jack1974
Nov 11, 2019
I thought: instead of making a poll, why not ask my fans (or even not fans but just potentially interested people in buying my games) to show me exactly what they like?
Because it's easy to say "stylized manga" or "more realistic manga" or "painted style" and so on, but there's a lot of difference in the same style between the various artists.
So I would like you to post links/images to artist that you adore, I mean that just the art alone would make you considering getting the game (if that is a thing, I know for some people the main thing is the story).
I think this would help me understand a bit better the tastes. Even in my own games I was surprised by how some performed and by the reception of the fans towards certain artists (and it's really impossible for me to understand since depends on personal tastes). Thanks
p.s. of coure you can also just pick from my games and tell me this artist XYZ is my favorite and so on!
jack1974
Nov 11, 2019
I see, it's hard to find manga artists of that style (at least I couldn't find any). But I agree is cute, maybe a bit too much on the "everyone is 20 years old" style for me but I see why it might be appealing
Franka
Nov 11, 2019
...I probably just really like exaggerated curves.
I've seen some imitations of Kopi Anget's style, but it's not just the style itself, but also the incredible quality in detail and shading that makes him my favorite.
jack1974
Nov 11, 2019
Well if you're after curves you might like the character art of the secret yuri game then (not the CG probably since I had to use a different artists for that). Hope to be able to post art of that game publicly soon
jack1974
Nov 11, 2019
I play mainly for the story, but if you can give me a game with the same art as Claymore I'll be happy for life 
You mean with all tall, slender and blonde people?
Jokes apart cool style, I don't like much the faces but are just personal tastes.
ElfenLied
Nov 11, 2019
You mean with all tall, slender and blonde people?
Jokes apart cool style, I don't like much the faces but are just personal tastes.
There's an explanation for that.
They all have the same hair/eyes colour as a result of a genetic mutation. The author of this manga was clearly inspired by The Witcher because the incipit is quite similar. They are a group of women whose pyisical abilities were enhanced by a mysterious organization in order to make them fight monsters. And like Witchers they don't have emotions, they have supernatural health regeneration, they don't meddle with human's matters, and they are often feared by other humans, who consider them monsters as well.
jack1974
Nov 11, 2019
Ah OK makes more sense now!
Jaeger
Nov 12, 2019
Generally speaking, I appreciate some variety, as long as the art fundamentals are there. I prefer a lot of colors over heavily tinting a single color, though the latter can work depending on the context.
Shigenori Soejima: mostly known as the character designer for the Persona series.
Jeff Meghart: an animator who worked in a variety of projects and studios, including Disney. Worked on an early Playstation 2 game called The Mark of Kri and its sequel, Rise of the Kasai. Also worked on Wildstar Online.
Bengus: currently a freelancer, but was a prominent artist for Capcom in 90s. Over the years, he has shown his ability to change his art style.
Jason Chan: worked on some marketing illustrations for Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 3. Currently a senior concept artist for Riot Games.
These are a few artists I can name at the top of my head and I limited it to the concept art and illustration side of video games. In practice, there are usually multiple artists working on a single game and with an art director ensures the art has a unified look. Sometimes, I like the early concept art more than the final designs.
jack1974
Nov 13, 2019
Thanks is a very interesting thread for me, even if of course just representative of a very small % of my customers.
Sadly, many times I am unable to choose exactly the artists I would like for every game/occasion for a myriad of factors, like: being too slow/busy (which would mean delaying the game by 2-3 years), unable to draw certain things (couples for example, or backgrounds) or simply artists disappearing (recently happened less though).
Sometimes I feel like finishing a game right as I wanted to do it is some kind of miracle
jack1974
Feb 14, 2020
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQrwVCSXYAscEco?format=png&name=900x900" style="max-width:100%">
speaking of art styles for fun I made a test render of a random character I bought in the past, what do you think (ignoring the hair physic issue lol).
I saw some pretty popular games done with 3d recently on Steam. Of course doing a good result in a single portrait image is easy, but mixing it with backgrounds etc is another matter.
The main advantages of 3D would be:
- small animations
- unlimited pose/camera changes (the only limit would be how much I'm willing to wait rendering times lol)
- possibility to do games that with 2D art would be impossible to do. For example, customizable characters wouldn't be an issue anymore. I could have romance scenes even letting players choose gender/race/etc the only limit would be again the number of combo/render times
of course I'm still working on my current games with the manga art, but who knows maybe in future I could try a test game and see how it goes.
Franka
Feb 14, 2020
I still don't want "realistic" looking 3D characters. It's painfully obvious that the characters are posing dolls with dead eyes, and once you've seen a few of those characters, they all start looking the same.
The only popular games featuring Daz3D (that I know of) are porn games because sex sells. If you want to go there, fair enough, quite a few people make a comfortable Patreon living doing that.
jack1974
Feb 14, 2020
Yes I know that the most popular are the porn ones
And I also know that while they make a ton of money it's not easy at all (some have animations with full voiceover and so on, like 3d movies).
However in my specific case I was also thinking more like, you could have a character perform combat moves/animations, have enemies/monsters moving, etc. So even in a future RPG the 3D stuff enables things that normally are too expensive to do with 2D (maybe with pixel art).
As I said I would only do it maybe as side projects to raise some cash to keep doing my usual games. I prefer manga/hand drawn art myself too
jack1974
Feb 14, 2020
https://i.imgur.com/I5vCelT.jpg" style="max-width:100%">
is this less doll?
Just doing it in background while I code the new cards. I should try to do a video, since that might be the real unique advantage of 3D (since obviously I could never do a video in 2d).
Franka
Feb 14, 2020
Now it's a doll you forced to smile.
Nah, I'm a 3D hater, so don't listen to me too much.
While you might not be able do video in 2D, you can add small animations with Live2D, like breathing, blinking or motion in NSFW scenes. That's already a step up.
jack1974
Feb 14, 2020
Haha to be honest I don't like 3D either. But of course my tastes doensn't matter, is the majority of people that decide
The next version of Ren'Py should have built-in support for Live2D (since they'll implement shaders and stuff) so it should be definitely easier. Right now you can't do it except for using pre-rendered videos which is a bit of a waste of time/space/VRAM.
Jaeger
Feb 14, 2020
I find that 2D graphics age better than their 3D counterparts, but the latter has come a long way. Perhaps you could go for more stylized art if there is an issue of uncanny valley effect from realistic models.
3D models can also mimic 2D through cel shading.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/250/261/39b.gif" style="max-width:100%">
Unlike Arc System Works' previous titles, Guilty Gear Xrd uses 3D models for their characters but used rendering techniques that gave the illusion of 2D sprites.
jack1974
Feb 15, 2020
Yes that looks great, but those kind of effect are extremely hard to obtain, you'd need custom 3d models and are way too expensive for indies
Jaeger
Feb 19, 2020
While I don't expect anyone to replicate Guilty Gear Xrd specifically, there some indie games that use cel-shaded graphics. Void Bastards, Grimshade, and Necrobarista are a few games that come to mind. That being said, your situation may be different from the respective developers of the aforementioned games, thus it may not be a viable option for what you want to do.
