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Dated Artwork/Graphics
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Find the differences and similarities between Lichtenstein’s Girl in Mirror and Darkside Detective.
Coming up: Warhol, Van Gogh, Rembrandt.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
Just to be clear: you and chrissie are saying that because it’s a game, it doesn’t have the right to use the same artistic approach as say, a painting. Yes? Or no?
Because I’m open to the idea, it’s just you haven’t convinced me yet.
I see no reason artistic techniques can’t be transferred across mediums. Last year there was a film which entirely used Vincent Van Gogh’s painting technique. Now you might argue that was a mistake because painting is painting, and film is film. But audiences and critics loved it.
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Just to be clear: you and chrissie are saying that because it’s a game, it doesn’t have the right to use the same artistic approach as say, a painting. Yes? Or no?
Because I’m open to the idea, it’s just you haven’t convinced me yet.
I see no reason artistic techniques can’t be transferred across mediums. Last year there was a film which entirely used Vincent Van Gogh’s painting technique. Now you might argue that was a mistake because painting is painting, and film is film. But audiences and critics loved it.
I can’t speak for Karlok but I don’t think in any of my posts I said that a game doesn’t have the right to use the same approach as a painting so my answer to the first question is NO!
As obviously games are a visual medium, if not using photos or film, artwork is needed & I agree that artistic techniques can be transferred across mediums - see screenshots for Monet and the Mystery of the Orangery, The Book of Living Magic & Little Briar Rose - just a few artistic methods that seem to work in games.
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to have tried to convince you of???? & also I don’t understand the relevance of posting the aboriginal art which has a lot of clarity unlike pixel-art which just doesn’t work for me in a game. That doesn’t mean that I think game developers don’t have the right to use it! 
Just to be clear: you and chrissie are saying that because it’s a game, it doesn’t have the right to use the same artistic approach as say, a painting. Yes? Or no?
No and I never said anything of the kind.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
The dots of Pointilism create much more detailed images with nuanced colors than the big blocks of pixels in Darkside Detective. It would be more appropriate to compare the art form to higher resolution games.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
The dots of Pointilism create much more detailed images with nuanced colors than the big blocks of pixels in Darkside Detective. It would be more appropriate to compare the art form to higher resolution games.
That really depends on which examples you happen to choose.
For instance:
http://www.angelofranco.com/virginiabst2lg.html
vs.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=844946240
I actually like the blocky pixelated look of The Darkside Detective, The Last Door series, and A Room Beyond.
I also like the low poly and/or cell shaded look in The Artist, The Journey Back, and Light of the Mountain.
As well as the RPG top down style used in Just Ignore Them, My Big Sister, and To the Moon.
These 3 styles by today’s standards would indeed be considered “dated”. But as with any artistic work, the medium is the artist’s choice and the consumer may or may not like said choice.
Anyway, my point is that I think these retro style graphics have made a comeback due to the games that came out during the 80’s - early 2000’s. A lot of game designers grew up during those golden years and people, like myself, who grew up during that time period as well really appreciate and enjoy the nostalgic feel we get from them, kinda like reliving our childhood.
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The top picture that you provided a link to, GateKeeper, is hardly a typical example of pointillism if an example at all. The artist is clearly influenced by the pointillism style, the picture is quite pleasing to me, but it’s more of an example of ‘splodgillism’.
The picture is apparently 9 x 12” so not one to be appreciated from a distance but as you can see all the colours are as they are unlike in the second more bona fide example.
At a distance the woman’s face (excluding shadows) appears to be nearly white but as you can see is made up of many dots of different colours that give the illusion of that nearly white colour.
The colour of the face (excluding shadows) in The Darkside Detective is made up of ONE block of colour which is exactly what Karlok was telling you that you didn’t grasp!
Essential to pointillism is that the image is created by patterns of small points in different colors. The whole is more than the sum of its parts, so the painting looks different from a distance than it does close by.
