3D and casual games

karmiclychee

I'm aiming for 3D prop and character modeling (Zbrush/Max, etc) and was wondering if anyone had some thoughts or good examples of robust 3D characters and stuff in the casual market?

I work support at a casual game company now and it's pretty incredible the amount of cash that rolls in through the door, all from grandma. I just figured that the 3D demands in the casual market are pretty slim and as I aim for employment, I've been defaulting to look at AAA studios and indie outfits, but is there more out there that I'm just not aware of as someone who doesn't actually play casual games?

karmiclychee

True - the bulk of what I see is 3D illustration or flash-based work. Would you classify the mobile market in the same space as the "casual" market - I imagine the mobile market skews much younger.

Of course, you're still constrained by hardware.

chrisradsby

There is a reason why sprite-based games are popular, it's aimed towards a very broad market that finds the art-styles enjoyable. Using normal maps for mobile games isn't really what companies want these days. They want to see great art at a very cheap budget and the way to go is sprite-type art.

There are some good-looking 3d games for iPhone etc etc
Reckless racing 2 is pretty sweet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz993b5P7Yc&feature=player_detailpage#t=338s

But most shooters and the like look like crap. Polarbit Games have pretty good looking games, but then again it's in the racing-genre.

But it's not impossible to establish a 3d stylish and cheap art-style that will work for casual games.

Fomori

Yeah I agree that the dev time, budgets and team sizes are all much smaller than major PC/console games, therefore you usually won't have highly detailed realistic characters. So that's probably not the route to go down if you want to work on that sort of stuff.


But I gotta say, despite all the restrictions there are some really great looking casual/social/mobile games that (although don't have highly detailed and realistic assets) are designed beautifully with great aesthetics. This video that was posted on Polycounts front page springs to mind http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/graphics-vs.-aesthetics