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[JasonPickering]

so I have a question. how do you figure out your art style when approaching a game. I had a specific idea for a game and a certain art style. I then built a little tech demo, but am having a huge problem creating the art style for it. my original idea really isnt working because I cant recreate my idea.

my original idea was oil pastel like the first stuff for the finding nemo art book.



but I am having trouble recreating this in gimp. so I guess my question is how do you decide what art style your game will use.

also I was looking for something childlike and storybook-ish. thats why I was originally aiming for oil pastel.

[Bree]

For Commedia, I knew that I wanted to have a cartoony look, but I still wanted it to be fairly faithful to the source material. With each character, I did a bit of googling to get an idea of each character's persona- oftentimes the costumes for each of the masks are based directly on one distinct source (Brighella's is the strongest example). More often than not, however, I just sort of pulled together the most interesting bits to make a design that felt 'true' to the character. I also wanted to improve my color schemes, as the vast majority of my work thus far has been in black and white. I took a lesson from Team Fortress 2, and used color to highlight the more important aspects of a character- the mask is always the most vibrant part of the character, and the rest of the costumes are in cooler and more subdued variants of the appropriate colors.

If you're looking to have a childlike look, I'd suggest looking at a variety of children's authors. From what I've seen, my favorite illustrators have broad stylized shapes, but cram in a lot of detail. Here are some examples-

Tomie de Paola:



Maurice Sendak:



Shel Silverstein:

[Μarkham]

How to decide your art style:

1. Practice years and years on technique, drawing from life, live models, etc.

2. Use what you learned to make something that looks cool.

3. Practice some more.

[Bree]

That, too. But I think the OP was asking about deciding a style for an individual project.

[John Nesky]

When in doubt, my art style is whatever is easiest given whatever skills I have and the tools I have to work with, and whatever seems vaguely appropriate to the medium. When that's not enough to narrow it down, I have existential crises. 

I end up making a lot of creepy monochrome artwork because monochrome is super easy to work with, and it's creepy because shadows make things creepy. That, and maybe my mind is twisted.

[Captain_404]

I think for me the game's visual style really stems from how the game itself works or plays. A lot of my process is starting with something very base and working up from that; very rarely do I start with the art style first.

For example, the tiles in Push are made of small squares all of the same shade as it helps to create a continuous pattern between different tiles. It looks like it's all cut out of one block rather than laid brick by brick (as most tiles games look). This adds to the "aha!" moment when the user first tears the landscape apart with the pushing. So for Push, the pixelated style is really a response to the gameplay.

As another example, my [perpetually] unfinished fish experiment. Here I started with a vector-based parallax scrolling system (ie: the buildings you see). Early demos were only in two colors for simplicity's sake, black buildings on a white canvas I think. Swapping out colors palettes at that point wasn't too hard, I just had to type in new hex indexes, so I started messing around with the colors. Eventually I added in the fish and it all just sort of fit together. The vectors give it a really bold cell-shaded look that I wish more 3D games would explore. I'd still love to come back to this aesthetic sometime in the future.

Finally, one of the things I'm working on now has a much more distinct, complex, and textured feel to it. Most of the game will occur with very little motion at all, leaving me freedom to experiment with a less sparse art style. Flash has a lot of problems rendering this kind of thing very fast, so I really couldn't do this if my game had motion like a normal game does. I guess you could say that this one stems from a lessened degree of gameplay dictating what I can do with style.

It seems I normally work backward form your order, I create a demo and then see what works with that. My art comes as response to my gameplay.

[Loren Schmidt]

When in doubt, my art style is whatever is easiest given whatever skills I have and the tools I have to work with, and whatever seems vaguely appropriate to the medium.

How very enviable! Historically my approach has been to think of the absolute most difficult way I could conceivably do anything, and then do that. Then, you see, several months later I check in with myself and try to figure out why the project isn't going quite as quickly as I anticipated, and why I am having issues with motivation. I've always respected people who have more practical approaches.

For me, some games contain a visual treatment as part of the initial idea. When that's the case, I often do a few mockups before I start prototyping. Other times the core idea is some sort of gameplay mechanic, and I don't initially know where to go esthetically. In those cases I start prototyping earlier. While I'm coding I spend a bit of time toying with different ideas for atmosphere. Sometimes the final style comes out of the prototypes.

