I’ll have my people pencil this in
A couple of years ago, I was alerted to this gorgeous concept artwork taken from the development process of Fumito Ueda’s wonderful PS2 game Ico. It reminded me of the “sketchy” renderer from the well-known NPRQuake project, and I wished somebody would make a full game from the ground up optimized with this kind of art direction. Imagine how amazing that inset scene would look if it suddenly burst into motion, with a cel-shaded approach taken to the hard-edged shadows and maybe subtle animation on the hatching lines for objects that are moving.
Though it’s not quite the same thing, it looks like at least one team is doing something along those lines. SEGA Game Studios Japan is working on Valkyria Chronicles for PS3, an alternate history 1930s tactical RPG with some real-time elements. One screenshot is inset right, and I have a second and third as well.
Even though the overwhelming majority of games shoot for photorealism, or something approaching it, however unsuccessfully in most cases, I’m glad to see that even on today’s powerful systems not everybody is automatically going in that direction.
Still, I’d like to see this sketch concept taken further, to the more high-contrast, hard-shadowed look of that Ico concept art. It seems like it would be a perfect match for the downloadable services, where a low-cost title benefits more from the hype of interested hardcore gamers than it would amid the vast retail sea. With titles like Echochrome, flOw, and Everyday Shooter, Sony in particular seems interested in funding experimental projects such as that.
Tags: ico, nonphotorealism, pencils, photorealism, valkyria chronicles
February 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Under the realm of Shoot-Em-Ups (since you mentioned Everyday Shooter), Kenta Cho has always been one of my “inspirations” when I start envisioning a new game: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/index_e.html
He’s a fairly recognizable entity in the industry, but I still am surprised by the amount of people who don’t know about him. His games, for being “simple shoot-em-ups” are generally fun and quirky but, more important than that, the visual style they employ is almost always fantastic.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I fell in love with this the moment I downloaded the trailer from the Japanese Playstation Store last year.
Non-photorealistic rendering was a bit of a passion of mine for a while, personally and professionally (my work was included on one of the main NPR resources online, http://www.red3d.com/cwr/npr/ ) and I still follow developments. NPR is something that’s so easy to do, yet so hard to do *well*.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
High quality non-photorealistic rendering is a rarity in games not only because it’s something difficult to pull off well but, once you have a decent set of techniques envisioned, it can be something difficult to pull off at practical real-time rates. Yes, there are a lot of papers which can get things looking good at 30fps but, typically, these are individual models in simple scenes. The academic settings for a lot of the papers at Reynolds’ site don’t take into account the absolute insane complexity of modern day game scenes composed of a vast number of textures, polygons, and special effects.
The kind of stylized rendering I don’t typically see categorized under “non-photorealistic rendering” journals are the kind displayed by games like Rez, Everyday Shooter, and Kenta Cho. These are all examples of minimalistic style paired with excellent aesthetic design instincts. They aren’t technologically complex but they can be pulled off so superbly that they make ideal choices for independent developers with little-to-no “artistic talent” in the reign of 3D modeling and texture creation.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I’m surprised more people don’t go for this kind of design. I guess it’s harder to pull off than it looks.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Wow those shots look amazing. Japan may not be the power-house it once was it sure can still turn out totally unique games.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
http://shackpics.com/files/ico_windmill_2f6jf1f4j1k3s1zx4504.jpg
Hey, I made this a while ago. I vectorized the original and touched it up in Photoshop 1680*1050 It’s by no means perfect but it’s pretty nice
February 26th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Great post mittens. I agree that Reynolds’ site mainly focuses on rendering of painterly/traditional styles, and that the abstract designs of the shooters you mention are a legitimate usage of the term “NPR”. I’ve found myself drawn to this style more than emulation of traditional media, due in no small part I’m sure to my age and nostalgia for early arcade games (and early computer graphics themselves), but also because I feel this style embraces the medium.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Mittens, Siw, I agree with you both. It’s really a fascinating issue, because for as realistic and detailed as some games strive to be, they are in turn making the carefully stylized game appear more compelling and attractive.
Siw, I think you bring up a really good point in how style should embrase the medium. Why are the impressionists generally loved so much? They let the paint be paint. Old arcade games are immortal for this reason.
It’s sort of comforting to know that as biggers studios are striving for techincal accuracy and, more often than not, realism, they are leaving a gaping hole of creativity for the independents to step in and fill.
February 28th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I like the idea of mainstream photorealism games leaving a gap for others to standout. You can point to things like Wind Waker, Okami, and TF2 and they are apart from other games even within the same genre. This also has something to do with the quality of game play no doubt, but visually they’ll never be mistaken for another game.
That said, I do believe there is room for more of these games. Sometimes you come across a game these days where the graphics just don’t work. I wonder if they had taken a nontraditional style of art direction then you might not have noticed it, or even cared.
No More Heroes, I think, is a great example of a developer knowing the hardware limitations of a system and instead of straining to get realistic graphics, went with a stylized approach.
So uh, yeah bring on the sketch look, I think it needs it’s place in the spotlight for a bit.