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A Question on Art Syles for Indie Games

I’m just kind of curious how people perceive various art styles for indie games.

Say you had three indie games which were otherwise identical in terms of gameplay but one was pixel art, one was hand drawn and one was 3D. Which would you be most inclined to buy? Also, suppose the price started going up for each. Would you feel like any of them would start to feel like a better or worse value at certain price points?

Let’s assume that the art styles are competently done for each and for the sake of simplicity, generally appealing to you. Any other thoughts you might have about this would be interesting to hear too.

Braydox_ofAstroya ,

Hmm depends on how well that style is executed but if they were all equal high quality and its just comes down to preference of aesthetic .

Now if they were of all equal low quality. Then i would say pixel art lends itself theost to being the most aesthetically effcient for low quality art style.

Sev ,
@Sev@feddit.uk avatar

I really despise that 3D no texture / low poly look. On Reddit when you see those ‘I have a dream, quit my job and now I’m making ………. Game!’ posts, some concepts sound amazing; aaaaaand it’s one of those game.

Settlement Survival is one. Big Banished fan, and Ss’ graphics just look worse to me. Like a cheap mobile game.

Not to say all of these are bad, Deep Rock looks gorgeous and smashes it in the art direction department

2D I don’t mind as there’s a lot of wiggle room to play with stylistically.

8ender , (edited )

Gameplay is king, aesthetics just takes it to another level. Valheim kinda looked like shit to me when I first played it, I wasnt a fan of that PS1 look. But the gameplay was excellent, and deep, and I came around to the visuals to the point of actually loving them.

The beauty of a good game is that it can take you somewhere regardless of how it looks. Imagination fills in the gaps and you can feel like you’re there.

kartoffelsaft ,

I don’t think this can really be answered until after the fact. Anything that I (and I suspect most) people could say about an artstyle are going to be particular to an instance of that artsyle. If I’d give advice as someone who is neither an artist nor a game designer, what attracts me more than anything is a unique artstyle, which, if I’m gonna give a brutal opinion, starting from a vague category like ‘pixel’, ‘hand drawn’ or ‘3D’ probably won’t get you there.

I feel like I even struggle to answer your question at face value because it doesn’t align well at all with how I conceptualize game art. For example, Cruelty Squad is a game that I don’t think I’d have gotten if not for it’s artsyle. Like, sure, it’s 3D, but it’s a lot more like a PilotRedSun animation than it is a game like TF2. Or take a game like Factorio: most of the assets of that game are pre-rendered 3D sprites, so despite being artisticly unique in a way that interests me it doesn’t fit into the categories you’ve asked about. The best I can say is “I dunno”, and I don’t think anyone else can answer it further than that.

Justdaveisfine ,

These are all a little broad. Hand drawn like darkest dungeon, Hades, or like Cuphead? 3D as in realistic or low poly?

Art style should go hand in hand with game thematics. Celeste’s precise platforming goes well with it’s pixel art style, and if they made another version with very high fidelity 3D graphics it would likely hinder gameplay. Likewise, Hollow Knight would lose much of its charm if it went 8 bit pixel art.

All that being said, low poly art can look really good but can also feel really cheap. The same for low bit pixel art. Those aren’t deal breakers for me, but if I was judging purely based on art direction, I would (probably) vote those out.

Edit: Almost forgot, I’d probably lean towards hand drawn for most desirable as it can look very, very good and is usually highly unique.

AllegedHoister ,

I personally have no preference regarding art style. As long as the style is “competently done” then I don’t think I’d have a problem with a game’s look.

I do think that some art styles can work better with different genres. Pixel art might work better with a retro-inspired game and hand drawn art might go well with something more narrative driven.

For me a game’s art style doesn’t affect my judgement of the game’s value. I think some people perceive pixel art to be “cheap” but when well executed it’s gorgeous and difficult to make.

rhacer ,

I am older than Pong. I’ve lived through all the art styles, and going backward to pixel art usually frustrates me. I’m a huge fan of Synty’s low polygon style. I think they do great work

simple ,

I’d go with hand-drawn in general. They’re the hardest to make but usually end up being the most beautiful. Games like Gris, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, etc.

But I think more than which general artstyle is how well implemented it is and the general aesthetic they’re going for. Like, when you say pixel art, it depends if it’s something that looks like NES games and super high level pixel art like Hyper Light Drifter and Owlboy. If it looked like those, I’d take pixelart any day. On the other hand if it’s really pretty 3D like Hi-fi Rush and Guilty Gear Strive, I’d go for that.

So in the end it depends on what’s the most visually appealing. It doesn’t really matter which style the dev chooses as long as it looks good and works well with the game.

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