What happened to "mature" art direction? Everything is Overwatch now

[Darth Roxor]

What game is this?

King Arthur: Knight's Tale

 

[TedNugent]

What happened to "mature" art direction?

I find this to be a bit flat, uninteresting and reductionist for my taste to be completely honest....

It's kind of surprising actually that Ilya Repin was painting in the late 19th century.

 

[Bester]

I find this to be a bit flat, uninteresting and reductionist for my taste to be completely honest....

No shit. Russians didn't know how to paint in the XV century. Renaissance came to Russia 3 centuries late.

It was a joke post with a bit of sarcasm hidden in it, you're the only one who caught it.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

"Hey this thread is interesting, people are talking about oversimplified art and-"

>Jews mentioned

Okay I'm going to back away slowly....

Dude they are people too, no need to recoil.

 

[Lemon]

Ilya Repin

Vasily Vereshchagin is also very interesting

 

[Fedora Master]

Its an easy style to adopt and it has mass appeal, therefore marketing dictates it be used. Same reason we don't see unusual styles anymore.

 

[luj1]

You know, despite how inexplicably visually annoying this image is, the horse is actually rendered realistically, and I appreciate the fact that he is holding the reins and the handle inside of his center gripped boss held shield. He also seems to be wearing practical clothing.

Looks great dude

 

[TedNugent]

Ilya Repin

Vasily Vereshchagin is also very interesting

Oh, yeah, I love this kind of shit. Reminds me vaguely of De Goya but much more technically competent.

Great stuff.

 

[ind33d]

Everyone wants to be a, poor man's, Genndy Tartakovsky. Characters in 95% of animation for the past 15 years look like mutants. I'm all for cartoon art, but the present day shit ain't Tex Avery or Fleischer. Notice how angular and pointy a lot of stuff is now. Straight lines and corners are easier to draw and animate than organic shapes and roundness.

shit you couldn't even make Evangelion's intro credits today without Microsoft shutting you down for showing too much skin and not having enough minorities

 

[Cheesedragon117]

I'd play a game based on Beksiński's art.

And there's even an RPG in the works!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1968940/Nazralath_The_Fallen_World/

On the other hand it looks like a Soulslike

If it's any consolation, some of the stuff I'm working on has very Beksiński-inspired backgrounds and environments.

However, my actual character artstyle is tranime garbage though, so you probably wouldn't be interested.

Click at your own risk

Right now I'm trying to take as much inspiration from Frazetta as possible, a tall feat considering considering the canyon of skill, virtuosity and just raw talent between us. But we all had to start somewhere, right? I regret not discovering his work sooner. The stuff he did for Conan The Barbarian and John Carter Of Mars is exactly the kind of swashbuckling, bodice ripper, high fantasy vibe I've been going for.

 

[gurugeorge]

I think it's only really games that depend on fast online gameplay that tend to have a cartooney style.

Basically, there are two major "pulls" in art design, the one pulling towards greater and more detailed realism, the other pulling to cartoonish stylization and simplification. I reckon the latter became a thing after WoW implemented a stylized cartoonish style that could be played on the humblest of potatoes, and developers realized that going for detailed realism in online games leaves money on the table. There's also the factor that cartoonish stylization and simplification is usually more easily "readable" in fast gameplay. On the other hand detailed realism is loved by many, is usually more immersive, and garners kudos and publicity and a wow factor, so it's a tricky question that I think has to be decided on right at the beginning of the development process.

 

[NecroLord]

Make Bikini Chainmail Great Again!
And for that matter, bring back the oldschool Conan/Hyborian Age art style.

 

[janior]

 

[cvv]

On the other hand detailed realism is loved by many

I'm honestly not sure anymore. I'm seeing more and more that people actually whine and make faces whenever something has realistic, grounded art style. Very often it's tied to criticism of bugs or performance issues, when people say "fuck this stupid realism, they should've gone for something simple and cheery and avoid all these problems" but you can feel it's just a pretext.

