Monday 25 November 2013

Excluded Art in Games

 
 

This is a single example of not included art for a game I'm working on. Here you can see the process from sketching to the final game-object . This happens often at the initial stage as you're tying to work out appropriate graphics for your game.
There are several ways of avoiding this problem, I find it useful to stay focused on the idea of the game- all components should communicate in the same way. For example: a game focused on simplicity, would have minimalist music, simple graphics, straight forward mechanics and so on, unless it's done otherwise for an effect. Another way dealing with this problem is to think of level of abstraction, how real or abstract the game will be; level of abstraction ranges from hyper-realistic graphics to stick-man to symbols(words,signs) which have to be explained. The more realistic graphics are the more player is likely to admire the art, whereas with simple graphics player can associate and become that game-character (if appropriate), again if images are too abstract they can become hard to relate.The choice should be appropriate, as in some games it is important to become the main character, other games can be focused on something else such as: world, interaction and so on; or even emit the character all together.

Either way the process of working on the art, even if it will not be in the final game, will always help to further develop the idea, and if the art is not too different it can be included as an Easter egg, of course if the art is completely different to the final visuals, it can be added to the portfolio.