Visual style

The visual style has great importance in the game industry. It is the aesthetics of a game and how art style they are displayed as. The visual style and mechanics make up the game play of a game. A development team that focuses on the visual style is trying to "push the world of game art in purely visual terms without relying on the technology of interaction"(Solarski,2012) using "visual grammar and techniques" (Solarski,2012).  In a sense using visual arts to communicate with the audience and display what kind of game this is. The visual style should have an impact on the target audience of the game. For example a game might use the visual style of there cultural style of origins. Different culture will have different styles, symbolism and semiotics. 

For this I am looking at two science fiction games with rather similar mechanics but very different visual style. I will be looking at Mass Effect and Ratchet and Clank: A crack in time. 

Mass effect is a Science fiction role playing game for the Xbox 360 released in 2007. The game's rating was 18 by PEGI. The target audience I believe is 18+ male in the western region and culture who have a middle class social statue. These people will be a Reformer  under the psychographics 4C's table. This game deals with themes of racism, sexuality, nature verses machine and time repeating itself.

Ratchet and Clank: A crack in time is a science fantasy action adventure platformer game for the Playstation 3 released in 2010. The game's rating was a 3 by PEGI. The target audience  10 to 14 year old males in the western region and culture whose's parents are a middle class social statue. These people will be a Explorer under the psychographics 4C's table. This games looks at themes of time travel, alternative timelines and redemption. 

 Style –

Art style- The retro-futuristic style from the first game was in vision by Chad Dezern who started as Environment Artist and is now the Studio Directo. Now the game artists are a team called ‘Creaturebox’. It uses typical conventions of a product designed from pre-teenagers. It uses bold colours and exaggerated characters and objects but a high standard of detail which is unusual for a children's game. The humour of character's are represented in the way they are shaped and what colour they are. The visual style also suggests that this isn't purely for children but adults will enjoy it as well because so focus on being simple and colourful but has complexity. Researching other platformer's  2010 I have found that there isn't many AAA platformer that came out and the ones that did were on the Nintendo. Super Mario Galaxy 2 had a completely different visual style with bring bold colours and really simple shapes which look like it's just for children even lower that 10. So the market is free for Ratchet and Clank to fill in and the visual style allows children and adults to enjoy. 

 Artwork- The art style of this has a gritty 80s sci-fi TV feel to it. The style is trying to emulate shows like ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Babylon 5’. A main part of Mass effect’s style is to make the technology to suit its race of creators. One man who inspired the style of the game was Syd Mead. Mead also drew for Alien, Tron and Blade Runner so he is key to the modern science fiction look.

The retro science fiction style was a massive call by to science fiction from the mid to late 20th century like Star Trek, 2001: A space odyssey, Blade Runner, author Isaac Asimov est. This was to both bring fans of those products and show them a relive of the classic science fiction and to show people would aren't similar with these products a new take on science fiction to the present moment. The art style used from Syd Mead related the style to other pieces of work so it wasn't so out of the blue. For a game to use Syd Mead style has never been done before. Compared to a lot of other adult targeted games which came out 2007 Mass Effect exploited it's unique clean futuristic space opera to stand out from the rest. Uncharted 1 visual style was lush and organic greens with jungles and water falls to appeal to audiences, Halo 3 visual style was more gritty with the colour palette  being predominantly blue and orange. So as a market stand point Mass Effect's visual was a way of relating to old classics of the genre and outstanding out from the other games at the game. 


Conclusion: 
Visual style give a theme to the game world. It creates a world or place for the gameplay to be set in. Giving a grounding to the game play, often enhancing the visual aesthetics of the game experience. Different visual styles can be used to attract different groups of people, even when it is the same genre. Mass effect creates a adult sci fi experience which tries to capture a 80's cult tv show. Whereas Ratchet and clank with its cartoon style attracts a younger audience with its bold colours and exaggerated features, ie the size of ratchets head compared to his body, or the use of insane weaponry.

Ultimately the visual style is dependent on the targeted audience, even if the actual audience is wider.  



Bibliography

Solarski, C. (2012). Drawing Basics and Video Game Art. New York City: Watson-Guptill, p.10.