Unit 78, Exercise 1 Artistic Styles used in Games

Level 3 Games Design BTEC

Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

Artistic Styles
By Steven Hatcher
L.O: To understand theory and applications of digital graphics used for computer games

I am going to be covering five different artistic styles that are used in computer games.

The first style is Photo-Realism, this is where the games are made to look as though it is not a game and is actually a real life photo. Designers do this so that the players emerge themselves into the game and make them feel as though they are doing this in real life and not on a game. An example of this would be F1 as they make it feel as though you are actually driving the car yourself and not just controlling somebody else. This art style can create a lot of different moods and atmospheres depending on the genre as you immerse yourself in the game. In this picture below you can see photo-realism used in the F1 game that shows just how much the cars look like the ones used in real life.

The next artistic style I am looking at is Exaggeration, this is where the designers make everything exaggerated to make it look absolutely perfect with fine points and bright colours that make the characters and surroundings stand out, this is mainly used in games that are based off anime. Designers do this so that the game stands out as everything is made to be better than real life so people want to know what that is like, it also emphasises the characters emotions so you know how they feel and help you connect to them even more. An example of this art style is in the game Street Fighter where they give the characters big muscles or big eyes to exaggerate the strength or emotions of the character. This art style can help emphasise the emotions you are already feeling from playing the game, it also makes me feel happy as it reminds me of the cartoons I used to watch and not something serious.

This is a link to the street fighter 5 trailer which shows off the art style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFefc1h-jwE

The next artistic style I am looking at is Abstraction, this is where the designers use geometric shapes and lines to create an image that is the opposite of looking like it is a real life because the shapes don't have a resemblance to real life and shapes often look different in different perspectives. Often games with this art style can not work with any other art style as it takes away the mechanics of the game that are needed to play. An example of this art style is in the game The Unfinished Swan where the mechanics of the game require you to shoot black paint at a white canvas that uses abstraction and perspectives to create the shapes needed to carry on the game. This art style helps bring out the thinker inside of us as it forces us to look at things we would normally ignore differently which makes these games really fun. This is a picture of The Unfinished Swan: 

The next art style is Cel-Shading, this is where the colours are bright and standout as the first thing you see when you start up the game. This style very much resembles a comic book or cartoon which the designers use to their advantage as it brings a lot of people back to their childhoods where they watched cartoons or it just generally brings a sense of fun as it is quite a goofy style. An example of this art style is in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. This is a video of Ni No Kuni that shows off the art style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDQiyD5zotE

The fianl art style is Pixel Art, this is where they design something to look as though it is made of pixels but on a bigger scale so that you can actually see each pixel that makes up the sprite in the game. This art style is mainly used in 2D games as the pixels are flat. An example of this art style is in Fez which uses pixel art and 3D in tandem to create a difficult puzzle game. This art style helps bring a sense of nostalgia as you are playing modern games that are designed in a style that was used very often in the earlier games. This picture shows off the pixel art in Fez: