Three themes, three crates (3d lesson 2)

Cartoon Chest

Cartoon styled games are usually directed to children and teenagers. The style usually has very simplified shapes and objects with happy colour schemes and often falls into the visual style Simplified Realistic and Stylized Abstract.  Objects in cartoony games are usually bigger than in real life and there is often a very prominent theme for what shapes and colours objects have.

Some games that I believe are typical cartoon games are Super Mario and the Crash Bandicoot series. They are good examples because they are two well-known cartoon games and they use most of the typical characteristics for the style.

When I made my crate I wanted to make a cartoony crate inspired by the many screen adaptions of the books by Dr. Seuss, such as The Cat in The Hat (2003) and The Lorax (2012). The settings in those movies have very simple shapes and sort of pastelish, yet bright, colours. These settings are usually very polished and things fit very well together and everything matches.

It is also inspired by the Ikea children’s furniture set Mammut that also have this very distinct style and red thread throughout the series (I remember longing for these furniture when I was a kid). This is a style that I find very appealing myself and it works very well in cartoony games.

My chest:

Medieval Chest

The key characteristics of the medial theme is objects made of stone and wood, the materials mostly used at that time. The key word for medieval for me is unrefined, things were made for its function not to look pretty. Commonly used objects for the theme are chests and barrels. They are usually very sturdy looking with big rustic planks and iron bindings. Those objects are found at farms, in the city and on different various locations in medieval games.

These examples are from Diablo 3, a fantasy hack n’ slash, which is set in the medieval times. I chose this because it is one of the very few medieval themed games I have actually played. I think they have captured the era and its feel very good with a lot of wood and stone objects.

I wanted to make a simple chest that looked like a classical game chest. I also wanted it to look sturdy and functional. I would have liked to make handles on the side of the chest but due to inexperience in the software and the way of thinking I decided to skip that for now.

My chest:

Sci-Fi Crate

Objects in the sci-fi genre either have a lot of geometric shapes or they are very simplistic, it can depend on things like what kind of planet things are on, if it is the good or the bad side and what kind of civilisation it is made by. They often have a lot of diagonal lines, a lot of lines overall, and glowing details (usually blue).

These games show the contrast between the two styles. Portal is very simplistic and futuristic, with bright materials whereas Ratchet and Clank is more metallic and geometric (the floor for example). You can also see that sci-fi games can be both hyper realistic and simplified realistic depending on what audience is targeted.

I decided to go for the more geometric kind of sci-fi. My box has a lot of things going on in it and it is supposed to create the illusion that it made can be unfolded, or that it is designed for some specific purpose (an alien forklift perhaps). I want to make light coming out in some places and maybe make some parts see-through, but I don’t know how to do any of those things right now.

My crate:

Summary and conclusions

I really enjoyed the exercise but it was also a bit scary. I have a tendency for making things that I like and with a very specific style so to try to tackle some specified themes was very interesting. When I started to look around for examples and concept art I noticed that some games that I thought looked a certain way actually looked nothing like it. I believe that it really shows how the player may interpret things and get stuck on certain objects without realizing it.

I would have liked to have the pdf about visual style available when I wrote this because there was some things I had forgotten and felt unsure about.

Now when I am starting to pay attention to elements of art, visual styles and themes work together to create the characteristics of a game I am very excited to create a game that is thought through and where all those components create a special and interesting gaming experience.