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F IS FOR FRIENDS WHO DO STUFF TOGETHER
, DAMMIT
You can call refusing to play a game because of "crappy" graphics poor taste, but it's still a matter of taste. And I think it's kind of tasteless to question a stranger's friendships because he'd rather play an MMO with them. That's a very common thing: People like to play games with their friends. If their friends play other games, they play those games instead.
Goblin Squad Member
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Im not the head of a market research firm, I was just trying to make a point. You guys get the point, there's no need to debate a number I made up. Still, as Kobold kinda implied, its not wildly inaccurate, its just inaccurateThing is, last years showed us great success, for games with poor graphics. Rust, Minecraft, Papers Please, FTL...
Be sure to not try and mix graphics with art direction. Minecraft and Papers Please are very visually distinct from other games. If you see a screen shot from either game you'd immediately recognize it. This uniqueness at a glance is very important for a game to stand out. It's the entire reason that games like BattleField 3 have a slightly blue filter on the screen that they refuse to turn off, simply because it makes screen shots of the game recognizable. This isn't really the case with FTL or Rust, and at the moment it most certainly isn't the case with PFO.
However, a large part of the visual style of PFO is going to be ostensibly modular, because of player settlement control, so they have their work cut out for themselves. WoW is clearly struggling with a similar situation, as their player/housing/base construction only uses slightly updated models from older assets, (using the architecture of only 2/11 races) and their fans aren't exactly pleased with it either.
I can see some promise in the concept art for armor and characters that I've seen for PFO, and I very much understand that "graphics" are not a priority. But, I feel that a more unique art direction should be of moderately high priority. Something that doesn't look so clearly Unity-based.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Be sure to not try and mix graphics with art direction. Minecraft and Papers Please are very visually distinct from other games. If you see a screen shot from either game you'd immediately recognize it. This uniqueness at a glance is very important for a game to stand out.
My daughter wanted a Minecraft Zombie fluffy. :O
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Goblin Squad Member
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Cosmic, Minecraft isn't this way because of a choice, but because Mojang developed the game alone. And it was absolutely not unique, it was already a copy of another game with the same graphics, which never really had any success.
I am well aware. But Infiniminer looked drastically different even when Minecraft was back in infdev. It's rather interesting that a single developer could make the terrain visually distinct, when I can barely tell the difference between the nature elements in PFO and those of other Unity games. Choice or not, the effect is the same.
( Infiniminer)( Minecraft Infdev Alpha )
Now then, comparing something like these two:
Pathfinder Online
A simple Unity example
At a glance you can barely tell the differences in the back ground or scenery. Although, to be fair here, the PFO example is rather old and it could be coincidentally being using the same assets for the example purposes. Easily the most eye catching thing in the PFO screen cap is the goblins, and to a lesser extent their tent.
The fact that there's an eye catching element at all is promising, but I think putting off that attention until later is to shoot yourself in the foot. The fans that have been excited and on-board for the longest, (you know, us) are going to be more likely to stay than the guys that jumped on near the end just because the game finally looks nice.
Off-topic:
I think this is partially a problem with using a fantasy-tabletop as a source though. The most iconic and recognizable things are, the iconic characters (fitting), the monsters, or any overtly shown unique scenery, such as Magnimar. But the things that many RPG players find captivating, such as the fluff, the atmosphere, and the mood, are intentionally left malleable so that players or GMs can alter them. This isn't a luxury you really have in a videogame, the medium is a bit too visual and gives too much feedback to player questioning or exploration.
I think a better way to capture the feeling of pathfinder, would be to more closely emulate the art style they use for character portraits or book covers. But then again, I simply like bright colors and contrast. So, take it with a grain of salt.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I think a better way to capture the feeling of pathfinder, would be to more closely emulate the art style they use for character portraits or book covers. But then again, I simply like bright colors and contrast. So, take it with a grain of salt.
That would definitely give the game a pretty unique visual style. While the Pathfinder art is pretty great, I don't know whether I would actually like it for a video game. In either case, the art is irrelivant to me in most cases as long as they can deliver on the mechanics and throw in some Pathfinder fluff (read needs more goblins :P)
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Goblin Squad Member
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Pages 86-89 of the Thornkeep book address Goblinworks' desire to make explicit reference, in the game art, to the styles that have come before, on the page. I'm sure they know quite well how many folks've grown accustomed to the "Wayne Reynolds style", and automatically associate it with Pathfinder; GW's got to be hoping to tap into that familiarity and comfort somehow, even if the Alphas haven't begun seeing it yet.
