aetherbound-guild/docs/presentation/VISUAL_DIRECTION.md

Aetherbound Guild Japanese 2D Visual Direction

Status: OWNER-APPROVED DIRECTION / RUNTIME REPAIR REQUIRED Accepted battle reference: Accepted battle reference

One-Line Identity

A bright Japanese 2D hand-drawn fantasy guild crosses softly painted unstable worlds as a long line of ordinary, replaceable adventurers whose professions, equipment and survival are readable directly in battle.

Three-Second Read

Without reading the title, the player must recognize:

1. a Japanese fantasy auto-battler in a painted side-view world;
2. one continuous allied Company line facing a materially different enemy line;
3. an imminent action or danger that will test the player's preparation.

Character Direction

• Thin, controlled Japanese animation linework with restrained cel color.
• Mature five-and-a-half to six-head proportions; no chibi presentation.
• Ordinary units occupy approximately 10-14% of the landscape canvas height.
• Profession identity comes from silhouette, weapon/tool, stance and action, not a large text label or oversized portrait.
• Allied units face right; enemies face left. The line has visible horizontal travel and real contact before melee impact.
• Generated Recruits are replaceable participants, not permanent protagonists.
• Bosses may be substantially larger, but cannot remove crowd readability or cover the full tactical corridor.

Environment Direction

• Softly painted sky, architecture, vegetation, route machinery and local hazards with clear atmospheric depth.
• Separate background, midground, playable ground and foreground layers.
• Bright readable daylight and region-specific weather are preferred over a generic dark-blue stage.
• Environment tells the Region rule visually: heat/constructs, archive clauses, echoes, rail order, hidden information and synthesis each require distinct shapes and props.
• The central combat corridor stays readable; tall decoration cannot cut actors apart or hide attacks.

UI Direction

• World first, compact instruments second.
• Top HUD carries objective, side pressure and pause/speed/inspect tools.
• Bottom HUD carries the Company line, HP/resource state and selected details.
• Materials use charcoal ink, ivory enamel, repaired canvas, weathered brass, aether cyan, danger coral and safe green.
• Repeated offers and inventory cells may use bounded frames. Page sections and the gameplay surface may not become nested cards.
• Engine-rendered Chinese and English remain crisp, with icon plus shape support for every important state.

Motion Direction

• Idle motion is subtle and never replaces gameplay animation.
• Melee uses anticipation, forward travel/contact, impact and recovery.
• Ranged action visibly releases a projectile or line effect from the attacker to the legal target.
• Healing visibly originates from the healer and changes the recipient's state.
• Guard, hurt, defeat and victory have distinct poses with stable anchors.
• Floating damage/healing values appear at the affected actor, rise and settle quickly, and never cover the next priority action.
• Reduced motion removes travel exaggeration and camera motion, but preserves readable anticipation, impact and legal final state.

Explicit Rejections

• Pixel art, nearest-neighbor enlargement and low-resolution palette reduction.
• Western steampunk hero-poster rendering or glossy 3D characters.
• Oversized ordinary characters that leave room for only two or three actors.
• Card-wall dashboards, generic dark panels and app-like form pages.
• Decorative particles or idle loops presented as battle animation.
• Fixed named-hero storytelling, rarity framing or authored social-bond systems.
• Pseudo-text baked into generated art.

Production Rule

One representative runtime battle must pass before bulk page or Region asset production. Concept art controls direction; only imported, gameplay-bound and normal-rendered assets prove implementation. Owner review remains the final visual gate.