Alright. So, after spending two days thinking about the visual style I’m going to use in my game, I decided to ask for advice. Now, how should one approach the process of choosing a visual style for their game? At first I was going to make my game have a hand-painted style, with really low poly models. I ended up disliking the style. Then, I thought about going for a photorealistic style. I absolutely love eyecandy in games, so it would be fun to go for photorealism, BUT, the only problem I have with photorealism is that I’m not too good at creating photorealistic textures. The 3D models aren’t a problem. Also, 2D isn’t an option, as I’m making a 3D game. Also, the fantasy/imaginary style doesn’t fit my game too well either. So, if anyone could give some advice on picking the correct visual style for a game, it’d be appreciated.
Unless you are willing to spend a lot of money on assets and have the skills to make them all fit together, then I suggest you stick with your skill level. If you can’t do photo-realistic textures, then either buy them or pay someone to make them. But remember, you will need to keep all of your models realistic, including trees, grasses and buildings. I am trying to that, and trust me, it is difficult. 
Thank goodness for the asset store and my own growing skill with tools like Maya. It has taken me many many months to get where I feel good about my choice and even then, there are moments when I wish I was making a cartoony game.
I suffer from the same issue regarding artistic ability. My games look much better lately because 1) I have been using free and paid assets from the Asset Store and other sites and 2) I hired two artists that I contract out work to.
You can make a sharp looking game by doing the same. If possible try to reduce the graphics assets you need by simply recoloring them or eliminating stuff that is just fluff. That way you can focus on getting high quality art but less of it.
Thanks a lot for your answer :). I have actually been thinking about hiring someone to make the textures for me, or buying them somewhere, but I think it would be more ‘sensible’ (and cheaper) for me to actually learn how to make them, as I know a bit about the process already. And I agree 100% with what you said about foliage and buildings. Trees and bushes, in my opinion atleast, are very difficult to texture. The challenge with texturing buildings is to add enough detail everywhere, but not too much. (I always go over the top with detail). Also, the asset store is in fact an awesome utility for game creators, but for some reason I’ve never felt like using someone else’s assets in my game. Especially if they’re free. I don’t know why that is, I just feel like I’m exploiting other people’s work. Anyway, I might look into photorealism a bit more. Thanks again
Thanks for the reply. So, if I understood correctly, I should make different variations of art assets to reuse in different occasions? Also, I think I really should start using the Asset Store more. Being able to get your hands on complete assets to use in game or as a base for your own asset, is quite useful.
I have bought assets just to change them. You can change the texture and in some cases, the packs are modular which gives you a lot of variety. Be careful though…you get what you pay for. Read the reviews, check to make sure the reviewers are legit (look at what else they have reviews, are they active on the forums, do they give 5 stars to everyone). I still get burned when I really need something and I read reviews. They really need to fix those.
What can you create most easily? That’s the style that will enable you to finish the game. Until it’s finished, no one will see it, which makes the visual style irrelevant.
Gigi
I’ve had the good luck of working with some really talented artists who are great at creating distinctive visual styles. One technique they use a lot is using lots and lots of visual reference to help refine the feel and inspiration of the style as they create it.
One of the first steps they would use is to create a mood board, basically going online with google image search / pinterest and finding a lot of images from games, movies, painting, book covers, photography, etc that capture the feeling that they are looking for, and printing them out, cutting them up and posting them on a big sheet of foam core in their work area.
From there they they do a lot of sketching, and flesh those things out into bits of concept art. This is super helpful because the art drives the design, and the design drives the art. There’s a lot of back and forth where gameplay ideas will get inspired by things the artists do, or the artists will get inspired by something that comes up in a design session and find a way to visualize it amazingly.
Visual style was an important part of pre-production, but so was programmer art. Use whatever it takes to get it working, add the art in when it’s been refined enough to work.
It seems also that many games use a reduced/limited palette, perhaps with vector graphics, which still looks pretty good but doesn’t have a lot of tiny details that can be time consuming.
Adding to @DanSuperGP 's excellent post, another trick is to generate “Three Looks” - create three separate designs and discuss them. With three, you aren’t attached to anyone in particular, and it creates more opportunities to explore options. If one of them is not clearly better, then you start over with 3 more.
Gigi
My strong point is most likely the hand painted/cartoony style, but the only problem is, I don’t really feel like it fits my game too well. And as I’m trying to create a tense atmosphere, I just feel like hand painted textures/art wouldn’t really do the trick.
@DanSuperGP Thanks a lot for this! To be honest, using reference is something I’ve done very rarely. I think it’s about time I started using them all the time.
Yeah, we ALWAYS did this. My boss insisted on the rule of threes all the time.
Interesting idea, I will definitely keep this in mind. Comparing different styles has only come to my mind as comparing the looks of those styles, or how they could look. What I think I should also compare are the effects they have on the overall atmosphere.
It depends on how you visually “like,” seeing the game in your mind.
And how you want it to look.
And which style you like the most.
The visual style you see in your mind, and like for your game, is the one you should aim for.
Period! 
PS: Even if it takes you an entire year to recreate that visual style.
I say,…Go for it!
I did in fact think which style would suite my game the best at first, and photorealism/sci-fi is what I ended up with. I guess I’ll just try to learn the trickery of photorealism
Heard of Confirmation Bias? This thread reads like a script from a textbook. 
Gigi
Never heard that term before. You learn something new everyday.
Also, I’d like to thank everyone who’s replied/given advice, I appreciate it!
In a perfect world everyone would be able to create his game in the exact way he envisioned it. But in truth we are limited by budget/time/skills, and so we must do with what we have.
This can actually sometimes result in some really nice presentations for games that would otherwise look bland, for example take a look at how some Flash games used black/white solid colored graphics in a very artistic way, making a weakness into an advantage. Later we saw the success of games like Limbo that basically did exactly that ( Make use of limited graphical gamut in an artistic way ).
So basically, you must use what you have in a creative way to make it seem like a feature rather than limitation.
What type of game is it? If everyone is going a different way your game might stand out by going the other way
What style of art can you consistently create and obtain? If you have photorealistic mountains, cel-shaded trees, low-poly mobile characters, the odd sprite thrown in here and there, the game will look amateurish anyways. It’s much better for everything to be cel-shaded, or low-poly mobile, or whatever.