run `/map-systems` to decompose the concept into game systems before authoring GDDs
- Run `/setup-engine` if the engine is not yet configured (asset standards may need revisiting after engine selection)
- Run `/design-system [first-system]` to start authoring per-system GDDs
- Run `/consistency-check` once GDDs exist to validate them against the art bible's visual rules
- Run `/create-architecture` to produce the master architecture document