When thinking about the game, many people consider such things as its plot or gameplay features to determine whether they will like it. However, the game is a more complex thing full of many small details, and its visual appearance created by a game production studio is one of those things.
image credit: Stray
Depending on how the game will look when released, it can both attract us or repel us. The way we perceive the visuals leads us to an overall rating we can assign to the game, based on the preferences and styles we like, or how art and production were performed in the game.
The more professionally it was made, and the more harmonically it reveals the spirit of the game the more enthusiastic reviews and numbers of fans there will be. That’s why game art and video production are crucial in the gaming industry.
Game Art: Common Styles You May Find
When it comes to game art there are three of the most popular styles, which include different subgenres. Each has its specifics and typical ways to create characters, environment, various items, etc.
When developing the game, the key is determining possible genres it may relate to and the target audience. Based on such information, game artists select different styles to decide which would be the most suitable for that specific game to match its purpose, plot, ambiance, and audience.
The most common styles in game art are:
- Casual
- Realism
- Stylization
Casual
Casual is one of the basic and popular styles in the modern gaming industry. It may vary depending on the artist’s skills and preferences, however, a common thing is a cartoon-like style. For such a style 2D and 3D graphics are prevalent.
Typically casual styles are highly used in mobile, web, or indie games. The way how such art may look generally is based on the audience for whom the game is developing.
- Games for children: Casual cartoon-like art is the best option for kids, as characters and environments made in this style attract attention and are usually easily remembered by children.
- Games for girls/boys: It is a more stereotypical thing, however, when the goal is to create the game for a determined audience of people, artists may use a specific palette of colors and styles to draw attention.
- Casual games: The benefit of casual is that such a style can be easily implemented for almost every genre, whether it be an adventure, strategy, or post-apocalyptic game because casual features have many ways to be used.
Realism
Realism is one of the hardest, as it requires some skills and experience to be well performed. It typically has realistic graphics with high detail, natural proportions, and fewer stylistic changes. Unity, Unreal, or any other powerful engines are used for games where realism is a thing.
This style is popular with AAA games, where the visual appearance plays the same role as the game’s plot and gameplay.
Also, realism as a style is often related to such subgenres as:
- Modern: Games with realistic visuals where the plot describes our modernity. With such, characters and environments can be photorealistic or close to reality.
- Historical: Such games are made in a specific setting, where the lore is based on some historical events that can be real or fiction. Thus, visuals are here to represent the ambiance and typical images of that time.
- Fantasy: Fantasy style in art is something like a combination of both casual and realism. In such a style characters and environments may have a realistic appearance with natural proportions but with some fantasy details.
- Dark: It is similar to modern, however, this style relates to post-apocalyptic or gothic visuals to represent a specific ambiance.
Stylization
Stylization includes different styles an artist can use. Typically it is an attempt to stylize the game to some genres that can be found in cinematography, art, magazines, etc.
Some of the popular visual conceptions in game art are:
- Comics and manga: These styles are widely used in modern online and mobile games (Genshin Impact, Valorant, etc). Typically these are combinations of fantasy, casual, and realism.
- Pixel art: Pixel art was common back in the days of the start of gaming, but today with the growing popularity of retro this style has become popular in commercial games, indie, NFTs, etc.
- Low-poly: It is a stylization art with low-poly models that have a smaller number of polygons. With such, characters can be created from many parts like triangles.
- Indie: It is about an artist’s experiments and individual vision in art, that’s why such kind of stylization is mainly used in indie and non-commercial games.
The Perfect Duet: Game Art & Video Production
Alongside game art and its styles, video production is the key to developing an amazing game by providing it with a unique appearance, effects, and spirit.
Depending on the game’s genre and lore, devs and artist teams can use different styles and features to make the game look both pleasing and memorable. Also, it is crucial to ensure each of the game’s details is perfectly combined, which means the story, environment, effects, and lights should accomplish each other thus transforming the game into a wholly unique world that lives on its own and where the player can not only interact but also observe it.
Video production enhances game art by making it more lively and interesting, and also shapes the appearance and perception of the game.
Besides that, in the last stage of game development, video production is probably one of the main things. Based on how the game looks, how the lore is shown in the trailer, and what image, feeling, and emotion it raises, the game can be drawn with much attention and be successful, or be ignored.
That’s why not only are the story, gameplay features, or any other technical details crucial, but a harmonical combination between all of the parts alongside art and video production can make the game interesting and remarkable for the audience.
You can learn even more about how art and production works in the gaming industry at: https://wallawallastudio.com/