6 ms·

Developers on what makes their games ‘hand-drawn’

139 points by homarp 6y ago

crazypython 6y ago
I'd buy digital wallpaper drawn in the style of the heading image.
- LanternLight83 6y ago
  Absolutely! I think it's screenshot further down the article is also fantastic. The game is Cozy Grove for anyone interested, and it's recent launch has it's subreddit buzzing with the warmth of a growing community. The game can be found on Steam. Fun fact, the devs have submitted wallpapers that are included in the current (maybe not limited-time-only?) ~$6 LudoNarraCon Supporter Pack, but there aren't previews. (As mentioned here: https://mobile.twitter.com/cozygrove/status/1384546387031855109 https://mobile.twitter.com/cozygrove/status/1384546387031855...). I'll be picking it up myself to support the Con, anything with Supergiant's support has my money c:
anthk 6y ago
Most 2D graphical adventures were like that. For example, Broken Sword. Or Super Mario World 2 in the SNES.
- kibwen 6y ago
  The history is more complicated than that. The artists back then probably wanted their games to look hand-drawn, but were forced to create pixelated designs in acknowledgment of technological limitations. By the time technology caught up around the turn of the millennium, 2D games were being wholesale replaced with 3D games (often to the detriment of the games). At that point 2D games were almost entirely relegated to portable consoles (with some notable exceptions, e.g. Odin Sphere on the PS2), whose hardware was a generation behind, further perpetuating the pixel art aesthetic. Then, once developers finally acknowledged that not all games were better in 3D, pixel art had itself become a vogue retro aesthetic. The fact that we're finally seeing a ton of 2D games that don't use the pixel aesthetic is a sign of maturity in the industry (although a well-done pixel aesthetic can still look great).
  - aceazzameen 6y ago
    This is accurate and well said.
  - hnnameblah365 6y ago
    I think the source of the maturation adds another interesting twist to the story. A lot of 2D games today are built with 3D engines, and use modern GPU-assisted tech like shaders for lighting and effects. The path to better 2D needed to pass through a 3D phase just for the tooling. Tooling is where I think the games industry stores most of its culture. The studios burn through a generation of devs within a decade, so it's risky to leave it in their heads.
  - astrange 6y ago
    Note that most old pixel art games didn’t look pixelated when you played them, because they’re actually dithered. They were made to be run through a composite cable to a CRT and use the dot crawl/rainbow/scanline effects to generate a smoother picture. Which doesn’t mean you should keep a CRT around, those things are way too heavy.
    - simcop2387 6y ago
      There's been some really neat and cool advances in using shaders to recreate those effects, see the following for some info: http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/NTSC_Filters http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/NTSC_Filters http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/CRT-Royale http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/CRT-Royale and http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/File:Composite.png http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/File:Composite.p... The combo of CRT-Royale and the NTSC filters looks great, but it can require 4k to produce the proper image, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvQ1ELB066Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvQ1ELB066Q
  - anjc 6y ago
    > The history is more complicated than that. It's more complicated than that too imo. Before Broken Sword 3 was released, Charles Cecil said they had always wanted the game to be 3D (https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17561 https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17561). So it's likely that hand drawn 2D (pixelated or not) was often used because of limitations also. It's further possible that developers chose point and click as the medium because of technical limitations (e.g. it's easier to draw/render static scenes than develop a 3d engine). Evidence of this is - further to the death of 2D at this time as you point out - the fact that point and click died also as a genre at this time, as 3d modelling tools and third party 3d engines were becoming more accessible. I think this same dynamic applies to many old styles in gamedev that are now seen as having an aesthetic quality when really they arose out of necessity (e.g. 8-bit era pixelation, ZX spectrum colour palates, dithered transparency) So arguably if developers are choosing hand drawn now or P&C, it's perhaps the first time that it's the "harder" option, rather than being a return to "normal"
FriendlyNormie 6y ago
Wow, what a brazen way to admit you didn’t read the article. Your comment is almost art in itself; on its face it seems so pointless to post such a valueless downvote magnet, but the deeper meaning of your meaningless comment seems to be a statement on how meaningless the article itself is, considering that anyone who willingly reads the content of a Polygon link is a huge faggot.
Grakel 6y ago
There was an AMAZING game that was released unfinished: The Saboteur, that was in black and white until you liberated sectors of WWII Paris, which would turn that sector back into vibrant color. Unfortunately game content was deeply broken, for example failing a mission might take you back to before a previous mission, among other crazy glitches.
- 1986 6y ago
  I was so excited for this game, and so painfully let down when I played it... Suffered a lot from the open world curse of "spend ages driving to the mission objective in the country, do one thing, spend ages driving back to the city".
