Tuck into the art direction doc for Double Fine's cosmic adventure, Headlander

If you've ever wanted to know what goes into defining and refining a game's art style, now you can thanks to the folks over at Double Fine. 

Lee Petty, a project lead and art director at the studio, has shared the full art direction design document for Double Fine's cosmic action title, Headlander. 

Petty served as Headlander's project lead, but you might also remember him as the art director behind Brutal Legend and Broken Age. 

Writing on Twitter, Petty says he shared the document to help others, primarily because "there aren't a lot of references out there."

Offering more context, the veteran dev explained he usually whips up a design doc to "help think through things," but that the important bits are the visuals themselves 

The full document is a comprehensive beast, and delves into everything from Headlander's world style and visual inspirations to its character design and concept development. 

It was created during the game's pre-production phase, and is a must-read for anyone interested in game design and development. 

"Headlander's visuals will create a polished, high fidelity experience, backed by strong stylistic choices and art direction. The look of the game will capture the imagination of science fiction and futurism from the late modernist era up through the late seventies," reads a summary. 

"Although the visuals will be inspired by a wide range of movies, artists and literature from the time, it will be put together in a way to make it both contemporary and uniquely our own. We look to the work of that era to inspire -- not to imitate." 

You can check out the complete doc over on Scribd, or if you'd rather download it, Petty has posted a Dropbox link on Twitter.