Unit 78
Digital Graphics for Computer Games
Artistic styles in video games
There are lots of different types of artistic styles used in
video games such as cell shading, photo realism and exaggerated are just a few.
Some developers will even use more than one of these styles in one game.
Photo-realism:
Photo realism is when developers of a computer game attempt
to make a game that tries to look and replicate real life. In recent year’s
developers have started more and more photo realistic games because as technology
gets better and more advanced developers have the tools to create games that
look more and more like real life. Here are a few examples of photo-realistic
games that have been created in recent years:
-Forza motorsport 5
This is a game that over the years has gotten more and more
realistic as technology has gotten better and more advance the developers of
Forza have been able to create a game that can be difficult to tell to
distinguish from real life. This car was created by the developers Forza in
engine and looks amazingly close to a real life photograph.
-Battlefield 4
Battlefield 4 is one of the most popular first person shooter
games that exists today. This game looks almost as close to real life as you
can get for a game in this genre, it was created by EA using the frostbite 3
engine and in the right hands this engine can be used to create amazingly
realistic games. This picture has been created in the frostbite engine for
battlefield 4 and looks a lot like a real photograph. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqRQiBiiYQc
Exaggerated:
This art style is most commonly used in anime and manga, this
style of art is when the designer or artist exaggerates parts of characters,
characters emotions and environments, most games that use this art style
normally have a Japanese influence. When using this art style designers often
exaggerate things like the characters eyes and other facial features to show
emotion or weapons that that character will use, for example a designer may create
a character with big eyes and an ear to ear smile who uses a sword or machine
gun that’s twice the size of his entire body. The colours and lighting that
appears in this style can also be much exaggerated, for example colours might
be much brighter than normal or designers can really go overboard with lighting
and shadowing on characters.
-Dark soul’s series
Dark souls is a game where characters, weaponry and armor and are very exaggerated, this is largely because the game was created by a
Japanese development studio called from software, because of this in this
players can wield weapons and armor that is greatly exaggerated and even the
strongest humans could never use, for example there is a weapon call dragon
tooth that is about three times the size of your character. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msuai1vjqiE 
-Dragon ball games
Dragon ball z games are fighting games based off the
anime/manga dragon ball. These games use over the top special attacks and some characters
are inhumanly muscular, all the characters can fly and some use over the top weapons
and some attacks can destroy planets and change the map you are fighting on.
Cell
shading:
Cell shading is becoming a very popular art style for game
designers. Originally it was used in animation but it has since been recreated
to be a games design style, in games cell shading makes games look cartoonish,
almost resembling a comic book, these games look colourful and fun to look at. This
style is really popular with games that started out as comic books.
-Borderlands
Borderlands is a very popular game series and one of the most
popular cell shaded games, this game also uses an exaggerated style, this game
looks very cartoony and all the characters, weapons and most things in the game
have black lines around them making this game feel and look like a cartoon. Most
of the characters are very un-proportional, for example some characters have
really fat bodies and some have really big muscles. 
- Simpsons
road rage:
The Simpsons road rage is a driving game where you drive
around Springfield basically destroying things and racing the other residents
of Springfield. The cell shading in this game really works because it really
suits the Simpson’s cartoony feel and art style from the TV program
Abstract:
Abstract games are pretty much games that try to get as far
away from realism as possible. These games almost always have features that are
unrealistic and look different to different people. The style normally consists
of lines and shapes that don’t really resemble anything from reality. Games that
use this art style are becoming more popular in recent years.
Proteus:
Proteus is an open world exploration game, this game is based
around adventuring and discovering an island, there aren’t really any specific
goals. You explore an environment where every creature and plant has a musical
signature that is unique to it, this changes the sounds and general audio in
game depending where you are. The game world is randomly generated which mean
each world is unique.
Tuning:
This is a 3D abstract platformer that is really unique even
for an abstract game, it has no fixed camera angles and has organically moving
sections. The goal of this game is to complete levels that get more strange and
abstract.
Noir art
style:
Games that use this style look dark and depressing at times,
they often have a 50s/60s feel about them but this art style has been used
across many styles of games, most commonly side-scroller/2D indie games. This art
style is also used a lot in the film industry in films like Sin City and The Watchmen.
-Limbo:
Limbo is a puzzle/platformer game where you play as a boy
with no name and guide him through dangerous environments and traps as he
searches for his sister. The game is presented in black-and-white tones and
using lighting and editing effects to create a horror type atmosphere while the
player navigates through the game world.
-Calvino Noir
Calvino noir is a point and click adventure game based on a
240 year old sketch. The mechanics of the game are relatively simple and the
story is interesting, but the games main selling point are the visuals inspired
by the film noir art style. http://www.wired.com/2015/08/film-noir-french-architecture-inspired-stunning-adventure-game/