- zapt02 6y ago
  The Saboteur is one of my favourite games, and I think saying it was released unfinished is a bit of a stretch. I've played through the whole campaign several times and never had any game-breaking glitches on either PC or PS3. I would recommend to pick it up from GOG which has added a few quality of life patches: https://www.gog.com/game/saboteur https://www.gog.com/game/saboteur
  - Grakel 6y ago
    I would definitely be interested in giving it another try, especially with any available patches. Didn't realize that was out there, thanks!
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  WW2 history factoid: the French Resistance ramped up dramatically after the beginning of general enslavement (both men and women) by the Germans: "the Resistance was substantially strengthened when in early 1943 the collaborationist Vichy government made a fateful concession to the Germans—agreeing to the Service du travail obligatoire (STO), new work rules requiring the forced labor in Germany of virtually all able-bodied Frenchmen." https://www.historynet.com/french-resistance-resistant.htm https://www.historynet.com/french-resistance-resistant.htm
scrollaway 6y ago
If you're looking for a fantastic (adventure-puzzle) game with a very unique graphical style, I recommend Return of the Obra Dinn, by Lucas Pope (of Papers Please). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn Truly, truly unique gem that implements detective work really well, and has a mind-bendingly disorienting art style. Spoiler-free trailer with some example gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILolesm8kFY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILolesm8kFY
- Quikinterp 6y ago
  Lucas Pope is a one man army. He even did the music for that game, which is just as good as the other aspects.
  - the_af 6y ago
    Also check out Helsing's Fire for devices. I don't generally rave about this kind of puzzle games, but like everything Pope does, the attention to details is outstanding.
    - the_af 6y ago
      I meant "for iDevices" but my phone's autocorrect got in the way :(
  - franknine 6y ago
    He kept a very detailed devblog on TIGSource, documenting all the aspects of making the game including sound, modeling and shader programming. https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?action=profile;u=3073;sa=showPosts https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?action=profile;u=3073... Also there is an interview from Ars Technica talking about his story from Naughty Dog to Indie and why he like to work as one man team. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obra-dinn-lucas-pope-dishes-on-his-illustrious-game-dev-career/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obr...
    - 6y ago
darkerside 6y ago
The game _Before Your Eyes_ sounds particularly interesting. Not because it takes a hand drawn aesthetic, however that is defined, but because it is controlled by blinks, an action that is only partially under our control, like breathing. This probably won't mean much to people who haven't read about the ways we can blur the lines between our conscious and subconscious minds, but this seems like a way to unlock conscious control over things from heart rate to body temperature to the immune system.
lmm 6y ago
I'd very much recommend Child of Light. At the time there was talk about how Ubisoft had made a whole new engine for games based on 2D drawings, although I never heard any more about it since.
- bzzzt 6y ago
  They made some more games with the UbiArt engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UbiArt_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UbiArt_Framework
raphlinus 6y ago
Another game that I think really belongs in this collection is Gorogoa by Jason Roberts. It's a small game, not particularly difficult, but one I enjoyed.
ehnto 6y ago
The Witness could stack up too I feel. A handcrafted 3D world with an almost painterly feeling thanks to the modelling and texturing, yet it still feels lifelike because of the correctness of the lighting. Correctness of lighting has a really important role in making unique 3D art feel real and believable. With how mature lighting pipelines have become, the role of PBR and now the introduction of raytracing I think we actually have a lot more room to make unique 3D art that still feels immersive and "real" as it is the lighting that sells that feeling of correctness. More so than the texture map, art style or the modelling in my opinion A game like Cyberpunk for one example has some instances where an objects texture is pixelated and blurry yet it still feels entirely part of the world because the lighting correctness sells it's existence in the world so well. A game like mirrors edge was so compelling even with simple textures because the lighting made the space feel real. Even Minecraft feels like a world you can live in with Raytracing.
sneeuwpopsneeuw 6y ago
the hand drown styles and specifically the old anime tv shows such as Pokemon always fascinated me. In the last 2 years I have been learning OpenGL and other general Graphics and I hope to do a master in that area after the summer break. In that master i would like to study how a programmers could recreate that style. If anyone has any suggestions or has links to games / resources where they try to recreate that old water color / gouache style than that would be very helpfull.
- hulahoof 6y ago
  I quite like the cell shaded style in the Ni no Kuni games, they are designed in collaboration with studio ghibli
theandrewbailey 6y ago
That reminds me of Borderlands art style. Some of the devs did a GDC talk about it: https://youtu.be/xLi4kfmW_zg?t=47 https://youtu.be/xLi4kfmW_zg?t=47

