A six-asset acceptance test for AI game art generators

A six-asset acceptance test is proposed to evaluate AI game art generators, beyond just producing polished character images. The test evaluates various aspects, including characters, props, UI, maps, visual effects, and tilesets.

For the character test, the AI generator should create a full-body character with a distinct silhouette, identifiable equipment, and a fixed facing direction. The head, hands, feet, and equipment must stay within the frame, with enough space for animation. The feet should share a consistent baseline, and the second generation should retain the identity-defining details. An attractive portrait may fail if crucial details are cropped.

The prop and icon test requires generating the same object twice, once as a world prop and once as an inventory icon. The prop needs a believable viewing angle, footprint, and consistent silhouette. The icon should have a clear silhouette, controlled contrast, enough padding to fit in a 32px or 64px UI slot, and survive zooming. Judging the icon based solely on full-screen zoom is insufficient.

The UI test evaluates whether the generated artwork can be used as an interface component. A panel, button set, or HUD frame should be generated, tested with real labels and states, and checked for text space, nine-slice safety, pressed and disabled states, contrast, and localization issues. A decorative mockup is not automatically reusable as a UI component.

The map test involves specifying the camera model (top-down, isometric, side-view, etc.) and distinguishing walkable ground from decoration. The generated map may serve as a background or layout reference but does not automatically contain collision, navigation, layers, or editable tiles.

The visual effects (VFX) test requires inspecting the onset, growth, peak, and dissipation of impacts, auras, projectiles, or spells. The effect should stay centered on a stable pivot, with alpha or chroma-key extraction not erasing the effect itself. One dramatic frame cannot prove that the sequence will animate smoothly.

Finally, the tileset test checks adjacency, corners, transitions, repeat frequency, and visible seams. After generating the tileset, it should be imported into the target engine, with tile IDs and collision rules assigned. Even if the tiles look good individually, they may fail when repeated across a large map. A shared art contract covering style, palette, camera, scale, background, transparency, and technical output should be maintained across all six tests, with only asset-specific fields changed. This approach simplifies failure diagnosis and maintains project coherence.