How Art and Animation drive results at Truelab

“We create worlds you want to play in.”

Game development is a highly structured process where inspiration meets precise planning. Our role as artists and animators at TrueLab is not just to create, but to solve concrete business tasks through visual aesthetics. We transform ideas into commercially successful products tailored to our target audience.

The process always begins with a design document (GDD) and selected PO references. This serves both as our foundation and as a technical brief. It defines not only the theme and its relevance, but also the math model, which directly affects our work: from the number of symbols on the grid to the requirements for their animation.

Concept: Where Art Meets Analytics

Concept art is the stage where we search for and establish the visual language of the future game. Its purpose is not to create a gallery masterpiece, but to find the optimal visual solution that meets several criteria:

• fit the theme,
• be technically feasible,
• carry commercial potential,
• and stand out in the market.

We work quickly and efficiently, producing several stylistic options (quick sketches, color palettes) that clearly demonstrate the direction. The key task at this stage is to lock in the idea and get approval from the whole team so we can move forward.

The Production Process

Moodboard Visualization of the brief. A shared board where we, along with POs and fellow artists, collect references that accurately reflect the desired mood, color, style, and technical features. This ensures we start working in the right direction from the beginning.

Concept of the future game. (sketches, quick drafts) At this stage, the main goal is to visualize the game’s look. High-resolution polish is less important than capturing the idea with its color profile.

Rendering Content production. Approved sketches become the action plan. We then create the final assets in high resolution. Here, precision, consistency with style, and adherence to technical requirements come first. Every element is not only part of the gameplay but also a potential marketing material. Efficiency and reusability of successful solutions are just as important as creativity.

Animation. This is not just “bringing to life,” it’s a crucial part of gameplay and engagement. We animate not for beauty alone, but to clarify player actions, enhance the thrill of a win, and guide attention. Each animation is calculated in terms of timing and final impact on the user.

Integration Team collaboration. Our job doesn’t end with a picture. We carefully prepare and deliver assets to sound designers and developers in a format that can be imported into the project quickly and without errors. This directly affects the game’s assembly speed.

The Secret to Creating a Truly Successful Game

The secret behind visually stunning and successful games lies in the synergy of three factors:

• Understanding the audience We don’t create for ourselves. We create products for a specific user whose preferences and habits we know well thanks to analytics.
• Clear planning Beauty is born from a clear brief, deadlines, and prioritization. We know where a unique accent is needed and where proven templates can be used to save resources.
• Team professionalism The ability to combine creative vision with technical constraints and business requirements is what sets apart an artist in this industry. Our strength lies in producing quality work quickly within the given task.

Final Thoughts

At TrueLab, we don’t just create a product — we create art. We craft high-quality games where every line and every frame of animation contributes to overall success. And that is our true creative mission.

By Maria Akishina, 2D Artist/Spine Animator at TrueLab