Different Art Styles in Game Development

Everything in this world has some art. Art is the only thing that beautifies the product. In early 70’s when technology started its boom and new inventions used to made on daily basis new tools invented to enhance the user experience in gaming. Now in 2019 game development has improved itself a lot and many new art styles tools characters stories are roaming in the flood of game development. Many Art Styles in Game Development are used depending upon the nature and story of the game. Not even a simple game can complete without an art style. There are many different Art Styles in Game Development that are being used now days some are new which were invented recently due to the improved graphical technology and some are still being used in spite of being very old.

Why there are variations in Art Styles in Game Development?

Play stores flooding with the games that developed and published on daily basis. Some of them are dealing with the same concept but others are inventing their new ideas. Art is the thing that put life to your games environment and game itself. A good art will always lead you to the success of your game. For supporting the idea of their game the artist out their invented art styles with respect to the devices that are being used now a days for gaming. In this evolution of gaming this industry started from the pixel art and till now photorealism is also introduced which makes you think the character is almost real.

Different Art Styles in Game Development.

There a whole lot of art styles in the market that used in the gaming industry. Some of the most used art styles in game development are as follows

Pixel Art

From 1970s till 1990s pixel art a popular technique used in games. In this era the engines used to develop graphics restricted to small screen resolutions and a color palette of only 256 colors. This art style still used in some indie games.

In this art style one pixel is the smallest block of the screen display. These boxes arranged in the block form to create graphics. Characters and environments made with this art style were a bit cartoony because of the limitations of the devices. Unfortunately this art style never became outdated but it got improved with the advancements of technology like the screen resolution, color palette and data storage. Some of the famous games that made using this style as follows:

• Sonic the hedgehog
  • Shovel knight
  • Hyper light drifter
  • Metroid.

Cell Shading

In the 3d world a technique used for graphics was cell shading or toon shading. This technique uses flat colors for shading the 3D objects. This technique mainly used to develop 3D objects. It was all started in the year 2000 at Nintendo’s trade show when the demo of the upcoming game Legend of Zelda. Cell Shading works well the extravagant and color styles. Now a day’s cell shading is out dated and not seen in many games. Some of the games that initiated with this style are as follows:

• Zelda: Wind Waker
  • Okami
  • Jet Set Radio
  • Space world 2000

3D Cartoon Graphics

The word cartoon itself means a drawing that is something colorful and interesting. After cell shading technique it got advanced and moved towards new 3D techniques used to shade and render cartoon styled graphics. This technique made more intense textures of the models and looks more realistic when simulating shadows and highlights of the objects.

Super Mario 64 was the biggest example that changed its graphics with this new technique. This was the first game that set the role model of camera movement in a third person game. Some of the famous games that were develop using this art style are as follows:

• Subway Surfers
  • Temple Run
  • Star craft 2

Photorealism

After the advancements of cell shading to 3D cartoon graphics the world of graphics changed totally and upgraded to an unexpected thing that was photorealism. Graphics of the games got improved a lot and managed to develop graphics that looked almost real.

Photorealism is a graphic style that tries to make graphics as real as possible. This is the technique that has the limitation of user device the better the better the graphics. Some of the most commonly played games are as follows:

• Call of duty
  • The last of us
  • Battlefield
  • Need for speed

Conclusion

The world of technology has advanced a lot and as the time passes it will change more. New innovations will be made new techniques will be established for graphics and gaming engines. It all started from the pixel art and ended up to photorealism let’s wait and see what next big thing is coming in recent years.