How do art styles for game environments

influence its audience. The aim for my essay, is to research into the different gaming environments

and their art styles and how they influence their audience, hoping this will

benefit me for my professional practice module, I am currently creating a

prototype of a horror puzzle game, and to understand the different art styles in

depth and what makes a game environment attractive. A goal for this essay is

to research into three different art styles which include researching, into low

and high poly games, and discussing cartoonish, semi-realistic and realistic art

styles, that are created and designed for game environments.

Researching into the art styles in game environments their colours, textures

and lighting different artists use for their games they work within different art

styles. To exploring different artistic styles is something that having come to

love, and enjoy reading with a passion and why and how they influence

consumers. The psychological element in game environments is quite

fascinating to me, and I wish to research into how different shapes and styles

work within each other, to create and design the perfect environment. Hoping

that this side of the research help me understand the concept of harmony and

how we as people view different shapes.

The primary research consists on interviewing, fellow environment artists and

asking them to give their opinion on the specific questions asked. Being a

gamer myself and having found environments fascinating and very addictive

and how art styles, change in different genres. Comparing my work to Clinton

Crumpler’s work in detail to help improve my work. Looking into observations

of the lighting he uses and the different textures and environments he has

created. The Research will include more environment artists but Crumpler’s

work is a priority, which is why focusing on him is of great importance for this

essay.

Researching into different art styles, focusing on the differences between

cartoonish styles and a more realistic style why they are designed in that way.

Feeling it is necessary to understand each style of art, hoping this will improve

the textures I create. For the secondary research, using a range of source

material which include google scholar, google and borrowing a book from the

library called game and architecture design to which has a good chapter on

game environments and commercialization.

This research will lead to the final outcome for this module, which is to

experiment in 3ds max by creating and designing a small environment and

using my research, on the different styles and evaluating the work by

comparing the design with the discovered research.

To start off, a game environment is a cg integrated development, which is used

to create and design games, and is developed through a game engine. Modern

game environments and it’s many uses of lighting and texturing, the beautiful

exotic atmosphere that is introduced to be explored is why game

environments are attractive to gamers. (Andy Kelly, 2014)

When thinking about an environment the things that come to mind the most

are interactivity, sound, art styles, the feel, the atmosphere, and the ambience.

The understanding of a game environment is to explore and to make the game

more interactive, this is even if the game is level based or open world. They

can include assets, buildings, interiors, exteriors and with different textures

and art styles available, an artist can create and design an environment from

different eras and using different art styles that can help and benefit the

commercialisation for that game.

Clinton Crumpler is a renowned 3D artist who has been in industry for six years

and has worked on game development and gaming environments, has recently

said that the most important part of an environment is the lighting and no

matter how good the model or the textures are, the lighting is what gives an

environment that edge. (Clinton Crumpler, 2016)

The theory is, that the feeling and lighting is designed for game environment is

of tremendous importance. From experience, environments in horror games

tend to focus the ambience being quite dark, and sometimes with limited

lighting there is build up for the suspense or a jump scare, but not all games

focus on lighting, to build up suspense, as it is noted in games such as Resident

Evil where they use camera angles, and music, the focus to its ambience.

There are many art styles that are used in various game environments, and

they don’t necessarily need to be console or pc based games as mobile or app

games, have also been given a huge boost in the industry due to the ability of

being able to play them out in the open.

Having discovered that these games on different platforms have something in

common, and that is they follow the same principals of game design.

Per Micael Nyberg stated, there are many ways an art style can contribute to a

game environment, in 2D style games, the art style tends to be cartoonish and

graphically, it can never match a game that is developed through a 3D engine

and due to the limited interactivity, some 2D

game developers focus more on the game’s

visual style.

A game that is aimed at children, will always have an environment that will

have a learning aim, using puzzles, colours and different shapes to intrigue its

users. The visuals will be bright and vibrant, with the interactivity being based

on a teaching aspect. (Per Micael Nyberg, 2011)

The psychological value, also contributes, as a game is really an escape from

the world we live in (Jamie Madigan, 2010). It plays a big role in the different

art styles used as we all see things differently. Architecture, colours, textures,

these are examples of how psychology is used in different art styles. The

interactivity some open world games offer, operating machinery,

communication with NPC and messing around with physics is all very attractive

which can make the difference to what makes an environment.

The psychology of survival instincts, are very valuable to creating and designing

a game environment. Level design, is about creating and designing, spaces that

create danger, that is pleasurable to battle and overcome. (Christopher Totten,

2016) The whole point of a game level, is to create tension by exploiting

human’s survival instincts. How we see and visualise the art styles behind the

different spaces is outstanding. The theory that the mind is capable to read

through different spaces and evaluate the situation the gamer is in depending

on the space the level is set at. Noticing that each genre, use a specific level

environment to demonstrate the amount of tension, that the gamer will

experience, is interesting to a degree where the whole concept of a game, is

more than textured geometry with really good lighting.