Or vice versa - let's take System Shock Remake, a tense immersive sim with horror elements set on a hostile space station, THE perfect genre for ultra-realistic art style. But they went with cartoony and stylized and people actually cheered! And when I tried to explain a game like this can be massively enhanced by a realistic, immersive art style - imagine cartoonish Dead Space, wouldn't be the same, would it? - I got a lot of abuse with "go fuck yourself, realistic-fag, can't stand realism, love cartoon".

This sentiment is increasingly prevalent, even here on Codex. Degeneracy and decline everywhere.

 

[Socrates]

So these were the games we played as KIDS, No oversized heads, no big eyes, no white donkey teeth. And these are the games played by ADULTS now,

What happened?

I believe art direction comes in waves for what is and isn't popular. Currently bright colors and cartoonish characters have been determined by marketing departments to be popular and will sell. That will likely change after some time.

 

[NecroLord]

Not everything has to be "realistic"...
The abhorrent modern artstyle is soulless and unimaginative.
Bring back Conans, Kulls, sexy warrior queens in bikini chainmails, dragons, monsters, huge swords and axes, knights in proper plate armor, grittiness...
80s testosterone soaked fantasy, yeah?

 

[Stavrophore]

Super duper modern game engines, while art direction and texturing looks like plastic goyslop figurine straight from McDonald meal.

 

[Cologno]

So these were the games we played as KIDS, No oversized heads, no big eyes, no white donkey teeth. And these are the games played by ADULTS now,

What happened?

I believe art direction comes in waves for what is and isn't popular. Currently bright colors and cartoonish characters have been determined by marketing departments to be popular and will sell. That will likely change after some time.

Part of it, perhaps, but markets don't dtermine evrything. People in general are getting dumber, too, so also less capable of creativity.

 

[Hace El Oso]

I think it's only really games that depend on fast online gameplay that tend to have a cartooney style.

Basically, there are two major "pulls" in art design, the one pulling towards greater and more detailed realism, the other pulling to cartoonish stylization and simplification. I reckon the latter became a thing after WoW implemented a stylized cartoonish style that could be played on the humblest of potatoes, and developers realized that going for detailed realism in online games leaves money on the table. There's also the factor that cartoonish stylization and simplification is usually more easily "readable" in fast gameplay. On the other hand detailed realism is loved by many, is usually more immersive, and garners kudos and publicity and a wow factor, so it's a tricky question that I think has to be decided on right at the beginning of the development process.

I think that, while it may have been true in the past, this has long since ceased to be the case. Many ordinary ‘western’ people have become so alienated from the mechanisms and kinetic reality of the world around them, they can no longer recognize material realism when they see it except to the extent that they find it, strangely enough, threatening.

 

[cvv]

Not everything has to be "realistic"...
Bring back Conans, Kulls, sexy warrior queens

Yea that's not the kind of cartoonish we're complaining about here buck.

 

[cvv]

they find it, strangely enough, threatening.

This.

It's tied to the infantilization phenomenon in the West - adult people regressing back to childhood state, increasingly craving cartoonish, cutesy, fluffy entertainment, cat-eared characters with squeaky voices. And talking about it makes them very mad and very defensive. It's indeed a threat.

I guess deep down they can see what's happening to them but they won't face the reality coz then they'd look in the mirror and see the pathetic parodies of men they are. So it's essential to keep living in their virtual reality where adult men playing with little ponies is completely normal and you're just an obsolete boomer weirdo if you suggest otherwise.

 

[Socrates]

It's tied to the infantilization phenomenon in the West - adult people regressing back to childhood state, increasingly craving cartoonish, cutesy, fluffy entertainment, cat-eared characters with squeaky voices. And talking about it makes them very mad and very defensive. It's indeed a threat.

This is an excellent summary. I agree.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Except if Japan does it, then it's incline and Codexers turn instantly into otakus.

 

[luj1]

people actually whine and make faces whenever something has realistic, grounded art style

Cause they are talentless pussies

 

[janior]

WoW/WC3 used to look great dunno why people have such hate boner for those games.