Seurat uses small points of different colors to create a bigger picture in another color. DD uses large blocks of pixels in one color to create the hard-edged look of blown-up pixels.
One colour…? Is there something wrong with your monitor perhaps?
Look at those three scout kids. The one on the left has a slightly lighter shade on the uniform, indicating or giving the impression of being fatter than the other two.
I think you have to concede here that even the most intellectually challenged player could work out that the figure on the left is obviously fatter because they’re wider! 
I actually like the blocky pixelated look of The Darkside Detective, The Last Door series, and A Room Beyond.
I also like the low poly and/or cell shaded look in The Artist, The Journey Back, and Light of the Mountain.
As well as the RPG top down style used in Just Ignore Them, My Big Sister, and To the Moon.
These 3 styles by today’s standards would indeed be considered “dated”. But as with any artistic work, the medium is the artist’s choice and the consumer may or may not like said choice.
Anyway, my point is that I think these retro style graphics have made a comeback due to the games that came out during the 80’s - early 2000’s. A lot of game designers grew up during those golden years and people, like myself, who grew up during that time period as well really appreciate and enjoy the nostalgic feel we get from them, kinda like reliving our childhood.
I would have been interested in The Last Door series (as well as The Darkside Detective) as it got very good reviews if it wasn’t for the graphics. Neither of those games were criticised for having ‘dated’ graphics as wasn’t To the Moon which I have played. I didn’t care too much for the graphics in that but at least for the most part there was some clarity in the scenes.
Even Syberia 3 has been criticised for having dated graphics which I like so much better than pixel-art but I guess that for a lot of players:
One is the uncanny valley effect as tea_tree says - something that tries to look like a realistic human/animal but doesn’t get it quite right is much more jarring and hard to empathise with than something that’s obviously stylised. There is a dating effect there in that when each generation of CGI is new our response is how unprecedentedly realistic it is, but before long we learn to notice the specific flaws of that generation and they seem glaringly obvious.
The other is simply that if you make a pixelated (or pseudo-pixelated, as pointed out above) game in 2018 it’s obviously a deliberate art decision, whereas if you use an engine that’s trying to be realistic then any aspects that fall short seem more like flaws. The same reason hand-drawn animation ages better than CGI.
I would have been interested in The Last Door series (as well as The Darkside Detective) as it got very good reviews if it wasn’t for the graphics. Neither of those games were criticised for having ‘dated’ graphics as wasn’t To the Moon which I have played. I didn’t care too much for the graphics in that but at least for the most part there was some clarity in the scenes.
I can wholeheartedly recommend the Last Door. I was put off by the overly pixelated style of The Last Door for ages as well, but in the end, it is a well-crafted game, that manages to overcome the art style with the atmosphere it has. The developers really made the pixel art work for the benefit of the game and the atmosphere. Especially the first season succeeds nicely in this, the second not so much, but there the fault can be connected more directly to the writing itself.
I can wholeheartedly recommend the Last Door. I was put off by the overly pixelated style of The Last Door for ages as well, but in the end, it is a well-crafted game, that manages to overcome the art style with the atmosphere it has. The developers really made the pixel art work for the benefit of the game and the atmosphere. Especially the first season succeeds nicely in this, the second not so much, but there the fault can be connected more directly to the writing itself.
That really is a very nice recommendation tomimt but I have to consider that the games that use these extreme pixel graphics are hard on the eyes & I really don’t need that! Also, do I really want to support & therefore encourage developers of these kind of graphics by buying their games. The answer is no - sorry.
It occurred to me, that the closest comparable to pixel art in the real world are stitch canvas or needlepoint works.
It occurred to me, that the closest comparable to pixel art in the real world are stitch canvas or needlepoint works.
How about Lego?
http://ideas.lego.com/projects/750a0d3e-52cd-4d60-bec5-50cfd17a6270/updates
I’d compare Lego to voxels, as they both present a 3D space rather than flat surface.
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