Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Game Research

Thought it was time do some research on some games of a similar feel im aiming towards. The aesthetics of my game. Im going for something crazy and whacky, something as unrealistic and as far away from photo realism as possible. idea a cartoon world. The possibility of cell shading is something that I first thought off, however Ive never done cell shading and my experience within this subject is somewhat lacking, and with my texturing and UV Mapping skills very poor, plus I could imagine it would be very time assuming as at this point even though Ive not drawn concept art I can image what with it been an open world, I plan on doing alot of modelling, and interacting a fair amount, as I dont want the target audience to get bored, as the attention span is much less shorter, so I belive there has to be plenty of stuff to do on the island without them getting bored. In an ideal world I would love to do cell shading and achieve a similar result as to below.



If I could achieve something similar to this effect, it would be both brilliant and visually stunning what with my ideas, and would tick all the boxes required in been suitable for the age catergory im aiming for. Even though I mentioned i want to do cell shading at the crit and so on, Im gonna stay away from it, however I plan for my final major project to include this great aspect as its something I am very eager to learn. My idea now aesthetically is its unsuitably gonna resemble something of a more realistic game which is something im not planning upon, However the idea now is to aim for a little realism but Im going to carry on with some crazy constructions which hopefully dont resemble anything too much of what may apear upon real life. And include some crazy and colourful textures of which apeal to my younger audience. Something else I'd like to mention is that with the best interest of audience its best to keep to simle colours they can relate to such as red, blues and green, and apply them apropiate to the designs so they can relate to them such as danger. I also think it would be best to keep to simple shapes within building the constructions, such as cubes, triangles, circles and so on.

One game I could really draw influence from was Just Cause, OK its completly contrasting from the apeal im aiming for but it does have similarities inwhich I can draw influence from. Plus its also good I believe to vary your research out as you want the same results for each. What really apealed to me is the beautiful landscrapes and terrain which is included with the game, and the many island likes which can be found. Id also like to pick on even though its a crime / violent game unapropiate for the target of my game, it has a kind of sunny cheerful theme which is something I want. The tone of the water is beautifiul and that kind of refreshing apeal, and the grass and trees are really well textured adding to that colourful effect as you can see below.



More within my area two games I drew most influence from was the donkey kong games and ape escape which fell directly into age catergory and the apeal I was aiming towards, heres a couple of screenshots below.





This is the feel Im wanting, a really colourful concept, upon which is very humerous and imature, and complely unreastic. Aesthetically these games are beautiful for there time, and the new donkey kong is a perfect example of the kind of apeal on the latest technology and stands out so well upon the market. I really like the kind of papered texture apeal of Ape Escape and how basic the texturing and environments are but they really stand out well and would be greatly suited for first time gamers, and the trees look really good, this would be a great area to explore down on a further time. Donkey kong I am more familiar with, what I really love especially with the newest games is the creativity of some of the levels and the crazy concept behind the designs which I want to take influence from and combine into mine.