Skill examples for game studios

Last updated: October 12, 2026

Worked examples of skills that game studios write in Layer, grouped by the team that owns them. Each one says what the skill is for, how to set it up, and gives instructions you can copy and adapt. For what skills are and how they load, see Skills.

Each example is written as a SKILL.md file. To use one in Layer, put the name in the skill's Name, the description in its Description and everything below the second --- in its Instructions, or save the whole thing as SKILL.md and import it. Files named assets/... or references/... are ones you add under Files on the skill's page.

Write a skill that works

The examples below follow the same few rules. They are what separates a skill the agent follows from one it ignores.

Write the description as a trigger. "Use when making UI icons, buttons or HUD elements" tells the agent when to load it. "Our icon guidelines" does not.
Use numbers, not adjectives. "512 x 512, 6 px outline" is followed. "Clean, bold icons" is interpreted.
Say what not to do. The rules people break most often are the ones worth writing down: no text in icons, no lens flare, never show the hero without the scarf.
Keep the instructions to a page. They go into the agent's context in full. Move long material (a lore bible, a full export table) into a reference file, and say in the instructions when to open it.
One skill, one job. An icon skill and an export skill load separately, when each is relevant. One skill that covers both loads all of it every time.
Test it in a fresh session. Ask for something the skill covers and check the reply shows Loaded skill with its name. If it does not, sharpen the description.

Art direction

A UI icon style

Keeps every icon, button and HUD element on one style, whoever asks for it. Set it to When relevant and enable it in the whole workspace, or add it to the game's project if you ship more than one game. Attach two or three finished icons as assets so the agent can use them as style references.

---
name: ui-icon-style
description: Use when making game UI icons, buttons, badges or HUD elements for Ember Tactics.
---
## Format
- 512 x 512 PNG, transparent background, subject centred with 32 px padding.

## Style
- Thick dark outline (6 px at 512), flat cel shading with one highlight.
- Palette: the warm set in assets/palette.png. No pure black, no neon.
- Light comes from the top left.

## Readability
- Must read at 64 px: one clear silhouette, no fine detail, no text or numbers.
- Element icons use their colour: fire red-orange, frost pale blue, poison green.

## Reference
Pass assets/icon-sword.png and assets/icon-potion.png as style references.

A game's art bible

The visual rules of one game: shape language, palette, materials, era, lighting. Set it to Always and add it to that game's project, so every session in the project follows it without anyone asking. Keep the instructions to the rules that apply to every asset, and put the per-biome or per-faction detail in reference files.

---
name: ember-tactics-art-bible
description: Visual rules for every Ember Tactics asset.
---
- Stylised low-fantasy, hand-painted look. Not photoreal, not anime.
- Shapes: chunky and readable, exaggerated hands and weapons, large heads (1:4 head to body).
- Palette: warm earth tones, saturated accent per faction. Shadows lean purple, never grey.
- Materials read painted: no specular glare, no PBR chrome.
- Environments are lit by late-afternoon sun unless the brief says otherwise.
- For a biome or faction, read references/biomes.md or references/factions.md first.
- Never: modern objects, firearms, visible brand logos, gore.

A character on model

The details a model cannot see in pictures: which hand holds the sword, what must never change, what the character would never wear. Attach it to the character's reference set rather than to a project, so the agent loads it whenever the character appears, in any project, including when the agent picks the reference set itself.

---
name: kael-on-model
description: Use whenever Kael appears in an image, video or 3D asset.
---
- Kael is left-handed: the sword is always in his left hand.
- The red scarf is always visible. It is his silhouette.
- Scar over the right eye, three lines, vertical.
- Build: lean, not muscular. Never shirtless.
- Age reads 25 to 30. No beard, short stubble at most.
- Expressions: dry, confident. He does not grin with teeth.

Pixel art rules

Stops sprites coming back blurred or off the grid. Set it to When relevant and tick only Asset generation under Applies to, since it is about how images are made.

---
name: pixel-art-spec
description: Use when making pixel art sprites, tiles or animation frames.
---
- Characters on a 32 x 32 grid, tiles on 16 x 16. Deliver at 1x and 4x nearest-neighbour.
- 16-colour palette maximum, from assets/palette-16.png. No anti-aliasing, no gradients.
- 1 px dark outline on characters, none on tiles.
- Walk cycles are 6 frames, idle is 4.
- If a result is blurred or off-grid, say so and redo it rather than delivering it.

Production and pipeline

A sprite export spec

Turns "export the knight's frames" into files your engine accepts as they are: the right size, pivot and names. Set it to When relevant, or to Manual if you want people to run it on purpose with /sprite-export once art is approved.

---
name: sprite-export
description: Use when exporting, packing or naming sprite frames for the game build.
---
## Files
- PNG, transparent background, power-of-two canvas (128, 256 or 512).
- Pivot at bottom centre. Leave 4 px of empty space around the sprite.
- Name: chr_<character>_<action>_<frame two digits>.png, e.g. chr_knight_idle_01.png.

## Sheets
- Pack frames left to right, one row per action, in the order idle, walk, attack, hit, death.
- Max sheet size 2048 x 2048.

## Before you deliver
- List the files with their sizes, and flag any frame where the character is cut off.

3D asset budgets

Gives the agent the polygon budget, topology and format for each kind of asset, so a prop does not come back at hero-character density. Tick Asset generation and 3D scene builder.

