How to look for references and inspiration for game designers

You are involved in the creation of a game as a designer and are responsible for the visual part. To work out locations, characters and mobs, you need to find inspiration and source to make the world beautiful and memorable. But you may not have enough experience, you may not even know where to look for the right information. That's why we decided to prepare an article on the topic of finding references and inspiration.

And why do I need a reference?

To create high-quality objects. A reference is a source that helps to better develop a visual object. You can take a certain detail or, for example, copy an armor for historical accuracy.

Method 1 - Use Filters

Filters help you transform references or stumble upon a fresh idea. For example, you have a concept for the style of the game. In this case, you can apply a mask or filter to the image and see how it changes. With this approach, you will see the result. After evaluating it, you can slightly rethink your own style (change the drawing, color scheme, type of animation, etc.).

Method 2 - Use maps to design the environment

You can draw a medieval street or fantasy town without references. Or you can look at suitable maps, which you can then rework, making a great location. If there is a desire to develop something realistic - photos of places are simply necessary.

Here's how it looks like in practice:

In the Yakuza series of games, the action takes place in the non-existent Kamuro-kyo neighborhood. But it's based on a real neighborhood called Kabuki-kyo.

Here's a short video of cosplayers walking around Kabuki-kyo.

And here are some comparisons:

In 2019, the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris burned down in Paris. It wanted to restore it with the help of Assassins Creed, because in the game the designers made an exact copy of the building.

The modder of CS: Global Offensive made a map based on photos of the subway.

And here are the maps we recommend:

• Retromap. A huge number of games use maps. Get inspiration from cartographers of the past to make better navigation in your project.
• Google street view. There's a time period change feature there. See what cities have looked like since 2007.
• MapCrunch. Hit random beautiful places and then see their locations.
• Ediscover. And this is almost a random teleporter. Almost, because you can choose a random place you want to move to. These include: lakes, mountains, rivers, interesting, etc.

Method 3 - References and Neural Networks

A neural network can help you create references for your projects. Its advantage is the ability to give the AI a technical task, after which it will make you a sketch in a short period of time. This allows you to make artwork, buildings, characters, faces, animations, etc.

Here's what it looks like in practice:

The mod developers for Crusader Kings 3 used neural nets to create images in the game's loading menu. AI also helped create the coats of arms and flags of noble families. All of this helped people who don't have good artistic skills to make passable images. Here's one example:

Which neural networks should I use?

Try these neural networks to create references:

• Illumine AI can help you turn sketches into illustrations. Draw a simple sketch, give a prompt, get the result.
• MidJourney. Type in a text description of the picture, get the result. Drawings can be finalized, it takes a few tens of seconds to create. Everything happens on Discord server.
• Craion. Besides prompts there are negative filters. You can specify what you don't want to see in the drawing (for example, a certain color).

Method 4 - Want references? Be on topic

This means being interested in the field you're in. That's why YouTube channels, VK groups, Telegram channels and other news sources can come in handy.

Here's how it looks in practice:

You're sitting at lunch and watching YouTube. A video dedicated to the game Disco Elysium comes up on the BULJATH channel. As you watch it, you discover that the authors have made a great artbook with cool concepts. You look through it, and then make notes with interesting ideas. Now you can improve them to make them into reality later.

Here's what we recommend:

A selection of sources where you can find references:

Major social media:

• Pinterest -- Thousands of drawings in various formats. A huge community of artists who share creativity, rate each other's work and give likes.
• DeviantArt. An online gallery where artists, photographers, writers and other creatives gather. Type in a query of interest, add tags, and subscribe to your favorite authors.
• Dribbble. Another service, but it gathers more 3D designers, graphic illustrators, designers, etc. There is a lot of professional and quality work.
• Behance. And here you will find hundreds of thousands of works of different creatives from all over the world.

Useful sites:

• Art Station. There's a search filter where you can find illustrations, concept art, and images of different formats.
• And here is some useful information regarding UX in gaming. In gaming, it's important to make not only beautiful pictures, but also an eye-catching interface (which the designer will also work on). The site is a collection of tutorials. In many of the articles you will find pictures.
• Screensider.com. Sometimes games have mechanics or style copied, creating clones. You might be working on such a project. This site is needed to quickly find interesting screenshots from the game you need.
• And on this site you can find a huge amount of interesting content. Read manuals, look at the works of contest finalists, study interviews of cool artists and designers, etc.

