Funny little example here: x.com
I saw this game kinda capitalizing on the fact that they are so similar to another common property’s style. So there’s definitely attention to be grabbed by “stealing another project’s thunder” so to speak (not something I’d do, but hey, all’s fair in love and gamedev I guess as everyone fights for the spotlight).
Honestly these days, it’s like every game has the same art style anyhow and it’s been this way for 20 years.
“Style” often times comes down to interesting shader tricks, which is kinda cool. Inventive lighting, ambient particles. Well set up light bakes. I’m pretty proud of the style I’ve been developing on my own project, I’ve always tried to go for a “Dr. Suess” type world rather than trying to emulate other games. Simple but whimsical and saturated.
(It was important to keep the detailing simple as the game is playable on small phone screens)
If you try to work off of 2d images you’re going to get frustrated. I find it a lot more rewarding to work with cool shader stuff and just play with it and see what’s possible. Go with what works and you’ll end up with a better style than kinda trying to make something that looks good in concept.
Concepting is good for exploring ideas and shapes and… well… concepts. Like would a dward with a mohawk and a kilt anda rocket pack look silly? What proportions of each would make this kinda work? What combination of steam punk and apparel look most natural and fit into the world? Those are the sort of things that concept art helps with most. And often times we worry about it looking fantastic rather than getting a lot of it out there so we get the most ideas to choose from to find a working style.
There are so many studios that burn piles of money on concept artists that just make really pretty images that serve no actual purpose towards developing the visual style of the game, or develop a style that isn’t attaiable or do not elevate anything.
If you can come up with some interesting blends and Fresnel’s and colors settings and such to punch your graphics up a bit that can go a lot further than a “style” innate to your concept art. I think one overdone element of prototyping visuals in gaming is to pay someone great at making 2d stuff when we’d get a lot more bang for our time if we spent more time trying to make a single sphere look really cool with some unique shader.
You COULD go down the rabbit hole of trying to get a unique style with post processing, but you’ll likely end up with overblown effects and looking like a lot of other indie games that rely heavily on these. Post processing is important, but you don’t want to overdue it or use it as a crutch for style.
There are some competencies that are important in terms of developing your characters. Does your main playable character have that “IT” factor? A competent color scheme? Just enough “Pop” that they stand out but not annoyingly so.
Are the enemies you fight nice and meaty and chunky so the normal maps and texture details have room to pop? This is often overlooked, and why space marines have always had huge shoulder pads and boots. It’s not just a “style” for styles sake, it’s a technical decision that makes all the visual elements shine.
Are the artists putting the particle effects where they can reasonably be implemented with gameplay systems?
I’ve worked at art houses and on a few teams and i’ve managed my own artists for my current project and what i’ve learned is good concept art means next to nothing. For a “catfish” in my game I remember box selecting a cute cat head I think from puss in boots and pasting that square onto a 3d version of the firefox logo and asked a really good 3d artist to make it a “catfish” and they had it done up in a matter of an hour. It really comes down to core ability to create the assets, and when you have those you generally know how to tweak and tune things to make them your own.
To the point of this post… I guess you could steal 1 for 1 from other games… but why would you? If you have artists or the skills to capture the essence of other animations and visual styles? Why wouldn’t you indulge your own creative vision and put your own little spin on things?
I wouldn’t’ be able to go through the slog of just copying and redoing what’s been done already, and there’s so much room to try cool new things.
I’d say think about what’s unique your game and characters and what makes it unique and think about how you can emphasize those in animations or style or whatever. If the character has a unique nap sack or if they have a cool beard or skirt or whatever. Make it visually unique, then once it’s unique there, how does a unique animation come from that. It all kinda unfolds from itself.
TLDR I’d suggest try coming at this from a more technical angle. Where can you add a neat new particle effect? Or devise some nifty shader or animation mechanic that would breathe new style and life into your art! There are so many interesting technical areas of visuals that haven’t been explored.
Path of Exile 2 comes to mind of a game that’s doing some really interesting visual and animation changes that go a long way to creating a unique visual style. And there’s really nothing unique about their undead skeletons and bears and all that jazz.
P.S. yeah it’s kind of a sh*tty time on these forums. I’m hoping things get better after Unite. If there’s some cool announcements or even just a vibe shift, hopefully that can help turn things around here.
