Stylised Games
I’ve pondered this before and a post over at Wonderland got me pondering again: when are we going to see more visually stylised games? Cell shading was revolutionary when Jet Set Radio debuted but that’s as far as that kind of thing has gone, since then no one’s tried anything nearly so visually fresh and exciting.
Why not create a whole game that looks like a moving oil painting ala What Dreams May Come. Or instill some excitement in your grungy action title by implementing a vibrant sketched look? Cell shading was just the first step, surely. Technical challenges be damned, who’s going to take the next step?
July 29th, 2005 at 8:57 am
A couple of games do come to mind. Viewtiful Joe for the GC/PS2 is a stunning, very stylised game and also in development by the same dev team (Clover Studios) is Okamai which again looks fantastic and original gameplay.
http://ps2.ign.com/objects/678/678618.html
Killer 7 is also another good example.
One thing I would like to touch on though is how much abuse Zelda recieved for going with a cel-shaded engine rather than a “realistic” one. Why gamers have always had this facination with realism is beyond me and likewise how can anyone honestly claim any Zelda game has sported realistic graphics?
I support your plea for more diverse looking games but I think ultimately your average gamer isn’t ready for it.
July 29th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
The thing is those two examples are still using similar cell shading techniques to JSR - Killer 7 just lacks the black borders.
Arguably, yes, the public isn’t ready for something so daring. However match oil painting visuals (or whatever) with the right gameplay and I think it could generate a lot of talk ala “wow, this looks like something else”. Or even just do something with visuals beyond your typical cartoon or realistic style - there’s so much potential to do more with computers than just try (and inevitably fail on some level) to recreate reality.
Who knows, probably just a pipe dream and I’m certainly not the one to follow it given my lack of coding skills. :)