Geo Norris who is a tutor who teaches 3D at The Manchester College, gave his

opinion on this theory. In his interview he mentions how he believes lighting

gives an environment a reason to exist and explore. Discussing how colours are

crucial to the art style a 3D artists tries to create. Lighting gives a scene the real

feel (Geo Norris, 2016). He feels as an artist the harmony in the scene, is based

on shapes an artist’s uses for his environment, this backs up the point of the

psychological value of understanding the importance of shapes within different

art styles.

The question is, do art styles contribute to the feel of a game and if so how?

Researching into this topic and getting an insight into gamer’s thoughts and

what they look for when purchasing a game. The understanding of an art style,

is that they are supposed to play a huge role, for the feel of an environment,

and from a gamers point of view, they can determine whether or not to buy a

specific game. Looking at the Reddit blog, discovering that most gamers focus

on different art styles especially when purchasing an open world game. (Reddit

User, QuesoFresh, 2016)

After discovering the importance of lighting, the point of this section is to

discover the importance of texturing and if they influence not only an art style

but a game environment in general. Does an environment need to be heavy on

textures and do gamers care? These are the questions that will be answered in

this section.

David Hellman, is an art director, and a game developer he has recently stated

that specific textures and art styles gives a game an identity (David Hellman,

2016)

This is a 2D game known as Braid, created and designed by David Hallman, in

2006. The art style for Braid is designed specifically so that audience can

engage with the environment. Visually

the spikes, ladders and block style

theme, are there to communicate

with the audience, and these areas

are meant to be useful rather than

attractive.

Strangely it is known that some

games are created and designed

without using any textures. This art

style is known as “textureless” and

relies on shading to deliver its style.

(Tomas Sala, 2014) Tomas Sala is a 3D

artist who creates game

environments and he is famed for mainstreaming this art style known as “pure

3D”.

The art style for this game is based on solid colours, gradients and lighting.

Tomas, compares this style to pixel art, which is another art style which is used

for 2D based games and is also used in some 3D games, Minecraft is a good

example of 3D pixel art style. He states how pixel art made him aware, of how

you can take any visual tech and infuse it its purest. Understanding why this is

a reliable art style in the industry, you do not waste time unwrapping your

models and texturing removes a huge part in the development process, this is

a valid argument and to compensate for the lack of context the need to re

adjust the 3D models and shaders is quite time consuming. This is backed up

by Tomas Sala a 3D artists who focuses on textureless games.

The controversial No Man’s Sky by Sean Murray, released in 2016, is a 3D open

world game, that is textureless and is one of the games out there that has

been commercially successful, whether or not, it is due to the fact of its

environment appearance or its attractive open world gameplay is yet to be

discovered.

The Witness by Jonathan Blow is an open world/puzzle game released in 2016

and uses a textureless art style.

There seems to be a pattern between textureless environments and open

world games and so far, not being able to find any game environments that

relate to this art style, and that are not story driven. Feeling that the lack of

textures need to be compensated, by the games levels interactivity, and the

developers focus on other methods to communicate with its audience.

An environment does not necessarily need textures to give feeling to a scene,

although it is important to give an environment its identity, this proves that art

styles are not to rely solely on its textures, and there is more than one way to

give your environment an identity, and a purpose to matter.

Overall the findings on whether or not textures influence art styles, and a

gaining commercial success, is all down to how the game communicates to its

audience, and although lighting has a huge role to play in a gaming

environment, we cannot lose sight into what textures can also contribute to a

game, after all David Hellman once said, that lighting gives your models a

reason to matter while textures give the scene its identity. The importance on

lighting and texturing, and their influences, within different art styles is crucial

to the development of gaming environments. (David Hellman, 2006)

Ambience is usually an undervalued area of a video game, a quote by Robert

Bridgett in 2013. It is an area where sound effects, music and dialogue all come

into effect.

Although dialogue is not a big part of an environment, it can also contribute to

surroundings of an area and its art style. This is contributed by the ambience

the art style it is reflected by. For example if the art style is cartoonish then the

sound will be quite high pitched, and the lighting tends to be quite bright.

Sound and audio offer another perspective of how to visualise and

communicate in a gaming environments. Sound has always been a major

component of game design, and with the popular trend to create music

gameplay there seems to be a lack of audio exploration (Aaron Oldeburg,

2013).

Blogger Stephen Totilo, has stated that sound is not an important aspect to

designing a game. His experience on the topic is based on how he has seen

gamers play video games with the sound turned off, and he saw how gamers

tend to focus more on the game mechanics and interactivity rather than

sound. (Stephen Totilo, 2011)

This gives a balanced argument that audio is an important part to developing a

gaming environment, it may be more important to some games than others.

The findings suggest that in audio it is more efficient in mainstream video

game platforms for example, the ps4, Xbox or PC and suggested that mobile

app games do not necessarily need audio.

He also stated that he feels gamers disrespect the artistic value of a game by

not listening to music or atmospheric sounds while playing the game.

