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[disparat]

Man, sorry for starting a new topic, but I couldn't post anywhere else because this has nothing to do with any existing thread. I couldn't post in the general chat thread because I had already posted there, and I'm not going to double post. Anyway:

Why the hell don't more people do stuff like Blade Warrior? It's a game made entirely of black silhouetted figures on beautiful Amiga backgrounds. I can think of two more: Limbo and Night Game, by Nifflas. Somebody should do something more, with a dark fantasy theme. Those skeletons look hauntingly spindly and great in those shadowy pixel-y forms.

[Schoq]

My gut feeling when seeing that art style is that it's overused to the point of being a cliché, but I can't really name any other than the ones you said.

I know I've seen some demos and previews here and there that do the same thing.

I guess I just really don't like it?

If more people feel that way maybe that answers your question.

[Danmark]

Why the hell don't more people do stuff like Blade Warrior?

Not as expressive as full-color graphics, only works for a small range of settings & themes, camouflages overlapping objects or anything stationary, pretty much limited to 2D...


Not that the silhouette style is bad, it's just not versatile in the slightest.

[iffi]

Reminds me of a devlog started here recently. The silhouettes aren't entirely black, but I would still consider it to be of that style.

My gut feeling when seeing that art style is that it's overused to the point of being a cliché, but I can't really name any other than the ones you said.

Same here - I feel like I've seen it a million times but I can't actually think of anything that uses the style besides those two.

[phubans]

>Blade Warrior

Whoa, I seriously thought that was a really nice looking indie game. I'm surprised something like that existed in '91, since there weren't too many other games in that style, and these days there are several indie games that are in silhouette.

[Ego_Shiner]

the entire armed with wings series, patapon, probably some more i dunno

[tesselode]

My gut feeling when seeing that art style is that it's overused to the point of being a cliché, but I can't really name any other than the ones you said.

It's probably seems cliché not because of the number of times it's used, but how obvious it is when it is used. It's a very striking and attention grabbing effect, and I think because of that it would get old quickly because you notice it so much.

[disparat]

only works for a small range of settings & themes,

This seems sort of silly; just going by games mentioned in this thread alone we've got a fantasy game, a horror game, a physics platformer in a pastoral setting, a rhythm game about tribal warfare, and an action-puzzler with an Asian sort of theme.

I forgot about Silhouette Bros. - it's a hack of SMB that turns each level dichromatic. Nor do games need to use only a few colors - Blade Warrior has beautifully-designed backgrounds that complement the gloomy, sharp-looking shadows of the foreground. Jumpman could also be considered to be entirely silhouetted in various shades, without even backgrounds - but try looking at Jumpman and telling me it's not creatively designed and unique-looking! Each one of the games mentioned so far looks distinctive and stylish. (I think stylish is usually the word people use to describe silhouettes in indie gaming)

1-bit games, like Hero or its sequel, could be considered to be on the fringe of silhouettes. Not only do they have to contend with the drastically limited palette, but they have a minute resolution as well. I'd say they look fantastic, and surely someone could make a different 1-bit game and not have it look anything like Hero!

Now, of course silhouette styles are harder to make distinguished than full-color styles, but indie gaming in general tends to frequently set graphical limitations for itself. It's no different from limiting yourself to a certain small palette or tiny resolution. Or, speaking of homogeny, think how many games use Oryx's fantasy tileset!

Saying that silhouettes aren't "versatile in the slightest" is just a case of not using your imagination enough!

[Claw]

I like it occasionally, but it could get tiresome if used for a full game (depends how long the game is and how much the background varies I guess).

To add one to the list, Super Meat Boy had a few silhouette levels; mostly just using it to break up the level art style a bit now and again which was cool.

[Tanner]

Donkey Kong Country Returns had some really cool silhouette stages too.

That was a cool game.

[Bones]

Back in 2011 I wrote a large article about silhouettes within video games.

You can see it here.

[s0]

This seems sort of silly; just going by games mentioned in this thread alone we've got a fantasy game, a horror game, a physics platformer in a pastoral setting, a rhythm game about tribal warfare, and an action-puzzler with an Asian sort of theme.

i guess the problem is that the style sort of eclipses the content and it just becomes another "silhouette game." it looks cool, but the way i see it it's too overbearing to be used in a lot of games.

i'm not an art guy so maybe im just being ignorant but the games mentioned here all look pretty similar to me

[rivon]

Feist

[gimymblert]

game and watch

[shig]

what happened to sigvatr's beautiful post

[disparat]

i'm not an art guy so maybe im just being ignorant but the games mentioned here all look pretty similar to me

I think it's the very fact that the silhouette demands attention that makes people unable to see the differences between different games with different art styles under the same banner. If you're not used to some genre or style, everything that is within that style will seem similar. It's similar to how people who don't listen to (apropos of Sigvatr) death metal think that every death metal song sounds the same. If you're unused to it, you can't see subtle differences.

Frankly, if one tries see the games objectively, their differences are pretty apparent. They have roughly as much in common as the first three Mario games for the NES did. The superstyle is limiting, but not to such an extent that one couldn't make an interesting and unique aesthetic out of it.