Hi all!
New member here.
Need help... I'm stuck between two styles for a game I'm working on. Basically, one is based more comics based and the other is my first attempt at digital painting. Can I ask for some criticisms and suggestions. It's my first attempt so please be gentle.
The game is a mix of Mark of the Ninja and the missions the Thieve's Guild has in Skyrim. So it will compose of interiors with a medieval theme.
Thanks.
-DFox
If you're in doubt of what style to go with, here's a suggestion: flip a coin. If it's heads you go with the comic style and if it's tails you go with the hand-painted style.
If you flip the coin and go "oh, no..." (disappointed at the result), then you finally found out which style you really prefer.
Going a different way, though, you could pick the style that's enjoyable and easy to work with so you can move on and make your game -- since you worked with both styles, you're the best person to gauge which one has these qualities.
One thing that I would do differently is to make a full mock-up of a game screen, including characters, ui elements etc. Maybe one of these styles will clash with something in an unexpected way, so you should give yourself more visual information to make a good decision.
Bottom looks more polished, but you should put a character in to see how well it integrates into the background.
Art style priorities depend on the type of game and what the player needs to see clearly and interact with. For example:
Bottom one is definitely more appealing but both are bad, sorry. Aesthetics are extremely important in selling/marketing games today.
My pro-tip: take a look at the Klondike Collective http://klondike.fr/ and try to emulate their minimalist, poppy art styles. I know your game is set in a medieval setting, but having some beautiful, popping colors in a medieval world would be super interesting because not many people have done it! In comparison, almost every game set in a medieval world has the brownish, grayish "realistic" style you are using right now.
IF YOU WANT TO SELL A GAME, IT HAS TO LOOK UNIQUE. Period.
Depends on the game. I prefer the first style for a side scroller. I prefer the second style for an RPG. It would take real gameplay so that I can feel what style fits better for the game.
I agree that the bottom one looks more polished. However I think that's because you only use black for line art in the top screen. I think if you played with the colors in the line art, it could look quite good. Look around at other examples, you'll see that usually it's a dark color, but there are cases where the line art can be a very light color against a dark background, etc. It also can be utilized to give the art more character as well. If you can get that to work, I'd say go with the top, otherwise bottom.
On 2017-09-11 at 4:49 PM, DfoxSouth said:Hi all!
New member here.
Need help... I'm stuck between two styles for a game I'm working on. Basically, one is based more comics based and the other is my first attempt at digital painting. Can I ask for some criticisms and suggestions. It's my first attempt so please be gentle.
The game is a mix of Mark of the Ninja and the missions the Thieve's Guild has in Skyrim. So it will compose of interiors with a medieval theme.
Thanks.
-DFox
For me personally comics style looks moere attractive 
, and somewhat rare nowadays , I would go with it
Purely based on esthetics I enjoy the second style. The first one is pretty good too, but it looks more, ehm... cheap? I'm not trying not be a [Richard] so forgive me if I come off as one, but I'd sooner expect the first style in a search & find game you'd play to kill time before going out while your girlfriend fixes her make-up. That being said, I wouldn't let it keep me from playing the game.
Assuming both styles are equally easy for you to work with, I'd go with the second as that feels more a like full-fledged game. And I can't quite put my finger on it, but it kinda reminds me of Lure Of The Temptress.
