Prepare your launcher art

Your launcher's hero is built from layers. When a player moves the mouse, the layers shift by different amounts and the scene gains depth, and an ambient effect (embers, rain, lanterns and more) plays on top. This page explains what to make, at what size, and how to keep the result readable in every preset. You upload it all in the launcher builder, on the Hero and games tab.

To see a finished set first, download one of the sample kits, open it beside this page and compare.

What you can upload#

Each image can be up to 5 MB. WebP at quality 80 keeps a 2560 px layer well under that. The icon and installer files go on the Installer tab; see Installer and launcher builds.

The four hero layers#

Think of a stage set, back to front:

1. Sky: the far background. Sky, distant mountains or skyline. Opaque, and it fills the frame.
2. Middle: the main scenery: the castle, the islands, the city. Transparent where the sky shows through.
3. Subject: your hero, ship or vehicle. Transparent everywhere else.
4. Front: framing pieces close to the camera: rocks, railings, foliage, blurred lanterns at the edges. Transparent in the middle.

Only the sky is required. One opaque image works too; it simply does not move in depth. Two layers (sky and subject) already give a strong effect.

The launcher moves the layers a few pixels each way, so every layer is drawn slightly larger than the window. Keep important detail at least 3% away from every edge. Parallax sets how far they move: Off, Subtle or Strong.

Launchers that have not updated yet show the sky layer as a flat background, so make sure the sky looks good on its own.

Where to put things#

The hero text (game title, tagline and the play button) sits at the bottom left, over a dark scrim that keeps it readable on any art. Each preset also covers part of the art with panels:

Rules that work in all three:

• Keep the left 45% calm and darker: low detail, no faces, no bright highlights.
• Put the horizon at about 60% of the height.
• Keep the subject's head and key details in the middle half of the height: the Default hero is a wide band and trims the top and bottom of a 16:9 image.
• No text, logos or interface in the art. The launcher draws the title in your fonts.

Paint the subject where it suits Default, then use Subject placement in the builder (Across, Up and down and Size) to move it for the other presets. Placement is kept per preset, because each one covers a different part of the art; the sample kits move the subject left for Nova and Vanguard, away from the news panel.

A hero video#

The hero can play a short, muted loop as its back layer, under the middle, subject and front layers, with the same scrim and effect. Upload it under Video (optional), below the layers, for the studio hero or a game's own hero.

• Formats: MP4 (H.264) or WebM (VP9), up to your plan's video limit (see the launcher designer). Keep it short and seamless: 6 to 12 seconds that loop without a jump.
• The poster is the still shown whenever the video doesn't play: with reduced motion, while the window is hidden, and while a game runs. It starts as your sky layer; upload one that matches the video's first frame. While a video is set, the poster takes the sky layer's place.
• Keep the sky: the sky layer stays required. Looks that draw a flat background, and launchers before 0.6.0, show the sky.
• It never plays sound.

Art for each game#

Under Games, each game can have a Cover and, optionally, its own hero with the same four layers. A game without its own hero shows the studio hero, so a launcher with one flagship needs only one set of layers and a cover per game. Covers are cropped to a square in the library, so keep the subject in the centre.

Ambient effects#

Pick one effect per hero and an intensity (Subtle, Normal or Rich). Effects are drawn by the launcher, not baked into your art, so they stay sharp at any window size:

Choose the effect that already belongs in your scene: embers for a fire-lit fantasy, rain for a neon city, lanterns for a calm dusk. Do not paint the same effect into your layers.

Movement stops for players whose system asks for reduced motion, and for players who set Motion to Reduced in the launcher's Settings. Effects also pause while a game is running and while the launcher window is hidden.

Making layers with an image generator#

Image generators cannot split a picture into layers by themselves, but they can repaint one when asked. Work in one chat, so the style stays the same:

1. Generate the master: the full scene, 16:9, following the composition rules above.
2. Ask for each layer from that image, for example: "From this exact image, give me only the sky: remove everything in front of it and continue the sky where it was hidden."
3. For the layers above the sky, ask for a transparent background. If your tool cannot export transparency, ask for a flat pure green background (#00FF00) and remove it in an image editor.
4. Check that the layers line up by stacking them over the master. Small drift is fine; the movement hides it.

The prompts used for the sample kits are in each kit's PROMPTS.md: copy them and change the subject. Draw logos as vector art rather than generating them; image generators are weak at clean marks.

Checklist#

• The sky fills the frame with no transparent pixels.
• Middle, subject and front have clean transparent edges, with no green fringe.
• The left 45% is calm, and the subject sits where your preset leaves room.
• There is no text or logo in the hero art.
• Covers are centred, so a square crop still works.
• The logo reads at 16 px (zoom out to check).
• The installer bitmaps are exactly 164 × 314 and 150 × 57, saved as 24-bit BMP.

Sample kits#

For apps that aren't games, four kits come with a filled-in designer template (layout.json):

Each kit, about 1 MB, holds the hero layers, game covers, logo, icons and installer art, the theme colours, fonts and section order (theme.json), the studio's games and news (content.json), and the prompts used. A README.md inside says which builder setting each file goes to.

The studios and games are fictional. Use the kits as a reference, or as placeholders while you try the builder, not as your own brand.

You can also import a kit as it is: in the launcher designer, choose Import & export, then Import kit (.zip). Its layout (or, for the game kits, the template its preset names) and art are uploaded to your studio, and its colours, fonts and corners can come too. See Import and export.