Adventure Gamers - Forums

I’ll throw another thought in. I don’t know whether you would call it style, or ambience or some other “artistic” adjective. But the one characteristic I would attribute to the vast majority of adventure games produced over the last five or so years is DARK.

That’s not dark as in “noir” dark. Just dark. That’s dark as in I can’t turn up the brightness on my monitor high enough to see what I’m doing dark.

Please don’t point out the exceptions. I know there are exceptions. But think of the games you’ve played, and how many of them are drenched in sepia and dark grey tones.

I just watched a 4-minute trailer for a new adventure called Outlast. Intriguing, but what was the overriding graphics “style”? It is DARK.

It can be photo-realistic dark. Think Scratches. It can be retro-pixelated dark. Think Gemeni Rue. It doesn’t matter what the “style” is. The required color palette is dark.

Personally, I find that annoying.

One of the many reasons I’m in love with Daedalic games. Yes they are really stylized with Eye being the closest to realistic interpretation. But most of them are color, bright and absolutely gorgeous.

That generally lies in the realm of muddy color palettes. Colors that give the sense of doom and gloom.

One stylized game that was also very colorful that I absolutely enjoyed was Botanicula. Majority of the games from the creator were dark, moody, muddy color palette. I think it all goes into the realm of what the developer wants to accomplish. I feel that you can take a game more seriously when it has more realistic features and contrasting tones than colorful and stylized. Its like the difference between a political thriller and a romantic comedy. The artistic style that reflects the mood generally falls into how stylized the game is.

Though, in a way the Last Express broke that mold. Stylized, but with realistic features. Despite it looking like a graphic novel, it still doesn’t feel stylized as like Sam & Max or Deponia. In a way, the animation adds to the realism.

Stylized animation is also another topic that greatly influences a way a game feels since we would have to decide if we want to exaggerate the animation or refine with with mocap.

In the end, I think the best way to defined the whole topic in short is that stylized visuals aim to drive away from realism, whereas non-stylized strive to encourage realistic features. Agreed?

Muddied looking graphics? No colors?

mbday630 - 04 November 2012 12:37 PM

I think that is why I like the daedalic games too, they are colorful. I am looking outside right now and the sun is shining and I see COLORS.  I believe now that is why I never cared for the game Riven, and I tried it many times because I kept hearing how great the game was. but, after 1/2 hour of muddied looking graphics, it just bored me to tears. so, give me colors, or if that is what is called stylized art, please keep it coming.

A small nitpick. You are looking out with the sun shining. The sun creates the light that bounces off of objects that creates vibrant colors. What happens when its cloudy? What happens during a sandstorm? What if you were in the middle of the desert? People accuse games for being ‘Muddied’ yet fail to realize that…its cloudy in the game, the colors should be Muddied’. Or a sand storm, so the dominant color should be earthy reds and orange. Thats all. A bit of an education.

Best example of this misjudgement? Gears of War. This is where the whole ‘modern == brown colors’ game…if people looked up, it was cloudy as hell. If you looked around, you’re in an urban environment, if you watched the cutscenes, you’re in the middle of a war. Why the hell would there be a vibrancy of colors.

Like fien’s post, Riven was far from Muddied. Sure it was the darkest of the series, but it was very vibrant. Realistic vibrance, not cartoon vibrance.

mbday630 - 04 November 2012 03:31 PM

well, of course!  that is why most people don’t like storms, cloudy days, etc. hence, I don’t like games that don’t have color.  who likes dreary? not me, at least.

Edgar Alan Poe turned in his grave.