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[Sankar]

Tëam Fortress 2 "Cartoony" graphics were developed because play-testers found easier to recognize the classes because of the exaggerated silhouette
This has nothing to do with holding your ground, valve stuck to this idea because playtesters reacted positively to it. If they didn't, they would throw it out.  

And I don't think there is anything wrong with calling a game a In-Betweener, Portal is a short game, and people enjoy it this way. You get to the end of it in some hours, maybe play again for a better score or something. And for most people, that's it. Its a fun, short, nice game. That holds its grounds while people wait for other games.
Its a night snack, you know. 1AM you're not in the mood for some rice,meat,potato,salad and beans. So you get a pizza and it makes you happy.

I can't see how someone find this offensive in any way.

You're not always in the mood for some 15 hour/60% completion Game. Thats why Portal 2 was released in April, a very slow month.

[Gimym TILBERT]

No it's not, TF2 art was to recreate a certain kind of illustration "In the work of the early 20th century commercial illustrators J. C. Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell", they did the shape thingy too in left 4 dead and it's nowhere as stylized.

http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2007/NPAR07_IllustrativeRenderingInTeamFortress2.pdf

[Sankar]

No it's not, TF2 art was to recreate a certain kind of illustration "In the work of the early 20th century commercial illustrators J. C. Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell", they did the shape thingy too in left 4 dead and it's nowhere as stylized.

http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2007/NPAR07_IllustrativeRenderingInTeamFortress2.pdf

They first found out that they needed a "exaggerated" and "cartoony" look, then they researched artists that were considered masters in such field.
Valve said they needed a game that: Stands out from the rest, doesn't look too hardcore/and can easily transmit its visual information.

here you go:  http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4338&page=2

Left 4 Dead is less cartoony but uses very exaggerated shapes in "special" infected, like the Boomer and the Witch. And the allies stand out easily from the Zombies. So, its less cartoony, because it has less information to transmit.

[Gimym TILBERT]

clear silouhetting with realistic proportion and character

Obviously you also didn't read their paper on left 4 dead design, they use the exact same technics, and it work for more than cartoony character, it work for everythings.


Actually you define identity with that.

I had already read that too and:

Art reDirection
Because of this issue with the medic beam and a number of other similar challenges, the team decided to rethink the game’s art direction. The team enumerated all of the gameplay problems that more deliberate art direction could solve, right down to the specific details of the most outlying weapons, characters and objects.

From this list, the ''Team Fortress 2'' team was able to extract high level goals for a new art direction. First off, the new art direction needed to be exaggerated, to match the over-the-top combat style of the game. It also needed to focus on incredibly unique characters, yet still ensure that the classes looked like a cohesive team when shown together. Additionally, the art direction needed to support a variety of unrealistic weaponry and a variety of player goals, from collecting objects to holding territory.

Unfortunately nintendo use the same reason to justify wind waker and skyward sword. It's not much "holding to some ground" rather than solving gameplay problem. You may had pick killer 7 for a better stylistic argument.

But this is really how you make breakthrough in style that is meaningful and not a gimmick. That's how art use to evolve, by solving problem, whether it's a pragmatic problem or an ideological stance, everything in the art should be the statement that answer to that initial problem.

however:

Valve said they needed a game that: Stands out from the rest, doesn't look too hardcore/and can easily transmit its visual information.

That's pretty much "holding to some ground"

it was never the playtester, it was a conscious decision.

[C.A. Sinner]

Thank you Sankar for verbalizing my thoughts on Portal.

Also what Gil calls the "challenge mentality" (even though my definition of  challenge is a different one but w/e) is sort of my problem with a lot of modern "retro" games. They copy the difficulty of older games but forget why these games were difficult in the first place and try to use it as an end in itself which is why the games often end up feeling shallow. The ultimate example of this is I Wanna Be The Guy which is actually a parody of the sort of design mentality.

[Nix]

Thank you Sankar for verbalizing my thoughts on Portal.

Also what Gil calls the "challenge mentality" (even though my definition of  challenge is a different one but w/e) is sort of my problem with a lot of modern "retro" games. They copy the difficulty of older games but forget why these games were difficult in the first place and try to use it as an end in itself which is why the games often end up feeling shallow. The ultimate example of this is I Wanna Be The Guy which is actually a parody of the sort of design mentality.

What did you think of Super Meat Boy?

[C.A. Sinner]

havent played it.