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 artistic side to game environments and their art styles, colours, textures and lighting, this will back up the argument of how colours and light work within different art styles and how games are marketed to a specific audience. This specific topic on game environments is something that having come to love, and enjoy reading with a passion, and to explore different art styles, and why and how they influence consumers, only has its benefit for a 3D artist. Researching into how games are marketed to a specific audience. The focus for this part of the research will be horror and fantasy styles of art.

The primary research consists in interviewing, fellow environment artists and giving their opinion on this topic. Being a gamer myself and having found environments fascinating and very addictive and how much the art styles for each genre, have evolved throughout the years. 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, feeling it is necessary to understand each style. 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.

How do art styles contribute to a game environment?

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 that 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.

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 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.

The ambience is all about making the environment continuous and holds huge interactive potential. In sci fi style and fantasy games, it is difficult to capture authentic sounds, which is why it is heavily recommended to go to a location where the ambience is somewhat similar and record those sounds. Mentioning recording own sourced material, is important due to the fact, that there is very limited free source material on sound effects and paying for them can be quite costly. (Rob Bridgett, 2013)

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).

Speaking to Clinton Crumpler on the subject, stating that although he is not an expert on this topic, he thinks that sound is vital as it gives the environment context. A model that is supposed to look and feel metallic, has no meaning until there is sound to identify what that object is. (Clinton Crumpler, 2016)

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 maybe 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 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.

In

conclusion, the importance of the use of light in an environment is of grave

Clinton Crumplers Gear Of Wars Environment

Livingroom Scene I Modelled, textured and rendered

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. 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, how sound is what identifies our environments. 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.

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re_-interview-adam-rosenberg – Interview with Clinton Crumpler, lead 3D environment artist for gears of war. Discussing what makes a game environment. (10th of October 2016)

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