I’m nearing the end of my deadline for my one game a month challenge in January and I’m starting to think about the artwork I’m going to plug in.
Because I am at the mercy of the Asset Store and other art sources I’m having a hard time finding enough artwork that meets the needs of my project and has a consistent style.
The game is similar to a MOBA as far as gameplay except it is a single player versus bots(not very good ones at that). I’ve found great looking artwork for the creeps and the player and bots but they are photo-realistic.
For the base and towers and barracks I’ve found art assets that I like as well, however they are hand painted and a tad cartoony. Has anyone ever mixed the two and if so with what results?
Finally the map itself needs props among other things and I haven’t found enough hand painted props that I like to go that route, so the only thing hand painted would be the structures.
I’m looking for someone that’s been through this ideally, or an artist that can lean me one way.
I would suggest you just choose your elements based on clarity and that accurately communicate their role/purpose , or at the very least, don’t confuse the player. For what you are doing the the art style is pretty much irrelevant. As long as it as player can understand the the visuals, anything will work.
that’s what I’m hoping. I’m just concerned that the mix will be jarring. I guess it can’t look worse than spheres attacking capsules on a green untextured plane.
Personally,i would never mix styles in games, ever. This is a challenge? if so, i dont think u need to worry. If it was a commercial release then mixing styles is a huge nono in terms of making it cohesive unless the game has a reason to look that way.
Im an artist myself btw, just so u now why im talking about art in the first place. Im just saying what works for me, other people might find it perfectly fine.
I’d rely on what zombie mentiones, clarity. If its a challenge u dont have to worry about anything other than that, the art isnt the sellingpoint in that game then, the design is.
It was a short sided question anyway. I grabbed the asset and switched the shader which eliminated most of the issue with the texture style. Like you guys say, the art isn’t the point of the challenge anyway.
On that note, it gets really frustrating as a programmer to note how big a difference artwork makes in how a game is seen. Not with this community alone, with myself even. Yesterday’s work consisted of 2 hours of coding and a few hours of integrating asset store artwork and the game went from “ehh” to, “pretty cool”.
Behind the “ehh” was hours and hours of work to get it to a playable state and some really tough brainwork to get the (mediocre) AI to function well enough to make the gameplay work. Then I throw a few models in an synch up some animations and suddenly the project is way more interesting.
I can model and rig myself and I know how labor intensive it is so I’m not making light of that work. It just seems that if you divide game construction into three camps(coding/design/art) the camp I represent is less impactful than the other two.
Not sour grapes, just something I’m coming to terms with.
As anecdotal evidence, witness tech demos with crap art but interesting play dynamics versus a post with 3 or 4 pieces of concept art. Even I gravitate towards the concept art post.
The artwork has the longest-term value in games, especially characters. For example, Mario was so appealing Nintendo could put him in dozens of games with completely different code, design and stories.
Almost all of the progress in games over the past 30+ years has been in the artwork. Example:
Those are essentially the exact same game. I could post post hundreds of similar comparisons.
The artwork is also the only thing that can generate side income. T-shirts, books, cartoons, etc. You can’t do that with any other part of the game.
Hiring a talented artist is the best long-term investment you can make. And fortunately for the game industry, both large and small developers, most of these artists don’t realize that they are creating most of the long-term value in games so you can hire them for about the same price as a plumber, electrician, or other skilled tradesman.
You understand my point exactly.(and developed it further) The actual code construction is like being a “roady” for a rock band. If your set up isn’t good there’s no show, but if you do everything well your work is invisible.
I get the inter-mix of good code and good art as a multiplier but one of the things I’ve learned from doing these 1 month challenges is the value of art to the overall health of the game.
To be fair to programmers there are some areas where good code makes the game, AI specifically has a really direct relationship with the value of the game. But even that can be turned into a good tool and handed off to a designer.
