Pipe networks overlay: liquid and gas flows drawn as moving packets

About this game

Developer: Klei Entertainment · Publisher: Klei Entertainment · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Comic & cartoon · Screen type: City & Base Management

More Oxygen Not Included screens in the Gallery

What to study

Where the power and conveyor views isolate one system, this shot layers the base's pipework into a single flow diagram: liquid lines in yellow, gas lines in orange, and in both cases the contents are not a flat fill but a train of discrete circular packets, evenly spaced, so what is moving, and which way, is visible at a glance. The design problem crossings pose is solved typographically: wherever two networks intersect, a chunky white bridge piece interrupts both runs and carries a direction arrow, announcing 'these pass through each other, they do not connect'. The room behind is the same grey diagram backdrop as the other overlays. One honest caveat: in play, liquid and gas get separate overlays (Plumbing and Gas); the trailer composites them into one frame, and Klei's edit is the only place this combined view exists. Frame at about 0:39 in the Launch Trailer (Steam).

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

data-overlay map-overlay

Screen inventory

• yellow liquid pipes running horizontally, their contents shown as evenly spaced circular packets with olive centres
• orange gas pipes along the top and lower runs, contents shown as large black circles (top) and filled orange circles (lower)
• white bridge and shutoff pieces wherever networks cross, stamped with direction arrows so crossing lines never read as joining lines
• white vent/fixture stubs at the bottom left and centre, and teal packet dots just entering at the frame's bottom edge
• the same greyscaled electrolyzer room behind all three networks, machinery flattened to a grey diagram backdrop

Top 3 colors

#292828 21%#3a3836 20%#141414 19%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Klei Entertainment, Oxygen Not Included screenshot: Launch Trailer (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Klei Entertainment.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-20. verified 2026-10-20: frame extracted from the official Launch Trailer (Steam) and inspected visually at full resolution; overlay-style pipe networks confirmed settled and legible, a manual re-extraction at 39.6s (manual-plumbing-overlay-alt.png) shows the identical composition with only the flow packets advanced, ruling out a crossfade; the liquid+gas layering is a trailer composite (flagged in the study note), not a single in-game overlay

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-20); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.