It’s important that a game clearly communicates its pitch, both through visual style and through layout and design.

As a game designer, you won’t always have full control over visuals. However, you can guide the visuals by creating mood boards, purchasing limited amounts of concept art, and choosing fonts and icons for your prototype that communicate the kind of game that you’re trying to make.

When you choose to use a lot of text or to use simple icons to convey what cards do, that means something to the people looking at the game. Understand that a text-heavy game feels heavy, and that an icon-focused game feels light, and lean into that. It’s most important to be honest about the weight of your game, so that people understand what experience it’s going to deliver in advance.