Design Land: Video Game Art Style - Extra Credits

Hey, Zoe, I'm home. My painting class went really well today. Though I'm not sure my teacher was fully on board with my expressionist take on PS1's Jumping Flash, but you know, win some, lose some. Oh, more mail. Hey, this is a pretty envelope. Oh, it's another letter from Design Land. Dearest Matthew, I hope this finds you in good spirits and good health. We have at last crossed the high concept cliffs and have broken out into the concept art arroyo. The footing here is treacherous. It's easy to go astray and worse still, a wrong turn in this place might mean months of redone work down the line. So here, while I take a moment to rest, I've decided to jot down some notes that have helped me along my journey. Thanks so much to Brilliant for continuing to support our passion for lifelong learning. I am writing you this largely for people who are going to be in charge of setting the art style for their games, whether they be giant AAA titles or tiny solo indie projects. But it is my hope that it will be of some use to artists and others that have to work on the style as

well. So first off, to not get swept away in the terrifying flood that is choosing an art style when all you have in front of you is a blank page, let's start by talking about what finding an art style means. Because you'd be surprised how many games, even big ones, go about choosing an art style simply by making some concept art and picking a direction solely based on that. So to keep it simple, I'm going to say that an art style for a game is anything that makes the game instantly recognizable in a screenshot. Something that separates it out from most other games, which leads us to the first major pitfall in finding your art style, emulating other games. Now, looking at other games is great for UX/UI work, even for design, but when it comes to art style, if you say like BioShock or like Cuphead, you're just going to make a knockoff version of something that's already out there, which is exactly the thing you don't want to do. The reason Cuphead or BioShock stand out is because they looked outside the realm of games for inspiration. The first to the old rubber hose animation style of the '20s and the second to Art Deco. Now, once you have

an idea of the style you want, the next step is to find reference images. Instagram, Art Station, Pinterest, and Google Images are all great places to look. And once you've gathered as many as you can, this next part is very important. So, please take heed as there are bones in these riverbeds because some designers skipped the next bit. When you share your reference images with your art team, be sure to ask them to send you back images from the internet that they think fit the style because this is the quickest way to make sure you're all on the same page. I've seen projects literally spend a month of time and hundreds of thousands of dollars because the art team thought it understood what the creative director wanted and so just went off and started making concept art without anyone actually checking in and making sure that everyone was thinking the same thing. Now, once you and your team are in alignment, then it's time to figure out how your art style fits into all aspects of the game art. Pallet, line work, rendering, shading, animation, etc. Of course, you might not be able to hit every bit, but definitely go past the surface because a great art style

isn't just a vague way things are drawn after all. The more aspects of your work you can make feel like your style, the more holistic it will seem, the more like a true style. Because let me tell you, it's been more than once where I've worked with a company and asked, "What's your art style?" and gotten the answer, no joke, "Big heads." Spoiler alert, big heads is not an art style. MODOK is not an art style. Of course, it can be part of an art style, but without understanding all of the other pieces of your art and what you're trying to convey emotionally with that style, you're just going to be left with a hollow core. So, ask yourself, is your game grim and lonely? Is your game cartoonish and about exuberant joy? Is your game trying to express the cold decadence of objectivism? Whatever it is, make sure that all of the pieces of your art style help to convey that and further help your players to immerse themselves in that feeling. Once you have that, you also need to make sure that your art style is something that you can deliver on technically. After all, if your art style requires something that your shader system can do, then you're not going to have a good time. You also need to make sure it

conveys all of the information you need. Does the style give you ways to do things like put team colors on every character and still make it look good? How does it read with accessibility modes? Also, once you've got all that dialed in, definitely run a test to make sure your artists won't have to work themselves to death to produce enough art in that style to get your game done on time. And remember to also play to the strengths of your team. Know your artists. Know what they like and what they're good at. If you don't know, ask them. Because not every team is going to be able to execute every art style well, and their opinions might point you towards styles or artists that you didn't know about that might better fit the vision in your head. Schedule time for them to do burn downs, which are quick sketches in different styles of how they think the art might look in the game. For instance, if you're making a first-person game, have the art done in a first-person perspective. Then, play test that style. Go show it to people. If you're NDA'd, make sure that plenty of people in the studio have seen it. And if you're not, show it to as many people outside the studio as you can get your hands on. You don't have to tell them what it's for, you just have to ask them what they like best. From here, it

should be easy to have your artists give you a bunch of pallet swaps, where they just quickly recolor things. Here, like everywhere else, don't worry about being wrong. Try all the things. Heck, do you think using only purple, green, and magenta is going to look hideous? Well, 95% chance you're right, but these types of swaps are so quick to do. In fact, in Photoshop, you can kind of just do them in real time, that it's worth taking a few hours to make sure that you're not missing anything brilliant. Then finally, once you've nailed the style and the pallet, take a single piece of art in your game to completion, to a level that you would find acceptable to ship. Why? Because you have to know how long doing so takes. You might have found a genius pointillism art style, but if it's never going to let you make enough content to ship your game on time, then it's back to the drawing board, literally. Hopefully, some of that helps you cross the dry gulch of the concept art arroyo, make your way into more fertile territory, and discover the beautiful game you want to make. Design boldly, James Portnow. Dang, he's already at the concept art arroyo. Time flies when you're designing and fun.

And actually, if you'd like a crash course on how to design a fun and effective learning experience, you've got to check out what our good friends over at Brilliant are doing. As you know, many of us in the EC community are super passionate lifelong learners who are curious about a bunch of topics, but also want to learn about them on our own schedule, which is why we think Brilliant, the interactive learning environment focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, you know, the whole STEM set, is perfect for learning at your own pace in a fun and interactive way, replacing traditional lectures with hands-on lessons complete with visual examples and a storytelling approach that's super effective. Since it's almost time for summer break, Jeff's been recommending Brilliant's Programming with Python course to a lot of up-and-coming game devs because it's a quick and easy way to prime yourself for all kinds of game development. And spoiler alert, we're actually working on an EC script about how the human mind interacts with probability while playing games. So, I recently devoured Brilliant's Perplexing Probability course like a hungry goat behind the door in the infamous Monty Hall problem. Not a bad way to buff your brain, if you ask me. So, if you're a curious learner

just starting out or a seasoned pro, you can check out Brilliant to level up your learning by going to brilliant.org/extracredits and signing up for free. And the first 200 people that go to that link will also get 20% off an annual premium subscription, which, added bonus, really helps our channel make shows like the one you just watched. Thanks again for that. Thank you so much to Joseph Blain, Dominic Valenciana, Casey Miucha, Arclight Games, Angela Valenciana, Alicia Bramble, and Ahmed Ziad Turk for being fantastic legendary patrons. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!