Visual styles in games

PHOTOREALISM What does photorealism mean?

Photorealism is a type of visual style in games. This means that game will be made as realistically as possible.

Examples of Photorealistic games

Examples of games that are photorealstic is the FIFA franchise by ea sports and the PES made by Konami.

Photorealism FIFA

EA have always tried to make the FIFA games look as realistic as possible and they have definitely came along way to doing this. Here is a comparison from the first FIFA game to the newest FIFA game.

Photorealism of PES (PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER)

PES has always been behind FIFA in graphics but they have recently stepped up their game and have taken photorealism to another level. Konami will be hoping that the amazing visual style will help bring more players to PES instead of FIFA. Here is a comparison between FIFA 16 and PES 16.

Cel-Shaded What is Cel-shaded visual style?

Cel-shading which can also be called toon shader is a Non-photorealistic rendering which mimics the style of a comic book or a cartoon.

Examples of cel-shaded games

One example of a cel-shaded game is the borderlands franchise. Another example of this is the crackdown franchise.

Cel-shaded borderlands

The creators of borderlands didn’t always have a cel-shaded game in mind.

They first had a photorealistic game before deciding to change later on. Here is a comparison of borderlands before and after cel-shading.

BEFORE

AFTER

Cel-shaded crackdown

Crackdown is a third person shooter instead of a first person shooter like borderlands, but both have the same visual style. Crackdown has always had a cel-shaded visual style.

Exaggeration What is an exaggeration visual style?

Exaggeration is usually used in RPG’s and anime. This style is when the artist exaggerates a characters movement or emotions. Artist even exaggerate things like weapons and vehicles to make them seem more powerful and awesome.

Examples of exaggerated games

Spiderman is a good example of an exaggerated game. Another example could be halo wars Exaggerated Spiderman

Spiderman is an exaggerated game, mainly due to the enemies from the green goblin and Dr Octopus and also Spiderman himself being able to fly through the sky with his web ability.

Exaggeration of halo wars

Halo wars is exaggerated by the enemies mainly and their weapons. The enemies are fairly bigger and stronger with armour. This includes the brute chieftain and the prophet of regret.

Abstract What is abstract visual style?

This style is made up of geometric shapes. Many games with abstract visual style use vivid colours. It can either be in 3D or 2D. Everything around the character is part of the background.

Examples of abstract games

One example of an abstract game is geometry dash. Another example could be the impossible game.

Abstract geometry dash

Geometry dash has a lot of vivid colours and is very fast paced with different geometric shapes.

Abstract impossible game

The impossible game is also very fast paced like geometry wars and has geometric shapes and vivid colours.