Empire City stylized 2D character key art and marketing illustrations

The five pieces include hero character key art, supporting character creatives, and environment-anchored marketing illustrations that drive the Empire City wishlist push. Each composition leads with the character read while the city skyline and themed environment carry scene context, so the ad still works at small store thumbnail sizes.

Crop versions for Steam capsule, store thumb, social square, and wide banner were planned from layout. Safe-area reservations let the same illustration ship across multiple ad surfaces without rebuilding the source art, which keeps the publisher's media buy moving fast.

Pipeline ran rough composition, color key, paint over, and detail finishing under Red Brix Wall review at each gate. Character reference came from the in-game art bible, and the Empire City skylines were treated as scene context rather than independent illustrations to keep the character read dominant. The handoff matched our standard game background design deliverables for layered re-light flexibility.

For multi-character compositions we batched assets so promo cycles could ship as a coordinated set rather than disconnected one-offs. We kept reusable character pose libraries and skyline plates in backlog to accelerate follow-up ad drops.

Stylized 2D with a casual palette and warm hero lighting that lifts the character silhouette against atmospheric city depth. Specular pops on costume detail and accent props carry visual weight without breaking the friendly read suited to the Empire City brand.

Composition rules stayed inside the Empire City saturation range so creatives sit cleanly next to in-game capture footage in the same store carousel. Lighting choices favored late-day warm setups so character detail holds shape under feed thumbnails and store carousel placement.