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Let’s Talk About Art and Graphic Design in Games
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- Michael Barnes
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Games are a visual medium and the way they look is important. Illustrations and graphic design can convey setting, atmosphere, narrative and even meaning.
Mushroom Eaters remains one of the most stunning visual gaming experiences I’ve ever had. It really is art as a game.
Root has the best game art of 2018. As we speak, Game illustrators around the world are ripping it off. It is going to change the trend of game illustration.
Villainous is the best looking mainstream, licensed game I’ve ever seen. It’s so well done- thoughtful and immersive and it also feels like a fresh take on the settings and characters.
I still love Risk: Black Ops but it’s style isn’t as shocking and revolutionary now as it was on 2008.
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- Space Ghost
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EDIT: DAMNIT, not a double post! I am much too lazy to retype everything. Short story: I wish I understood more about the technical aspects of art.
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- SuperflyPete
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Josh Look wrote:
SuperflyTNT wrote: “You aren’t allowed to discuss art in games because it hurts someone’s feelings” isn’t a reasonable expectation. The magic is to be objective and civil.
The self-awareness of my hyperbole didn’t really come across, but whatever. Besides, it was less about my feelings and more about saying something I shouldn’t and hurting other people’s feelings.
Or maybe I’m just making this up in an effort to bring back Friday Freakout?
If I didn’t know you personally I might surmise that, but the reality is that you’re a good man who cares deeply about people and how they’re treated. I know why you get triggered when people go off about art, but I think your personality and ability to clearly elucidate fact would be best used in educating people on WHY shit is like it is rather than lashing out and getting angry.
Yes, I am a black as fuck pot calling your kettle black, but we’re both the same in one regard - we care about people. I’m just a much larger cunt when I get triggered. But I’m working on it. The 2008 Pete isn’t the same 2018 Pete.
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DarthJoJo wrote: Is there good art in games? Is Modern Art ruined by good art? Do we actually mean design when we say art? Were the Legendary licenses so expensive that high schoolers were put in charge of art and design? Do gamers even know good art?
Which artists and designers are overrated? Underrated? Properly rated?
Please, share.
There is artistry in games. It's silly to think otherwise. I think you have to have the right mind set to appreciate it. Just like the beauty of a motorcycle or a custom car may be lost on those that are not interested in such things, so to in gaming.
The map/board in Path's of Glory is beautiful. The recent game of Western Legends is great looking. Fury of Dracula (2nd ed) is great as well. When you couple functionality with a pleasing look you are creating art.
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hotseatgames wrote: Forgive me, I'm not going to look up names, as I'm a few glasses of wine into my Friday night. Some artists I like, and I'm not commenting on the games at all:
1. Guy who did the art for CMON Godfather
2. Artist for Wasteland Express
1. Karl Kopinski. I have loved his art since he was first doing art in Inferno/Warhammer Monthly. That dude just has such a good grasp of anatomy and motion. He has a series of sketchbooks that are worth tracking down. His color work is good, but there is just something about his b/w art that does it for me.
2. Riccardo Burchielli. He did a comic with Ashley Wood for Vertigo called DMZ that wasn't quite as bugged-out as Wasteland, but still really good with his antsy, frenetic style.
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- Sagrilarus
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repoman wrote: Just like the beauty of a motorcycle or a custom car may be lost on those that are not interested in such things,
The curve of the hood line on the new Camaro is gorgeous.
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- Michael Barnes
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- Erik Twice
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I don't know how to explain it well, but I hope the point gets across.
Not Modern Art, but I do remember thinking that the new, actually great art of High Society actually goes against the theme of the game by portraying that society as being tolerant and diverse. The new edition has a black woman on the cover, one of the very few games to do so, cards bend gender roles (eg. Men with perfume) and there's a transexual-looking person on one of the cards. This would be nice in any other game, but here it seems to portray High Society as something good and tolerant, which is very much not the idea behind the game.DarthJoJo wrote: Is Modern Art ruined by good art?
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Although perfume for a male isn't so weird, is it? Especially not in quasi frenchy belle epoque fantasy land.
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If you find a solid partner for concept art, it can influence the game design itself — especially if the art is reflective of mechanisms, characters, or primary entities in the game. A good concept artist can expose a designer’s biases and a design’s structural limitations as swiftly and easily as holding ones art work up to a mirror can’t expose all its flaws and imperfections.
Locking the concept art is an equally magical time, because that’s when the myriad possibilities of expression are eliminated in favor of one. That one lock on form, style, color palate, color temperature, texture, etc. will define the bounds of the final art.
In my opinion, game designers should begin interacting with conceptual artists when they begin to interact with play testers.
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xthexlo wrote: There is a lot that goes on between game concept-concept art-concept lock-final art. In my opinion, it is in the middle two of these four activities where magic happens (if it happens).
If you find a solid partner for concept art, it can influence the game design itself — especially if the art is reflective of mechanisms, characters, or primary entities in the game. A good concept artist can expose a designer’s biases and a design’s structural limitations as swiftly and easily as holding ones art work up to a mirror can’t expose all its flaws and imperfections.
Locking the concept art is an equally magical time, because that’s when the myriad possibilities of expression are eliminated in favor of one. That one lock on form, style, color palate, color temperature, texture, etc. will define the bounds of the final art.
In my opinion, game designers should begin interacting with conceptual artists when they begin to interact with play testers.
This has been happening over the course of 2018 to a friend of mine who is designing a card game. A year ago, the game was about fleets of space ships battling to conquer planets, with cards mostly representing ships or planets. Then he started working with a bunch of artists to do the card art, and he kept seeing fantastic pictures of people. So the game has changed to incorporate a more human dimension, with diplomats, scientists, spies, military commanders, etc. It still has the planets and the fleets, but now it also has the leaders who are driving the conflict.
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I think when evaluating art there are two components that need to be considered - aesthetics and functionality .
There are maps that are suitable for wall framing, but fail the functionality test, sometimes alarmingly so. Mark Mahaffey is the poster child for this. At times he produces maps that do both, but too many times he "pushes the envelope" for the sake of being different and is notoriously tone deaf to feedback. He gets work both due to the scarcity of people willing to do the work for what it pays and by being cheaper than most other artists .
Mark Simonitch has the advantage of both being a graphics guy as well as an excellent designer and the finished product benefits greatly.
As for artists not being paid living wages...a friend of mine has repeatedly told me that his day job as a graphic designer pays much better than what he would get doing artwork for game companies.
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