Concept art plays a crucial role in the creation of video games. This art sets the tone and atmosphere of the gaming world. From abstract ideas to realistic visualizations, styles of concept art vary, helping developers visualize characters, environments, objects, and equipment.
Let’s delve into the world of styles and types of concept art with developers of unique games of various formats and genres from Stepico company and see how concept art influences the process of creating video games.
Why concept art is needed
Concept art is an integral part of game development that helps to define and set the direction for all further work on the project. It has several important aspects.
Establishing the tone and atmosphere of the game
Concept art visualizes the atmosphere and aesthetics of the game at the earliest stages of development. It allows creators to bring visionary ideas to life, envisioning what the game world, its characters, and key scenes will look like.
Creating key elements
Concept art develops designs for the main elements of the game, including characters, weapons, costumes, and locations. These early designs serve as an important guide for further design and development.
Maintaining consistency
An important task of video game concept art is to ensure visual and stylistic consistency throughout the game world. Through carefully crafted costumes and color schemes, concept art creates an engaging unified gaming experience.
Visualization for stakeholders
Concept art provides a visual representation of the project to stakeholders before the full-scale development. This allows for feedback and adjustments to be made to the project at early stages, minimizing the time and resources spent on future revisions.
Concept art styles
In the world of video games, filled with a variety of projects, developers strive to find unique approaches to make their games stand out from the rest. One way to achieve this is by choosing one of the three key styles of visual art.
Abstract style
The abstract style in concept art uses geometric shapes and forms in various combinations, often leaving players without a clear context. Game elements, including characters, can be simple shapes, such as ellipses or triangles.
Journey is a game in an abstract style, where players explore an ethereal desert world, relying on their emotions and curiosity. The game Limbo uses a monochromatic 2D side-scroller to create a sense of anxiety and hopelessness in a dark world. Both games are excellent examples of how the abstract style can convey deep emotional experiences and create a unique game space.
Stylized style
The stylized style in concept art draws inspiration from the world of comics and caricatures. This leads to exaggerated and expressive graphics. Such an approach often goes beyond reality, offering players unique and fantastic visual designs.
Great examples of games using stylized concept art are Borderlands, where the graphics resemble comics, thanks to the use of bright outlines and saturated colors, and Team Fortress 2, which applies a cartoonish visualization of characters and the world.
With hyperbolized details and a unique visual language, the stylized style enhances certain emotions or themes, making them even more vivid and impressive. For example, bright and expressive graphics can add a comedic or ironic tone to a game, while the unique visual design of characters deepens their characteristics and motives.
Realistic Style
The realistic style is the most common approach in creating expensive AAA games and simulators. Artists strive for maximum accuracy in depicting characters, plots, and environments. Key aspects of realism include detailing game elements to match their real prototypes and accurately following the physical laws in the behavior of objects.
Stunning games with realistic concept art include The Last of Us, where the detail of the world and characters aims to achieve a deep emotional resonance, and Red Dead Redemption 2, which is a highly accurate recreation of the late Wild West.
Types of concept art in video games
In addition to styles, there are also several types of concept art for games. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Environment concept art
Creating a unique game setting is the main task of concept artists. The environment should be believable and interesting for players to explore, with coordinated elements creating a sense of a real world.
A well-designed environment enhances immersion, strengthens the narrative, and supports gameplay mechanics.
Character concept art
Character concept art is the process in which designers bring game heroes to life. Building on the knowledge of anatomy and understanding of characters, developers define the appearance and behavior of characters in the game and make them recognizable and memorable.
According to experts in game development at Stepico, character concept art helps developers and players understand who their characters are, their motives, and how they interact in the game world.
Prop art (objects)
Props in games include small items such as jewelry, potions, or furniture. Each element should harmonize with the overall design concept, decorating and complementing the game world. Props add detail and depth to the surrounding world, enriching it and making it more convincing and lively for players.
Equipment art
Artists specializing in equipment create weapons, armor, and other items that not only inform about the game world but also tell stories about the characters.
These elements add variety and strategy, allowing players to adapt and choose a playstyle, as well as influencing the visual perception and identification of characters.
All in all, concept art in games leads players through magical and dramatic worlds full of adventure. To achieve striking and cohesive visual solutions, artists need a profound knowledge of both art and game design.
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