[GregWS]

Art styles definitely set the mood when it comes to a game's atmosphere.  So the art style that you pick should will also say something about the theme of the game, as it will really "set the tone" of the whole experience.

You were probably quite right to start with the oil pastel thing, as it probably reflects your ideas quite strongly (as evidenced by your initial preference for it).

But yeah, practicality (eg. actually making the style) comes into play, and that's always an issue that has to be considered.  If it really can't be made, then it can't be made, which just plain sucks.

For my current project, I've been creating the rooms out of scrap bass wood, bits of coloured tissue paper, and ink drawings.  I've scanned it all in, done some touch ups where necessary and created animations from my sketches, and the whole thing is coming together fairly well.  There are definitely issues (and the standard I set for myself doesn't help any of it), but they're surmountable; adding a flickering film grain effect, and a "lens" that darkens around the corners are things that add that extra layer, and strengthen the atmosphere.  I chose the style because the theme it implies is the core theme of the game, so the quiet, implicit message of the game is very consistent and non-contradictory.

[JasonPickering]

wow lots of stuff guys. Well I started this post in more reference to deciding the art style to be sued for each game. It would probably be more helpful if I explained the game I guess.

You are a young boy with a red balloon who is slowly floating up in the air. you will slowly drift back down, but if you hit these blue glowing orbs it will give you a boost and send you upward. the point is basically to climb as high into the sky as possible. as you climb the clouds will be made with different pictures in them (black and white and very gestural so it almost seems like it could just be a cloud) as you climb higher the clouds explain the story of the game and what the kid is after.



I am just not feeling what I have so far and think I need to go back to the drawing board. I want that childhood feeling to it. like it could have been read in a storybook.

so thats it in a nut shell. the only thing I am waiting on is the art.

p.s. there is nothing in the cloud.

[Bree]

You sure? Cuz I could totally see a huge nose. Like, if you put two dots riiiiight there, then the sky would have a face, and then...

In all seriousness, if you're not happy with something, experiment. Make a list of things you associate with 'childlike', artists that come to mind. Look into those artists you think of, and those styles may be of help to you.

[Ted]

Keep experimenting!!  That is the answer.  Doodle, sketch, collage, cut paper, take pictures of abstract things close up, anything to generate ideas and get the juices flowing.

Try lots of different things.  You could aim for 10 very different versions of that screenshot/mockup you posted using different brushes (soft, hard, dry media, wet media, textured, etc) different coloring, outlines vs. no outlines, etc. 

You don't have to have years of drawing training to come up with an intriguing visual style.

[BlueSweatshirt]

I say either... Experiment, think of a style that reflects the emotions, feelings, and mood you want the player to experience, or just use your personal favorite and work from there.

[Hima]

Yeah, experiment and study on the main theme of the game or games that has similar theme, I think. My friend and me have tons of artbook from games and movies for research. Look through some gallery like deviantart, or artist websites help too. 

[Jason Bakker]

I end up making a lot of creepy monochrome artwork because monochrome is super easy to work with, and it's creepy because shadows make things creepy. That, and maybe my mind is twisted.

Wow, that's cool

[Squiggly_P]

That's a really neat idea.  Maybe something like the old Winnie the Pooh drawings by E. H. Shepard ( http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=3&q=E.H.+Shepard&btnG=Search+images ), instead of full-on painted stuff would be easier.  Ink stuff.  Most of the children's books I can recall having loved in my youth were either black and white ink drawings, ink washes or watercolor.

[kiwi]

Hmm, that looks like something you could achieve by using some post processing effects (and usually if you can make it in GIMP then you can make it using post processing), so basically you should be able to draw the images normally and then apply the post processing over the rendered image.
I'm not sure how that particular effect would be done, but with a day or two of experimenting you should be able to get it right.

Also when I have to decide what style I'm gonna use, I usually start with a curve and start imagining what it could be turned into. Then I build upon that until I get something that can be used in a game such as a plant, a faerie or something like that and then I build the rest of the game based on that concept and style.
So basically I just draw in the style I feel like drawing

[dbb]

If you want he game to look like it was drawn in oil pastels, why don't you draw all the assets in oil pastels and then scan them in? It would look better than gimp, and might be quicker, too. Plus, not many games use hand-drawn graphics, so you'd be differentiating yourself from the crowd immediately, which might help get your game noticed.