Odd Shapes With Familiar Faces

 Stylistic Artstyles in Modern Games

Recently I've been playing Sea Of Thieves a lot, and the art style for this game is mind-blowing. It is exactly the sort of style I would love to learn and perfect, as the style is a bit misshapen, yet each model is perfectly presented with no confusion as to what it could be.

Here's a screenshot I grabbed from in-game which I feel shows exactly what I mean, the rocks are super stylised as are the trees, and yet it all fits together perfectly and brings so much character to the world it's in.

Another thing I adore about the style of Sea Of Thieves is the fact that everything is made in a way that you can picture how it feels or how it's made in the world. For example, everything solid has edges that are chipped, while everything soft life fruit or skin is smooth and without damage. In order to create these assets, Rare used a mixture of modeling and sculpting to achieve the unique ridges and cuts in the objects.

One of my long time favourite franchises Crash Bandicoot also implements an odd-shaped style choice that has stuck with me. Even the simple cube crates have a jaunty angle which I love.

Each character in the game has a unique silhouette which is easily recognisable for any player, both old and new.

Even though this Crash game (Crash Of The Titans) is not the favourite, it's still commended for its unique tribal style and the design of the Titans. Each character in this game is even more stylised than those in the rest of the series of games, yet is clearly distinguishable from the rest.

A great game that has since been shut down was Loadout. Loadout was a unique online shooter based around insane customisation of weapons and costumes, with a goofy cartoonistic style. 

The style of Loadout is unique as the shapes of the characters are very exaggerated and goofy. And as we see in the background, the world is just as goofy.

(Crash image: https://www.crashmania.net/en/about/contributors/)

(Loadout image: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/loadout-ps4/)

About Me

 Who am I?

My name is Tom Waude, and I'm doing my Masters Degree in Games Design.

All my life, I've always loved games. The first game I ever played was a game called Bubble Bobble on my Dad's old GameBoy, and since then I've not stopped playing them. In 2002 my Dad came home from work trying to hide a brand new Xbox from my Mum (unsuccessfully) with Halo: Combat Evolved, which I played religiously. Whenever I played games back then I was always mesmerized by how it all worked and due to my age, I believed it was some form of magic. 

I've always enthusiastically enjoyed stylised artwork and games in which the world is oddly proportioned, such as Crash Bandicoot. The style of these games has always inspired me, and as a kid, I'd draw out little worlds in these misshaped styles. I've kept this love of stylised work throughout college and university, in all the projects I've worked on.

For example, during the final project for college, I decided to make a stylised marvel model showcase.

While the models aren't really oddly shaped, they were basic and block-coloured with a toon shader, giving it a comic book feel.

Recognisable Stylised Shapes

 A lot of memorable family friendly games have widely recognisable characters and/ or objects that players of all ages can confidently identify just from the silhouettes. A successful stylisation of a character can be recognised without any colour at all.

As we can see from these three silhouettes, a successful franchise can be recognised without any detail at all. This kind of stylisation is something I truely admire. The ability to create recognisable characters with exaggerated forms is something of a marvel, and sets a president of admirablility I wish to follow.

Even the main objects from the three games are extremely recognisable from the silhouettes, though the stylisation is not as extreme on the objects as they are on the characters. The objects clearly fit into the same world as their characters, and this is something I want to master more. I wish to be able to create a model that inspires the onlooker to be able to picture the very world I picture when designing it. I want to be able to be shown a character and design something that fits their world and their style seemlessly. 

(Crash Images: Naughty Dog)

(Mario Images: Nintendo)

(Sonic Images: Sega)

Communicating With A Player Via Models

 How does a modeler guide a player?

A vital trait for a successful game is a strong connection with the player, allowing the player to be guided through the game without being blatantly told every step. One of the most subtle, yet successful, ways of doing this is through the models of the game. A fantastic example of this is the Uncharted series, in which the levels will often be large and open spaces with lots of dead ends. Naughty Dog direct the player through their levels with yellow coloured climbables, or brighter coloured edges on walls or objects. 

A fine example of yellow being used in the Uncharted series, is in the second game, where Nathan Drake must climb up a broken train hanging from a cliffs edge. 

During this section the player is presented with a mass of reds and greys, with a single yellow pipe standing out. This grabs the attention of the player and instantly tells them where they need to jump to in order to progress.

Once the player makes the leap to the yellow pipe, a small animation plays indicating that the right way was picked.

The use of the colour yellow in this scene is super effective against the mass of duller colours because it forces the yellow to stand out and catch the player's attention.

A less colourful example of player direction is used in the FarCry series.

In these games the player is urged to climb structures and radio towers to furthur progress, or unlock new weapons and parts of the map.

While not as bright and obvious as the directional guidence in Uncharted, FarCry uses climber's ropes on the ends of ledges that can be climbed to indicate to the player where to go.

The ropes aren't as obvious to the player as a bright yellow pipe would be, but if the player is stuck for a way to get up and can find the ropes, then they know exactly where to head next.
The subtlty of the ropes dotted around the world allows the guidence system to be well hidden and appear natural in the environment, while still being present enough for the player to look out for them while exploring an area.

Another method of guiding the player through a level is using the environment itself. Placing large objects in constand view can give the player a sense of longing, and encourage them to take the best path towards it. Naughty Dog are a great example for this technique as in all their games, the characters constantly talk about and point out the buildings or landmarks they need to get to. Having these buildings and landmarks in the direct vision of the player at all times, gives the player a certain direction to follow, beliveing that they are finding the path themselves instead of it being presented linearly as it is.

Similar to this, in Uncharted 3's rooftop flashback, the player is presented with a large open space, yet is guided throughout the level seamlessly. Exiting windows presents a frame showing the building the player needs to get to, birds fly off in the distance the player needs to go, and the rooftops are angled to guide Nate the whole way through. This presents the level as a large open area type feeling, when in fact it is extremely linear with a set path. While some of this is down to the enemies blocking off areas, the majority of this sequence being played out correctly is down to how the environment is modeled with the player guidence in mind.