one thing i did when ( together with Luis Antonio on 12 Minutes ) i was developing the artstyle for the game, was to be inspired by classic paintings, in this case, impressionism, wich i tried thru several 3d iterations convey the feel to the art style, some i exagerated, others i tried to be more moot. it was a fun…
some times what you need is... time sinks :) to make something that stands out, you will have to test things and play with them, iterate on them and scrap stuff that doesnt work. personally i would suggest to work with concept artists / 2d designers on it, you can design stuff in 3d and come up with cool styles but usually…
Neox has pretty much nailed it You need to go round in circles a bunch of times - the real skill is in learning to iterate quickly on ideas. you absolutely need to get a gameplay template working before you go anywhere near lookdev because gameplay should be one of the drivers behind art style. the gameplay template and…
On top of what Neox is saying about iterating and scrapping I would say it's also worth trying to find projects that were made with similar team sizes that you intend to be working with and seeing what they were able to achieve. Referencing older generation consoles can also be a good way to create an aesthetic that plays…