Different Art Styles In Video Games

[Enigma_Productions]

Ugh, this whole week has been incredibly busy for me because of the wedding my shop had to work on. I haven't slept since I came home around 1 A.M. lol

I don't remember exactly where I saw the comment, but I remember someone said
"If you choose to use RTP face-sets, then your game has to follow nothing but the style of RTP Artwork or if you choose a different art work you have to follow that artwork all game".

It kind of stuck with me since my game will be using so many different art styles. At first I thought, well... I guess my game will be unique in that aspect. However, I began noticing a couple of people on other threads saying something similar and now I'm beginning to get a bit nervous.

Does having many art styles in one game make it unplayable for you?

I'll start the conversation off by saying that I wanted to have different art styles in my game because I noticed that sometimes, one art style, can make the game look a bit static. Especially some RTP face-sets. At times It feels like someone put on a different wig. So when I add different art styles I think about it as having different races in my video game.

Spoiler: Artstyles

I wanted to add shading, but I have to work tomorrow so forgive me for them looking so static especially the girl who was supposed to have armor
The characters on the right were something I already created long ago so they're shaded in already. I was running out of time and all lol.

Forgive me for uploading an image in a General Lounge thread, I just wanted to show an example of what I meant. There are more styles, but the rules of other people are to not distribute any art I make of their characters and I have to respect their rules!

 

[Neo Soul Gamer]

It's definitely a pet peeve of mine, depending on how its done.

For me, merging art styles is fine as long as you aren't merging too many different styles. AND, they have to be consistent when it comes to their usage.

What I mean by that is... I hate to see RTP style Facesets mixed with a faceset of a complete different style. If you're going to use RTP style facesets, I'd say stick with that art style for the rest of the facesets in your game.

As for another example... Say you're using a certain style of battlebacks. I would love to see the art style consistent amongst the battlebacks.

The rule breaker for me is when I see people mix art assets that are far too different from one another. Recently I saw a game (which will remain nameless) that had Pixel Art tilesets with High Res font, Pixel Art Sprites with High res facesets, Pixel Art windows with High Res HUD elements (like HP bars, MP bars, etc), and Pixel Art Battlers against a high res battleback.

That crap drives me nuts.

 

[Nutty171]

one art style, can make the game look a bit static.

Imho one art style doesn't make the game "static," it makes it "cohesive." Now certainly you can have different artstyles for different types of things, even the MV RTP does that. (The characters are pixel art, most everything else isn't.) But if you're adding more art styles for the sake of "variety," and to keep things from being "static," please don't. Here's my suggestion: Use one artstyle to make a super short game, use the next to make another, until you find an art style that you like working with. Then use that to make your full game.

Here's another way to explain my opinion. You may have noticed that I kept alternating between saying "art style" and "artstyle." It seems odd that I would use two different spellings for the same word, no? This is pretty much how I feel about having multiple art styles for a single asset type in one game.

 

[Sharm]

The RTP is pretty static, but not because of the style, it's because there isn't a lot of variation within the style. Give one person a nice big nose, for example, and even the RTP style is going to look a lot more fresh. Even a simple face shape change can be huge. But you need to have some consistency somewhere otherwise it becomes . . . noisy? I'm not sure how best to describe it. But you're going to lose attention fast. The example you've given is something that would make me instantly lose interest in a game, I wouldn't even bother looking at a reason why, it just is too disjointed and would be jarring to try and play a game with.

 

[Ebontope]

I think that consistency in a game's art style is pretty important. Sure you can make a couple of variations and it can turn out just fine, but seeing multiple setpieces that just completely conflict with eachother is a huge immersion killer.

 

[Enigma_Productions]

Maybe using the word static might have been a bit extreme for what I was saying

In terms of sprites and tiles sets I think I 100% agree that if the art style is inconsistent then the immersion can break almost instantaneously. When it comes to the cut scenes, face-sets, and battle backs, I'm not going to lie I am a bit stubborn
I'm definitely going to try and make everything feel like it belongs and to not make it look out of place. From what I can see it's best not to introduce to many art styles at one time. Having them slowly being introduced as the game goes on might be smarter, or at least I think so. If it seems that I have failed I will make sure to post it on a thread for feedback.

I really love this forum lol. Getting feedback from different people on these types of subjects will definitely help me grow as a game developer. Thank you very much!