How many visual targets should be developed? How closely should they be followed? That's up to the EAD to decide, but the common factor should be enough targets to get the idea clearly across.

They use their sensibilities and regularly observe how progress is going. If changes are called for at a point in the cycle, an EAD quickly takes the new concepts and creates a new visual target(s) to re-focus the team's efforts.

As a group of visual targets are finished, they should be collected into some form of cohesive format, whether it's a style guide, art bible, or organized directory structure of paint-overs, renders, or animations to which everyone can easily refer.

When the trade-offs and limitations of game development rear their ugly heads, the visual targets are used to help prioritize goals, focus resources and create a common starting point for discussions among all the cross-functions.

Games are getting more expensive and complicated to create and the risks are high. Mitigating a lot of that comes through experienced planning around a concise goal, and the visual target is an EAD's weapon of choice.

One of many concepts generated by an EAD and concept team based on ideas during early pre-production.

The game engine is used in this case by the EAD/team during pre-production to evolve the original concept into a visual target by which quality will be measured throughout all areas during the production cycle.

When issues or discussions occur around visuals, the target is used to bring focus and clarity to creative iteration.

Months later, in-game progress shows that while many elements of the original target have changed, its esessence and cohesiveness has remained the same.

Because the development and publishing teams could see the visual target and understand quality vs. trade-offs and risks, more focused support could be placed in the right areas to make sure the rest of the game gets the same level of polish with little randomization to the product.

The aesthetic and graphical quality the EAD wanted from the original target has not only been maintained but surpassed.