Art Asset Plan

Direction

Pixel art is a good fit if the project values readable growth stages, modest production scope, and visible authored character. Use a fixed grid and nearest-neighbor scaling. Do not mix pixel art with smooth vector placeholders in the final presentation layer.

Recommended first working size:

Plant canvas: 64 x 80 px, transparent, root anchor at the same coordinate.
Visitor canvas: 24 x 24 or 32 x 32 px.
UI icons: 16 x 16 and 24 x 24 px.
Pot/bed tile: 64 x 32 px plus plant overlay.
Work at 1x; preview at 3x or 4x without smoothing.

Vertical Slice: Draw First

Environment: 6 assets

One ordinary pot, empty.
One specialist/rare specimen pot.
One bench segment that can repeat horizontally.
Greenhouse back wall/window segment.
Soil surface: normal.
Soil surface: dry and wet variants.

Plants: 2 species, 14 still frames

Thin mint: 6 stages - seed/soil, sprout, seedling, leafy, flowering, declined.
Phase 7 orchid: 8 stages - newly potted, root establishment, first leaf, leaf growth, mature rosette, spike, buds, bloom.

Keep every stage on the same canvas and anchor. Silhouette change matters more than small texture detail.

Visitors: 3 creatures, 5-7 frames each

Bee: rest, two flight frames, landing, pollinating.
Swallowtail: rest, two wing frames, landing, departure.
Aphid: one readable cluster icon plus one subtle two-frame state; avoid realistic crawling.

UI: 18 icons

Water, nutrient/soil, growth, bloom, seed, pollination.
Coin, notes, compost, order, research, visitor.
Play, pause, quiet/watch, caretaker, shop, settings.

Draw icons as symbols, not miniature illustrations. Test them at actual phone size before adding detail.

Effects: 6 small animations

Water droplets: 3-4 frames.
Care sparkle/pulse: 4 frames.
Bud opening: 5-7 frames, may reuse plant frames.
Rare discovery flash: 5 frames.
Visitor arrival trail: 3 frames.
Dryness signal: 2-3 frames, restrained rather than alarming.

Do Not Draw Yet

Every existing plant species.
Full competition pavilion art.
Employees and caretaker portraits.
Detailed shop interiors.
Multiple pot skins or decorative furniture.
Large cinematic backgrounds.

These wait until the mint/orchid vertical slice proves the scale, palette, and animation workload.

Export Rules

Keep layered source files and palette swatches.
Export transparent PNG sprite sheets with no filtering.
Use stable names: plant_orchid_stage_01.png, visitor_bee_fly_01.png.
Record canvas size, anchor, palette, and frame timing beside each sheet.
Never resize exported sprites by a non-integer factor during visual QA.

Definition of Done

The art direction is ready to expand only when mint and orchid both read on phone and desktop, all stages remain aligned, showcase mode looks coherent, and the six animations do not obscure controls or resize layout.