According to Rev Dr Bradley Mayer who is an audio director with more than 18

years of experience, has said when creating an environment that sound is one

the top most important aspects to a game. When creating a 3D gaming

environment, asking how is it going to feel? What will it sound like? He feels

that a lot of game developers don’t focus enough on audio, and that is how

their games don’t become mainstream. (Rev Dr Bradley Mayer, 2016)

Discovering the balance between the need of atmospheric effects is quiet

interesting, due to the proven nature of how game developers utilize sound in

their games, noticing that not all games have to rely on sound for the perfect

game, but it will need some support to give a game not only identity but a

purpose. The feel of a game is not just by its interactivity but also through

sound and really to create more realism.

The selling standpoint for marketing a game is a fascinating subject due to the

fact, which so many games are made, created, designed and marketed yearly

for gamers worldwide, and the competitive nature of indie and mainstream

games are ever more so.

“The basis of any video game is in its marketing” a quote by James Batchelor.

All it takes is one moment, one eye catching scene from the games trailer to

ignite that spark that turns a game from indie to mainstream. Disputing that a

game needs to be perfect, and complete for it to be a commercial success is a

valid argument, but with recent stories of

games having success and not being

completed proves this theory incorrect. All

games now have some element of an online

multiplayer presence, and consoles rely

heavily on internet access to what game

developers also rely on to patch and update

their game once released. According to

internet live stats 40% of the world

population have internet access that is 3.5

billion people, which is why developers have

decided to rely on online marketing

techniques by including advertisements in

game environments and game trailers. (James

Batchelor, 2013)

When advertisements in games are done correctly, games can be incredibly

receptive. (Jack Wallington, 2011)

Different art styles, play an important role, in how marketing is managed for

video games due to everyone having different tastes and styles they like. This

is why a lot of research goes into finding information about the audience the

game is being sold to.

Sound is an interesting aspect to how a game is marketed, as we have always

had the ability of using various methods of communication. Tom Hoggings who

is a video games editor suggested that video games should be heard and not

just seen, and it is an interesting theory because a game is supposed to be an

An example of in game advertisement and marketing techniques

escape from reality, and to sell a product based on this theory would be aiming

a 3D gaming environment based on its surroundings and interactivity. While on

most occasions, sound in a video game trailer, seems to be one of the most

important aspects to selling a game, as it adds more emotion and identity to

that game. (Tom Hoggings, 2013)

There seems to be a heavy difference on marketing indie games to the

marketing of mainstream games. The Indie scene rely on their games going

viral, and sometimes even release the game for free, and this way they will

earn money through in game advertisements.

The conclusion consists, games are marketed to various audiences around the

world, and how exactly are they marketed is a good question, as they seem to

be marketed differently based on the type of game, developers try to sell.

Developing a game is more than just creating 3D assets, the amount of

research that goes into the discovery of different cultures, is worth the effort,

due to the attention to detail that games rely on when creating a culture based

art style and using that as a selling point for their gaming environments.

There is a huge difference in my work and Clinton Crumpler’s work. It is

strange that I am able to even compare my work to his, as he has been in the

industry for over 6 years and I am just finishing my BA. Being an admirer of his

work for almost a year and half now, to say that his work is good would be an

understatement, as his use of lighting in his scenes is extravagant. I am used to

creating photorealistic renders using V-ray and it is only now, I have started to

use Unreal Engine to create a gaming environment. Strangely enough it is the

same software Clinton uses to create and render out his work only finding this

out when I discovered an article of him being interviewed, and he suggest that

game designers should take advantage, and use this amazing and free

software.

This is a scene I modelled, textured and rendered and you can see the

differences. The difference in lighting is noticeable because of the amount of

time and effort Clinton has put in to get lighting spot on. One of the topics

Clinton mentioned when interviewing him, stating that lighting is probably the

most aspect to any environment, and you can identify his work just by looking

at the lighting he uses. His work is the type of environments I would like to

create and model and render in the future, and the more confidence I have the

more I believe to achieve this goal. His modelling is quite hard surfaced similar

to my style, although I sometimes lack creativity I always thought that

modelling interiors or environments would limit my creativity, but seeing

Clintons work and the amount of work, care and respect he has for what he

creates is admiring. His texturing is what I also love about his work, seeing how

much attention to detail his projects consist of.

To conclude, the importance of the use of light in an environment is of grave

importance, and learning of the psychological element into art styles and how

much time and patience is needed to build a game, let alone design one and

try to sell it. The reason why I chose to research into the psychology of

environments, was to get an insight into why and how we feel fear and anger,

when playing a game. As someone who plays games, it is strange to think that

every game plays with our instincts and emotions, and I would like to include

this aspect to the game I am creating, for my professional practice and

hopefully my final major project. Realising how art styles are entwined with

shapes, colours and cultures all these elements, that influence our generation

of game development is influential. Knowing very little on game environment

in general, only knowing that when playing an open world game, enjoying the

freedom but never knowing why. The understanding of how games are

marketed to certain areas around the world, the different marketing

techniques developers use, the importance of sound, not just in a 3D

environment but also in trailers. Learning about why lighting is so powerful and

why so many game developers rely on lighting to produce their ultimate

environment. I feel that I have learnt a lot in reading sources and books and

interviewing some wonderful artists can only benefit my work in the future.

Clinton Crumplers Gear Of Wars Environment

Livingroom Scene I Modelled, textured and rendered

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