Art of the Game: A Dive Into Video Game Art Styles
At Ringtail Studios, and the collective Magic Media team, we understand how important game art styles are. A game’s art style is the thing that sells a player on it as much as the gameplay. Naturally, our game art team is one of our core offerings delivering a comprehensive end-to-end art production service and everything in between. We’ve worked on an array of projects across a variety of video game art styles. From pixel to cartoon, isometric 2.5D, hyperrealism, and ultra-stylized. Whether you’re aiming for 2D or 3D for your game art style, there are choices to be made based on your game’s style, tone, and theme that the art style can fit into and aid in its delivery.
Let’s take a look at some of these art styles and how to pick the right game art style for your title.
Exploring Game Art Styles
There are far too many art styles to really address each of them. We’ll break down a few of the most commonly used ones.
Realism or Hyperrealism
Realism and hyperrealism as a game art style is simply seeking to replicate the look of reality. Call of Duty, The Last of Us, any sport simulator like FIFA, and Battlefield are all great examples of games using the realism art style. The advantages of a realism game art style is immediate immersion and an improved sense of connection to the game world. Its disadvantages typically mean resource-intensive art production as it demands an extensive development time and platform resources. It might also limit the game’s art direction.
Magic Realism or Fantasy Realism
This is a branching path of realism where the suspension of disbelief is utilized. It is a game art style where the form is generally realism but we see most science fiction and fantasy style games, especially those in the AAA range, using this game art style. Games like Cyberpunk 2077, the Metal Gear Solid series, and some of the recent entries in the Assassin’s Creed series, all lean into the more fantastical elements. One major advantage of this video game art style is that we bypass realism and hyperrealism’s main art direction’s disadvantage. Concepts, both art and game concepts, can be translated into the style without compromise. This means design and art direction can be unified without too much issue. Disadvantages definitely lie in the same place, however, with intensive resource costs.
Low Poly
A hugely popular art style with the rise of the indie developer, the capacity to deliver high-quality games has never been more achievable. Indie developers in particular are utilizing this style to allow a lower resource and time investment without compromising on the game’s size and scope. Some great examples of this style are Deep Rock Galactic, Super Hot, and Astroneer. Low poly art is a stylized 3D art style where polygons are limited. It can give games a very old-school look as it harkens back to the early days of video game graphics. Its advantages include efficiency in both rendering and processing costs, meaning it can be run on a wider range of hardware. Its disadvantages can be the impairment of immersion and a difficulty with detail which players often miss. A low poly art style game will need to do a bit more lifting in the narrative and lore departments to ensure players remain immersed.
Stylized/Cartoon/Hand Painted
We wanted to cover cartoon game art styles but it’s a bit of an umbrella term so we’ve opted instead to lump a few similar styles together here. Heavily stylized games, cartoon art styles, and hand painted games are all similar in some vein. Each requiring a strong and consistent art direction early on. Some good examples of these styles include Overwatch, Spiritfarer, and Hollow Knight. Advantages of these game art styles include full creative and expression in the game’s visuals. Disadvantages include the potential to quickly fall out of fashion or age poorly and it requires a strong visual expression to ensure the right messages are conveyed to players.
Picking The Right Art Style For Your Game
There are a number of key considerations when it comes to picking your game’s art style. As you might have noticed from the advantages and disadvantages listed, some art styles are better suited for more fantasy or science fiction based games and some seem more useful to studios with limited resources. These are all considerations for you and your team. Trying to emulate the quality of Cyberpunk 2077 or The Last of Us 2 with a fraction of the budget will require intense work and likely won’t be realistic with a smaller budget. It’s not unattainable, of course, just a piece of the puzzle that is game development.
Other elements to consider is your game’s genre, target audience, mechanics, and intended platforms. Again, a realistic and intensive art style won’t be accessible to lower-end hardware or mobile devices. If your goal is as big an audience as possible, a more stylized art style might be before you.
As for genre and target audience, consider your art direction. If you don’t have one, develop a mood board and a reference board. What do you want your game to feel like? How do you want your players to feel? Stylized game art styles can be helpful in achieving out of this world visuals or sights that unnerve and put players on edge. With realism, it’s a lot harder to maintain that immersion as it’s easy to spot irregularities where there shouldn’t be any.
Look to other games, to other media, what inspired this game idea? What is the point behind its creation? Let that guide your art direction and once established, consider what style is best for your game’s visuals.