Useful Photo Stocks

Photostocks are necessary because searching for pictures through the “Pictures” section of your browser is not ideal. You may get only the most popular photos, which are often repeated regardless of the request. Also on such services there is a convenient categorization. Below are 4 popular photo stocks:

• Adobe stock. A photo stock with millions of images. There are keyword and category searches. If you want to download an image - you will have to buy a paid subscription. You can also select the type of file you are interested in (for example, photos).
• Life of Pix. Service with a convenient interface. On the main screen there are tooltips that allow you to choose something specific at once. You can not only search for interesting references, but also follow your favorite photographers.
• Pixabay. Offers hundreds of thousands of pictures of different formats. You can download them for free, and the service itself has high quality standards.
• Pexels. A photo stock that is used by more than 30 million people.

Method 5 - In references helps to understand the story

You have been asked to make a knight, prepare a location in a fantasy world, make weapons from the last century or something similar. To find a reference, you can go to special sites where there are images of the desired objects in high quality.

Here's how it looks like in practice:

Here let's take the game "Smuta" as an example. The evaluation of the project is questionable, but the authors tried to work on the historical component. They not only showed that they emphasized the historical context, but also called the historian Klim Zhukov.

The second example is the game Europa Universalis 4. It, like many other projects, is tied to history. You take the state under your control and try to defeat everyone. There added a system of monuments - important historical buildings (pyramids, Cologne Cathedral, Kremlin, Kaaba, forbidden city and so on). All of these were written off from the originals.

Here's what we recommend:

• The blue Prints. A collection of drawings in various formats. You can look at WWII transportation, vehicles, weapons, etc.
• Official site of the Louvre. Weapons and armor, money and jewelry, drawings and sculptures - a huge number of exhibits in one place. There is a gradation by historical periods. We recommend using a translator for use.
• The official UNESCO site. There are photos of cultural monuments there. Another way to pick up an interesting part for important objects.

Method 6 - Take body parts and nature and then recycle them

You can't explain to a blind person what the color red is. Also with locations: it's hard to come up with something unique if you haven't seen enough scenery and don't have a good imagination yet. And once you find a few unique views you can be inspired by them to create something unique and interesting later.

Something unique is difficult to create. So you need to gather as many options as possible for your concept.

Here's what we recommend:

• This is a detailed atlas of the human body.
• Beautiful nature.
• Insects.
• Some more about the human body.

And also the reference can be your own body. That is, you can see the correctness of drawing an object by paying attention to your arms, legs, posture while sitting/standing, etc.

A few thoughts on how to interact with references

Help you not only collect but also realize the creative potential of the two references.

• Make chimeras. Combine multiple animals or monsters to create game characters or enemies.
• Use primitives. Circles, squares rectangles, etc. - everything can be a primitive. You can either stack or combine them with each other. You can also look for primitives in objects and drawings.
• Engage in redrawing. Let's say you want the light to fall well on an object. In that case, redraw the way the light falls on a particular object. After all, things around you can also be references.
• There should be a lot of references. Collect at least 5-10 pieces.

• Take a specific reference, redraw it in your own style.
• Take inspiration from other people's work. That's what the Fallout developers did when looking for inspiration in US marketing in the 50s.

A few general tips for beginners

These will just help make the game more interesting:

• More details and stories. Study the scenario and lore of the project. Then highlight the touchpoints that can.
• Sometimes you can use paschalas.
• Sometimes you can use setpieces. A coherent setting will help you choose a direction for your endeavor. Spell out what you want to see: an empty world with no people, a forest full of different creatures, a huge map with different cultures, etc.
• If you're working on your own indie game or participating in a creative project, sign up for cool artists.
• References are better to collect in collages.
• All images should be studied carefully.

Also, play games if you want to design for games. With some experience you will have a profdeformation, after which you will not deliberately emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of the design of models and locations.