Artistic Syles

Simplistic:

Simplistic is a style that uses very few colours and basic shapes, a lot of things in the game will only have one or two colours. A way simplistic design can be made to look good is having good lighting as it makes the objects look slightly more real yet still applying to the design, or using similar or complimenting colours for example different shades of red for a background or colours like blue and red of a similar shade and brightness. An example of a game that uses simplistic design is Limbo. 

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/limbo-gameplay-movie-all-webbed-up/2300-6326694/

Limbo is a good example of using one colour and changing the shade to show depth to the background. The lighting is also very effective for making you feel like you’re in darkness as the source of light is off in the distance and is barely making it to the character. All of the characters are silhouetted however they still have a lot of animation to them, the main character has a lot of personality even though it is only has one colour. The silhouetting gives the game a sense of creepiness and atmosphere.

Pixel:

Pixel is an art style used mainly in older games for example Mario or Tetris, it is good for older games due to the limitations of the software it can also be good for a new game designer to use for the same reason. Pixel isn’t designed to be realistic and tends to be more cartoony.

(Image from: http://www.cheatcc.com/extra/retrogaming/retro21pacman.html. the game in the picture is Pac-man)

photo realistic:

http://media.rockstargames.com/rockstargames/img/global/news/upload/gtav_details09122014_006.jpg

Photo realistic games are commonly games with a high production value seen mostly in games like GTA and call of duty, photo realistic games usually take a lot longer to make than other kinds of game leading to them having a large team working on the game or having highly specialised equipment to make the process easier. Photo realistic games have a high priority placed on making the game as visually immersive as possible making scenes in the game look like they had been filmed or even like you are there, photo realism is a difficult style to use or master so photo realistic games don’t tend to be peoples first projects.

Exaggerated:

Exaggerated is a style that resembles anime with certain parts of the bodies of the characters disproportionate with real life people for example in most fighting games the characters will have large muscles far larger than most peoples.

http://www.tacticalgaming.net/hq/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/streetfighter0729.jpg

This style applies to the setting the game is in for example buildings in the game Arkham Asylum are designed to be gothic and scary in nature but the amount of gothic architecture used goes far beyond a realistic standard.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/arkhamcity/images/c/cc/ArkhamMansion2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111103114520

Exaggerated style is used mostly in comic book based games as comic heroes tend to be exaggerated themselves for example the Arkham series. this style is easier to use than photo realistic as you can get away with characters looking more cartoony that normal.

Cell-shading:

Cell-shading is commonly used for video games that are very colourful or not based on real life characters or scenes for example the borderlands series works well with cell-shading as the variety of colours used however not all games can benefit off of cell-shading for example the call of duty games have a lot narrower colour scheme so cell shading would be more noticeable, cell shading allows games to look better over time as a lot of cell-shaded games from the early 2000 look like they might have been released fairly recently.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8451/8010256266_98be5f75a2_b.jpg

Abstraction:

Abstract games do not tend to resemble anything that exists in the real world it uses a lot of geometric shapes and bright colours, games that use this style are usually 2D, this is because it is difficult to imagine the kinds of things in these games in 3D.

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_small/0/1480/478966-gridwars9.jpg