---
name: 3d-asset-budget
description: Use when generating, remeshing, rigging or exporting 3D models for the game.
---
| Asset | Triangles | Textures |
| Hero character | 25k | 2048, PBR |
| NPC | 10k | 1024, PBR |
| Prop | 2k | 512, shared atlas |
- Quad topology for anything that will be rigged; triangles are fine for static props.
- Characters in A-pose, facing +Z, feet on the origin, 1 unit = 1 m.
- Deliver as GLB. Name: <type>_<name>_v<n>.glb.

Seamless materials for the engine

Material rules that suit your renderer: resolution, map set, naming, and no baked lighting. Set it to When relevant.

---
name: material-spec
description: Use when making tileable textures, terrain or materials for the engine.
---
- 2048 x 2048, must tile on both axes with no visible seam or repeating landmark.
- Flat, even lighting: no shadows or highlights baked into the base colour.
- Maps: _BaseColor, _Normal, _Roughness. Name: mat_<surface>_<variant>, e.g. mat_cobble_wet.
- Show a 3 x 3 tiled preview before delivering.

Spine rig conventions

The part split and naming your animators expect, so a character split for Spine imports into the existing rig template. Tick only Spine animation.

---
name: spine-rig-conventions
description: Use when splitting a character into parts or rigging it for Spine.
---
- Parts: head, torso, pelvis, upper_arm_L/R, forearm_L/R, hand_L/R, thigh_L/R, shin_L/R, foot_L/R.
- Left and right are the character's own, not the viewer's.
- Paint 10 px of overlap under every joint so rotations do not open a gap.
- Keep accessories (cape, scarf, weapon) as separate parts.

Marketing and user acquisition

Ad creative rules

The rules your UA team applies to every video and playable: the hook, safe zones, end card and formats. Set it to When relevant, tick Marketing video, UA expert and Playable generation, and add it to the marketing project.

---
name: ua-ad-rules
description: Use when making video ads, playable ads, ad concepts or store creatives.
---
- Show gameplay in the first 2 seconds. No logo-first intros.
- Deliver 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9. Keep text and the CTA out of the top and bottom 15% on 9:16.
- End card: logo, the CTA "Play free", store badges, 2 to 3 seconds.
- On-screen text: 6 words or fewer per card, sentence case.
- Never show gameplay that is not in the game.

Brand and content rules

The non-negotiables for anything public: tone, words to avoid, logo use, age rating. Set it to Always and enable it in the whole workspace, so it applies to every request, including ones nobody thought were brand work.

---
name: brand-guardrails
description: Brand, tone and content rules for anything that will be seen outside the studio.
---
- The game is rated 12+: no blood, no gore, no realistic weapons pointed at the camera.
- Logo: use assets/logo-light.png or assets/logo-dark.png only. Never recolour or stretch it.
- Tone: confident and warm. Never "epic", "insane" or "best game ever".
- Never imitate another game's characters, logo or UI.

Store listing assets

Screenshot and feature graphic specs for the app stores. A Manual skill suits it, run with /store-assets before a release, since it is a procedure rather than a style.

---
name: store-assets
description: Use when producing app store screenshots, feature graphics or store video.
---
1. Ask which stores and which locales.
2. Make 6 portrait screenshots per store, one feature per screenshot, with a caption of 5 words or fewer.
3. First screenshot: the core loop. Last: social or progression.
4. Make the Google Play feature graphic at 1024 x 500 with no text near the edges.
5. List every file with its store, locale and size.

Review and process

An art review checklist

Turns "review this batch" into the same critique every time, against your art bible. Set it to Manual and run /art-review with the batch attached or on the board.

---
name: art-review
description: Review a batch of assets against the studio's art bible.
---
For each asset, check and report pass or fail with one line of why:
1. Silhouette reads at thumbnail size.
2. Palette matches the art bible.
3. Light direction is top left.
4. On-model (if a character).
5. No artefacts: extra fingers, melted text, broken edges.
End with the assets to keep, and one concrete fix for each one to redo.

A client's rules, for outsourcing studios

When you produce for several clients, give each client a project and add that client's rules to it as a skill set to Always. Sessions in the project follow that client's spec, and nothing leaks into another client's work.

---
name: client-northwind-spec
description: Northwind Games delivery rules.
---
- Deliverables at 4096 on the long edge, PSD with named layers.
- File names: NW_<project code>_<asset>_<version>.
- Their characters never smile with teeth; their UI uses no outlines.
- Do not reuse anything from other projects as a reference.

Workflow conventions

House rules for workflows the agent builds on the canvas, so they look and behave like the ones your team builds. Tick only Workflow architect.

---
name: workflow-conventions
description: Use when building or editing a workflow.
---
- Name every node for what it does ("Upscale to 4K"), not by its type.
- Expose the prompt, the reference set and the output count as inputs; hard-code the rest.
- End image workflows with an upscale step.
- Keep new workflows private until someone on the team has run them.

Combine skills

Skills stack. A request picks up every skill in scope, so a well-organised workspace layers them:

Whole workspace: brand-guardrails (Always).
Each game's project: its art bible (Always) and its icon, export and material skills (When relevant).
Each main character's reference set: its on-model skill.
Run on demand from any chat: /art-review, /store-assets (Manual).

An artist in the Ember Tactics project who asks for "Kael holding a fire resistance badge" then gets the brand rules, the art bible, the icon style and Kael's model sheet, without writing any of it.

Let the agent write the first draft

You do not have to start from a blank page. Ask the agent in a session: "Write a skill from the icon rules we agreed in this chat" or "Update my sprite-export skill: we use 512 px now, not 256." It confirms the name and what it will change, saves the skill, and can add it to the current project. See Write a skill.