See the Game
The beginnings of a visual prototype to validate art appeal
This week we explore the potential look of our game idea. All we know right now is that we want something appealing, beautiful, and focused on the art. There are still many questions yet to be answered, but making smaller prototypes to prove or disprove ideas is something we want to test early on. One of the first things I usually try to wrap my brain around is a clear picture of what the game might look like. Walking around in the editor with a character helps inform some of those questions we have on the visual style and gameplay.
Appeal
Making games players want to play before playing them. - Jonas Tyroller
The challenge with setting yourself apart from the rest of the games out there… I think… comes down to appeal. With only a fraction of a second to capture’s someone attention with one screenshot, or an animated gif, or one gameplay mechanic… are you able to stop them from scrolling, take a pause, and click to learn more. If they can’t see the core appeal of your game (visual or otherwise) in that short timeframe, than I’ve already lost you as a potential person to convert into a player of your game.
The art style is a huge driving factor for me on whether or not I pick up and play, wishlist, or pass on a game. I’ve also played games where the art style was not something that didn’t appealed to me at all… yet the gameplay was so engaging and fun.1 On the other hand, there are also games with big art appeal, but no gameplay appeal, and I don’t think that works to keep me invested either.
Of course this is a case of personal preference and what attracts you to certain types of games. What might be appealing to you might not be to another player. And what might be appealing to another person, could well in fact, not be appealing to you. But I believe, if you have both in your game, that might give you a better chance to stand and really appeal to more players. And this is hard todo, there’s no easy answer.
For more about appeal, and experience focused games… I found this talk from Jonas Tyroller very insightful.
Progress Iteration
Previously we didn’t have much… a proxy player character for scale, an old(ish) house to restore and some greenery scattered throughout. It’s a start. This initial pass got me going… it got me excited… and was important to me for starting a new project or idea. If it gets you up out of your funk to go about making something… than that’s something right there…
Building on what I initially created, the house structure needed to be more overgrown, and old. This is a game is suppose to be about restoration, cleaning up the space and rebuilding… of course, so recreating that look and feel is important. Just throw in some more foliage and greenery… done… right?
Not quite, everything was just all too green. We implemented technique to achieve color variation across all the foliage assets using a single material. A script assigns a unique number or Material ID that tells the shader to choose which color to use from the pre-defined palette. Now we’re gettin’ somewhere…
If anyone is interesting in the more technical implementations of this, please let me know, and I can write a more in depth post about it.
The work week with adding some more vegetation, vines and variants to the surrounding building. That was a lot of V’s. I tweaked the lighting to help tie everything together a little more to give the overall impression of the visual look and feel. And lastly… a tree. Because why not…
Overall, we’re investing some time into this visual prototype. Not a lot of time was spent, and we quickly got things into the engine to help us see the game. The small effort… I think… was worth the initial visual payoff of the game beyond the graybox or basic primitive models.
It’s still a block in, graybox, prototype, and the house definitely still needs some work done to it (no pun intended). There needs to be some more aging and weathering to make it feel like it’s something that needs to be restored. And the greenery also could step up a notch to really sell that overgrown feel without making it look too post apocalyptic. But seeing how all the different elements like the foliage and house fit together was insightful for answering some of the questions we had.
I think there’s enough here to start prototyping some of the gameplay… so that will be the next step we work on!
Does it feel overgrown, run down, abandoned enough?
Is the current visuals appealing enough to get you to learn more about it?
Which is more important to you gameplay appeal or art appeal?
I am curious about where this will go. I don't think this is abandoned enough. I think of over growth as foliage slowly damaging the building. When i was a kid there was this one house that had a tree growing through it's windows, and had to be entered through the back sliding glass door because the front door was visibly fused to the frame. I think a tad bit of brown could help with the foliage as well.
Gameplay, and story have always been bigger for me. The games that drew me in the most are for sure, character driven things, like Last of us, Jak and Daxter. But appeal does matter for sure, I am with you on rimworld couldn't really dive too deeply into it cause the art style wasn't it for me. So i think you have the right mindset here of trying to nail something that has both appeal and is actually fun.
Good luck!