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AoD dialogue screen

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Yes, I know, we are working on that. Besides, I said "planning", not "absolutely, 100% will post something". Anyway, I wanted to post an overview of a town, plus some buildings like the tavern (inside/outside). The overview isn't ready due to some changes, I will post buildings later on today (hopefully). It's not a big deal anyway.
 

Fryjar

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
176
3. When creating a realistic dark and gritty game world its very important to rely on darker colours instead of bright ones so keep that in mind when creating the game world.
When creating realistic dark games, it's very important to create content that's actually realistic and dark. Darker colors can create some mood, but they don't make a game. Similarly, lighter colors don't break it.


I tend to agree that it's primarily about content. But you shouldnt make the mistake to underestimate the importance of good art and mood because if you can actually achieve to create an immersive world (contentwise and stylewise) then it'll be much more likely that people will enjoy your game even though t it might be outdated graphicwise. What Im trying to imply is simply that games like fallout didnt excel only contentwise but also stylewise. Why do you think would even now so many people be willing to buy a new fallout even if it hadn't improved graphics (once again aside from the gameplay)? Simply because the art and created mood were so marvelous not because of the graphics that quickly lost its appeal over the years. Its about truely feeling "inside" a gaming world and an involving setting.

I want to give you simply two examples:
1. Warcraft: Which game of the trilogy would you consider the most immersive one? At least in my opinion its definitely Wc2 since the whole gaming world appeared to be so forbidding and grim. This was one of the reasons why I never really created a true liking for Wc3 (once again aside from the gameplay) : The whole comic style took away every believability and you didnt really care that much about your units although the story wasnt that bad and at least sometimes quite sinister.

2. Just look at this Warhammer 40k pc game and compare it with the table top game: The table top game has the best art ive ever seen and creates an incredibly fordbidding setting which really lets you feel all the decadence and destruction of the 41 century.
The pc game on the other hand utterly failed to deliver this mood and was never really gripping when it came to the mood.
Just compare these pictures:
game:
http://www.hayter.me.uk/pictures/MarineSmaller.jpeg

and (click on the picture to enlarge it) the TP game:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/graphicnove ... asp?id=464

So please keep this in mind when deciding upon the usage of colours etc.
 

Astromarine

Erudite
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
2,213
Location
Switzerland
um. are you being actually serious? You're comparing an ingame shot (not even that, just a standing marine on the intro screen with a BOOK COVER. A PAINTING. Honestly, what the fuck?

And for the record, when you say "utterly failed to deliver the tabletop's mood" you lose any semblance of a point, though you never had one to begin with. You're saying a game's graphical style can render useless any mood brought in my music, story, and gameplay scenario, which I think is utter bullshit. I enjoyed warcraft 3 and managed to be immersed in it's story and intended mood even though the graphics were cartoonish. Same with Vogel's games, and fucking Ultima 5. And most absofuckinglutely in Dawn of War, one of the best efforts I've ever seen to translate a setting and mood to a computer game.
 

Fryjar

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
176
Uhm actually I just compared the picture with the ingame shot because not everyone knows which mood the wh40k setting creates. I never intended to say that ingame the character should look like that (which would certainly be laughable I agree). But once again its about style. In my opinion the models in Dawn of War dont deliver this mood properly because once again they were made too cartoonish which becomes even more significant when you look at the orcs.
Im not expecting good graphics. Just look at Chaos Gate for example (another 40k game): The game is crappy and the graphics are horrible but still the style is in my opinion much better than the one of Dawn of war and resembles the Table top game more properly because it simply looks more believable and grim.


Furthermore I never intended to say that graphics are the only important point when setting the mood for a game. Im sorry if I were a bit unclear before but I simply wanted to focus on graphics because of VDs comment on it and intentionally neglected the other aspects. Im completely aware that a good graphical design isnt enough to create an immersive setting and that music and gameplay are of great importance as well.
But the graphic style still remains in my opinion the "foundation" of every setting and if you are unable to create compelling art etc. then youll entirely fail in creating good mood. If the other aspects (like music etc) aren"t well done either then the mood will still be screwed up anyway but I tend to say that the graphical style still remains somewhat in the pillar position of the whole art section.
 

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