Discussion Guidance on Art.

Hello,
Wanted to get everyone's thoughts on how I should go about handling something. I am currently in the planning/predevelopment phase of my first major project. It is going to be an isometric Rogue-like/lite (elements of both in there). Best way I can think to describe the gameplay is imagine the gameplay of Hades, the enemy count of Vampire Survivors, and the repetition of, well, any AAA title that has come out over the past 5-10 years.

As far as the look of it, I love the look of pixel art but not sure if from the isometric camera angle if that will be viable. I am wanting to avoid going top down as well as 3d with it. The camera angle that I have in mind is fixed to the character above the typical 3rd person/ over the shoulder view.

As this may end up being a fast pace game, should I just do a few sprites for the different directions like in Rollerdrome (see You Should Play Rollerdrome - YouTube if you have not heard) or bite the bullet and go 3d with it (this would involve learning Blender)

 

Yeah, should have specified the GMTK version of Rollerdrome. What the 3d version was based on

as far as what I am good at, better at pixel art, but that is because I have not had experience in 3d yet.

 

well the reason to do pixel art is if you dont know how to do 3d

mediocre pixel art passes very well, while mediocre 3d looks horrible

 

I'm doing the exact same thing (although reality will humble you on your scope).

Most important thing is focus on composition first! Once you've picked a camera angle, slap together a quick scene and do paint over, after paint over until the game looks GOOD.

Don't focus on detail, it's all about colour and composition right now.

I spend 4 hours making a really nice enemy model, but when I put it into the game, it just didn't look right.

 

First 3d and pixel art aren't mutually exclusive.

1. you can do placeholder in 3d, then replace with whatever art later

2. you can tip toe with "bad 3d" and use them as stick figure to help draw in 3d, like they did for guilty gear 2d before the xrd that use 3d cell shading, and dead cell. That mean you don't have to be good at 3d while starting, since you will have to pass over it in pixel.





https://www.gamedeveloper.com/produ...-pipeline-for-2d-animation-in-i-dead-cells-i-

3. Don't spend mulling over art style:

- do mock ups, lots of them, to narrow down the look and feel,
- use mood board using collage of existing games or art to help you narrow what you want.
- Try to find the creative pillar of what you to express through that process, ie what are you trying to convey first.

For example you might be inspired by hades, but what if it's not the artstyle but what it made you feel that's inspiring? Maybe you like the detailing, the expressivity, the movement, the contrast, the characters, find what, it might surprise you that you can achieve the same by very different mean that suits you more.

Once you figure out what you want to express, and what you like and what you are inspired, find how they relate to the project, that will give the final answer about the direction you should takes.

For example you like gritty realism but is impressed by the liveliness of cartoon character, but your game is a medieval space shooter, you want to convey harsh environement with deeply emotionl and broken character? Well maybe a style ike Arcane (Riot, league of legend) or the bad batch (disney, star wars) might be suitable.

 

So the decision of 3d or not is something I need to make from the get go as it will der Termine if I were to use the 2d or 3d version of unity, (now either Godot or UE5).
I know the setting and atmosphere that I am looking for in the game. At this point is it a case where I want to learn an application like blender so I only have to worry about creating a single model per character, or go the pixel art route where I would need to make many versions of a character.

This is just a hobby so time is not a factor

 

Possible little offtopic on me:

That is huge underestimation, in my opinion.
It gives faulty perception, that person can do anything and may lead to things, which makes biting more, than can chew.
Mind, I am not against experimenting and all that. I love it myself. But time is big factor.

Since as a hobby, you won't be able give infinite amount of time. Yet you want have some sens of progress.
You may not expect some final end product anytime soon, but time factor should be significant aspect here.
Consider, how much time you have per day / week, and what you may be able to do.
For learning sure.
Still, you wont have an infit amount of time, before you get frustrated on progress result, if it takes far too long than you anticipated. So choosing what method, or if even switching editor to try and after that, which way to go.
Just be in mind, each time switching tools will set you back on time frame, as you will need to learn it, if you don't know them yet.

Just something to think about.

 

unity doesnt have a 2d version its all 3d

if you want fast and easy take pixel art

if you want slow and hard take 3d

3d is only faster and better if you already know how to model, rig, animate and skin

pixel art is easier to learn, and a low skill will look better than a low skill 3d which will look horrible

not saying that pixel art wont be hard, but it will be easier than 3d

for example I am already good with pixel art, and yeah its a huge hassle to make each frame of animation and to sprite each and every frame, I wish I could swap all my ability to 3d. But I try my hand at 3d and its very overwhelming and it seems like a waste of time to go try and learn it, even if I learn it unless I become very good the game will look trashy

when I was bad at pixel art it was already looking passable, why because the style is very minimalistic and theres less room to mess up

 

I don't actually understand your 2D vs. 3D dilemma. As far as the game play why wouldn't one work just as well as the other? Maybe you could show a screenshot that illustrates why one or the other wouldn't work?