Art Styles used in video games.

In this article I will be reviewing the different digital graphics used in computer games. 

There are a few different artistic styles used in the video game industry to make a game look either 'cartoony' or as realistic as possible. Some of these are:

Photo-realism

Photo-realism essentially is an attempt to make the game look as real as possible. Using a photo-realistic art style requires the use of more pixels than a 2D game, this is because a more complex image requires more detail. Photo-realistic games have realistic shadows and light for example, the sunlight in certain games would project a realistic shadow, and the other physics in these games tend to be realistic also such as gravity. Photo-realistic games usually run at 30 fps, 60fps and 120fps.

This is a screenshot of gameplay for L.A. Noire, this uses a photorealistic art style and we know this because of the detail of the character and gun as well as the use of the lighting in the room the casts a shadow of the character.

Exaggeration 

Exaggeration is an art style used to make a character look somewhat realistic but have a lot of unrealistic character traits for example in Anime if a character is sad their eyes will become a lot larger than normal or in games such as Prototype the protagonist Alex Mercer looks like an average man but has the power to turn his arm into a blade type weapon.

This is an Anime character that traditionally have glints in their eyes from the emotions of the character.

Cel Shading

Cel Shading is a comic book style art style that makes objects and characters in games look hand drawn for example, the Borderlands series is an unrealistic comic book style game and the Cel Shading style makes the colours and environment pop. There is a game developercalled Telltale Games that create point and click series with the Cel Shading art style that fits to each story, for example The Walking Dead Telltale game has a darker colour pallet compared to Tales from The Borderlands Telltale game which both use Cel Shading. 

In Telltale games the gameplay looks as good as the cutscenes because of the Cel Shading art style.

I personally find Cel Shading interesting because it has two sides such as the darker and lighter colour pallet which can apply to all different genres from Adventure to Sci-Fi. 

Abstract

The Abstract art style is a style that is mainly used with 2D games, it focuses on geometrical lines and on a colour palette of 3 colours such as Assassin Creed: Chronicles that uses black, red and white. The colour pallet can also be widespread and cover many colours at the same time, a game like Geometry Wars is an example of this.



This is a screenshot of Geometry Wars gameplay, as you can see has an extremely bright colour palette and literally uses geometrical shapes in it's gameplay.






AC: Chronicles is a 2D sides scroller game that meets 3D. Many buildings and props within rooms in the game can be interacted with in a way that shows a 2D shape that looks 3D.

This is a screenshot of Assassins Creed: Chronicles gameplay. AC: Chronicles uses a unique art style that looks a lot like a moving watercolor painting and fits with an abstract art style.

This is a screenshot of how the game uses 2D and 3D graphics.










This is a piece of concept art that emphasizes the games watercolor like art style. 












Pixel Art

Pixel Art is a retro art style inspired by regular pixels such as 8-bit and 64-bit games. Older games such as Super Mario has influence more recent games such as Terraria.

This is Super Mario an 8-bit side scroller that was released in 1985.

Terraria is a 16-bit side scroller that uses the a retro pixel art style, it was released in 2011.

As you can see these two games from two completely different generations, showing how modern day Pixel Art games have been inspired by original lower pixel games.

Pixel Art games use 2D sprites which are essentially pictures of different character movements such as 1st step and 2nd step that would be put together to make the character look like they’re walking.

Gothic

The Gothic art style is based around dark colours, scary settings and give the game all-round eerie feeling throughout the story. Most Gothic games are horrors and this art style fits perfectly with the genre. Some games that hold the Gothic art style are Devil May Cry which is based around hunting demons but the example is going to use is Dark Souls. 

Dark souls hits all targets to fall under the Gothic style as the game includes, cursed players, an Undead Asylum, witches, dragons, undead enemies and not to mention the whole game is inspired by several types of in depth Mythology.

This is a screenshot of some Darksouls gameplay.

The player is standing in a dark hall of some sort surrounded by shadows and a few dim lights coming down from the windows above. The room also looks as if it’s dirty or worn down which fits the Gothic style and gives an eerie feeling to the game.

The Gothic art style also gives developers the chance to add some 'interesting' enemies into their games...