New game project needs efficient and interesting art style
Hi all
As I start a new game project as a solo developer the choice of art style is particularly important. I'm experienced enough to pull off a realistic model with decent character animation, but I'm not experienced enough to do it efficiently. And I suspect that even if I were, as a solo dev, with a huge amount of assets, it is completely impractical to go that route.
I have been away from 3d art for quite some time (not counting the sporadic sculpting sessions I did over the years), so I'm not in tune with the community, I don't know what new tools there are and stuff like that. That's why I'm here, to ask for opinions. Basically, I'm thinking about making the game entirely untextured, maybe low poly. Something that I could efficiently output a larger amount of assets in less time.
However, my possibly outdated experience tells me low poly isn't very efficient either. I feel I could sculpt (with something like sculptris) much faster than moving polygons and vertices in blender. The workflow would require of course a retopology process etc.
Another thing I'm keeping my eye on are modeling solutions in VR. I'm fortunate enough to own an oculus rift and I'm considering testing workflows with those solutions and seeing if I can produce usable assets that could be loaded into a game engine efficiently. It all seems very new and more like toys than actual tools though.
Anyway, any opinions? suggestions? Have you seen a cool art style somewhere or a game and would like to share? I'd appreciate it!
This is my first post here. I read the stickies and I hope this post is adequate.
As I start a new game project as a solo developer the choice of art style is particularly important. I'm experienced enough to pull off a realistic model with decent character animation, but I'm not experienced enough to do it efficiently. And I suspect that even if I were, as a solo dev, with a huge amount of assets, it is completely impractical to go that route.
I have been away from 3d art for quite some time (not counting the sporadic sculpting sessions I did over the years), so I'm not in tune with the community, I don't know what new tools there are and stuff like that. That's why I'm here, to ask for opinions. Basically, I'm thinking about making the game entirely untextured, maybe low poly. Something that I could efficiently output a larger amount of assets in less time.
However, my possibly outdated experience tells me low poly isn't very efficient either. I feel I could sculpt (with something like sculptris) much faster than moving polygons and vertices in blender. The workflow would require of course a retopology process etc.
Another thing I'm keeping my eye on are modeling solutions in VR. I'm fortunate enough to own an oculus rift and I'm considering testing workflows with those solutions and seeing if I can produce usable assets that could be loaded into a game engine efficiently. It all seems very new and more like toys than actual tools though.
Anyway, any opinions? suggestions? Have you seen a cool art style somewhere or a game and would like to share? I'd appreciate it!
This is my first post here. I read the stickies and I hope this post is adequate.
Replies
If I am understanding you correctly, you are currently under the assumption that ... the workflow that is literally the longest and the most technically involved (sculpting/retopo/baking) seems more efficient and/or faster to you than the simpliest, most barebones workflow/art asset production style.
By all means ... give both a try, and track your hours. If anything if your assumption comes from the observation that sculpting in Sculptris "easier" than moving a vert ... then you are moving verts wrong
Simple stuff hasn't changed : a simple lowpoly character/asset can still be made in a matter of hours/days. A sculpted/retopoed/baked model takes days to months.
Don't fall for all the "tutorials" and claims that baking/retopo is something trivial - or even near automatic. A lightweight, direct and barebones asset production style is always going to be a win, if only for the fact that it allows you to send stuff to the engine as you work on them. No extra processing step getting in the way.
But then again : just try both, it will be self-evident. Good luck !
i did for a sideproject some Zombies. 4h modeling and uvs 4h texture painting.
they are small on screen but look great.
if you need a detailed breakdown i could do one next week.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/682530/MarZ_Rising/
As an art style, low poly wouldn't necessarily catch my eye these days like it did waaay back when I'd no grey hairs too speak of but the overall let's say, 'simplistic' aesthetic can still I think be a head turner if not scratcher : P and as you'd mentioned an interest in VR...well anyways here's a mixed pudding selection of titles from itch:
https://itch.io/games/tag-low-poly/tag-virtual-reality
it really depends on the game. Two good examples of small team, low budget games on either end of the graphics spectrum are "The Long Dark" and "Ghost of a Tale." Both Unity games -- one with super simple graphics but deep gameplay, and one with great graphics but very simple gameplay. So everything has to balance out. If it's a complex game and you know you'll be having a tough time with the programming, keep the graphics stupid-easy.
Thomasp: That Vane game looks stunning! In fact, it's very close to what I pictured in my head. Low poly isn't the right term, it's just no texture and sharp edges. But the higher poly count helps create texture. The rest seems to be a high reliance on environmental effects like particle effects, good light, good choice of colors etc. Thanks for showing it to me! Very inspiring and exciting.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I am going to brush up on low poly techniques, as that seems to be the main message you're all sending. I hope the tools have evolved from last time I did this.
Another thing that came to mind is reliance on procedural generation of some kind. This depends on context a lot and I'm not giving you any specifics about my project. But for scifi, for example, you could get away with basic shapes and procedurally creating greeble. Something like that.
Good advice there. I will most certainly reuse everything whenever possible.
About those games, the lone dark seems simpler but the other one I would need a second life to finish on my own a game that looks like that lol
TBH it's really not much about any new tool or technique, but rather about one's bagage and experience when it comes to modeling. For instance I wouldn't be surprised to hear that some people grab individual the XYZ manipulator axis to move verts around (hence 3 operations to move one vert) as opposed to working in tweak mode/screen space mode. Or, hunting around in menus or on-screen buttons to merge verts as opposed to hitting a keyboard shortcut. That sort of stuff.
If anything you could upload a short clip of you modeling a simple prop for people to assess your efficiency.
Also -
"Retopology might be tricky depending on how you do it."
I really don't see how... Retopo is probably the easiest and most straightforward thing in the whole modeling spectrum - just as easy as unwrapping. And even though I there is a lot of praise out there for the 3Dcoat retopo tools don't really see how there is anything special there. Now specialized retopo tools like 3Dcoat and Topogun sure have their strengths, but regular 3d apps with decent surface snapping will get you to the same result in about 90% of the time ... assuming a rock-solid handle on core modeling techniques, and a willingness to always optimize one's workflow.
All that said - good luck !
here you go!
https://www.artstation.com/hiziripro
can't stop liking this guys work. so good
Personally I think doing the usual thing just without baking and having a bit more stilized texturing style is cutting-out the slack but you don't have this "lowpoly" stigma. Hard edges are half as bad if the shapes are not visibly edgy and you have quality polycount & texturing.
Depends on the type of game tho
For my game, a scifi flight sim (in a nutshell), I'm considering making the entire planet covered in fog! Things nearby are visible, things further away are only detectable in a simplified instrument interface. It works in favor of the other elements of the game, because I want this to have mystery elements and nothing beats fog and general lack of visibility to that end.
Anyway, the fog solves some of the problems. I can have a super complex scifi using simple polygons with plenty of neon lights and not worry about LOD stuff, since no city will ever be entirely visible from afar.
Until now I was unable to do any work but I just got my pc up and running! If I ever get anywhere with this I'll come back here and show you guys