139 points by homarp 6y ago

crazypython 6y ago

I'd buy digital wallpaper drawn in the style of the heading image.

LanternLight83 6y ago
Absolutely! I think it's screenshot further down the article is also fantastic. The game is Cozy Grove for anyone interested, and it's recent launch has it's subreddit buzzing with the warmth of a growing community. The game can be found on Steam. Fun fact, the devs have submitted wallpapers that are included in the current (maybe not limited-time-only?) ~$6 LudoNarraCon Supporter Pack, but there aren't previews. (As mentioned here: https://mobile.twitter.com/cozygrove/status/1384546387031855109 https://mobile.twitter.com/cozygrove/status/1384546387031855...). I'll be picking it up myself to support the Con, anything with Supergiant's support has my money c:

anthk 6y ago

Most 2D graphical adventures were like that. For example, Broken Sword. Or Super Mario World 2 in the SNES.

kibwen 6y ago
The history is more complicated than that. The artists back then probably wanted their games to look hand-drawn, but were forced to create pixelated designs in acknowledgment of technological limitations. By the time technology caught up around the turn of the millennium, 2D games were being wholesale replaced with 3D games (often to the detriment of the games). At that point 2D games were almost entirely relegated to portable consoles (with some notable exceptions, e.g. Odin Sphere on the PS2), whose hardware was a generation behind, further perpetuating the pixel art aesthetic. Then, once developers finally acknowledged that not all games were better in 3D, pixel art had itself become a vogue retro aesthetic. The fact that we're finally seeing a ton of 2D games that don't use the pixel aesthetic is a sign of maturity in the industry (although a well-done pixel aesthetic can still look great).
- aceazzameen 6y ago
  This is accurate and well said.
- hnnameblah365 6y ago
  I think the source of the maturation adds another interesting twist to the story. A lot of 2D games today are built with 3D engines, and use modern GPU-assisted tech like shaders for lighting and effects. The path to better 2D needed to pass through a 3D phase just for the tooling. Tooling is where I think the games industry stores most of its culture. The studios burn through a generation of devs within a decade, so it's risky to leave it in their heads.
- astrange 6y ago
  Note that most old pixel art games didn’t look pixelated when you played them, because they’re actually dithered. They were made to be run through a composite cable to a CRT and use the dot crawl/rainbow/scanline effects to generate a smoother picture. Which doesn’t mean you should keep a CRT around, those things are way too heavy.
  - simcop2387 6y ago
    There's been some really neat and cool advances in using shaders to recreate those effects, see the following for some info: http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/NTSC_Filters http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/NTSC_Filters http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/CRT-Royale http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/CRT-Royale and http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/File:Composite.png http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/File:Composite.p... The combo of CRT-Royale and the NTSC filters looks great, but it can require 4k to produce the proper image, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvQ1ELB066Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvQ1ELB066Q
- anjc 6y ago
  > The history is more complicated than that. It's more complicated than that too imo. Before Broken Sword 3 was released, Charles Cecil said they had always wanted the game to be 3D (https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17561 https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17561). So it's likely that hand drawn 2D (pixelated or not) was often used because of limitations also. It's further possible that developers chose point and click as the medium because of technical limitations (e.g. it's easier to draw/render static scenes than develop a 3d engine). Evidence of this is - further to the death of 2D at this time as you point out - the fact that point and click died also as a genre at this time, as 3d modelling tools and third party 3d engines were becoming more accessible. I think this same dynamic applies to many old styles in gamedev that are now seen as having an aesthetic quality when really they arose out of necessity (e.g. 8-bit era pixelation, ZX spectrum colour palates, dithered transparency) So arguably if developers are choosing hand drawn now or P&C, it's perhaps the first time that it's the "harder" option, rather than being a return to "normal"

FriendlyNormie 6y ago

Wow, what a brazen way to admit you didn’t read the article. Your comment is almost art in itself; on its face it seems so pointless to post such a valueless downvote magnet, but the deeper meaning of your meaningless comment seems to be a statement on how meaningless the article itself is, considering that anyone who willingly reads the content of a Polygon link is a huge faggot.

Grakel 6y ago

There was an AMAZING game that was released unfinished: The Saboteur, that was in black and white until you liberated sectors of WWII Paris, which would turn that sector back into vibrant color. Unfortunately game content was deeply broken, for example failing a mission might take you back to before a previous mission, among other crazy glitches.

1986 6y ago
I was so excited for this game, and so painfully let down when I played it... Suffered a lot from the open world curse of "spend ages driving to the mission objective in the country, do one thing, spend ages driving back to the city".
zapt02 6y ago
The Saboteur is one of my favourite games, and I think saying it was released unfinished is a bit of a stretch. I've played through the whole campaign several times and never had any game-breaking glitches on either PC or PS3. I would recommend to pick it up from GOG which has added a few quality of life patches: https://www.gog.com/game/saboteur https://www.gog.com/game/saboteur
- Grakel 6y ago
  I would definitely be interested in giving it another try, especially with any available patches. Didn't realize that was out there, thanks!
redis_mlc 6y ago
WW2 history factoid: the French Resistance ramped up dramatically after the beginning of general enslavement (both men and women) by the Germans: "the Resistance was substantially strengthened when in early 1943 the collaborationist Vichy government made a fateful concession to the Germans—agreeing to the Service du travail obligatoire (STO), new work rules requiring the forced labor in Germany of virtually all able-bodied Frenchmen." https://www.historynet.com/french-resistance-resistant.htm https://www.historynet.com/french-resistance-resistant.htm

scrollaway 6y ago

If you're looking for a fantastic (adventure-puzzle) game with a very unique graphical style, I recommend Return of the Obra Dinn, by Lucas Pope (of Papers Please). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn Truly, truly unique gem that implements detective work really well, and has a mind-bendingly disorienting art style. Spoiler-free trailer with some example gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILolesm8kFY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILolesm8kFY

Quikinterp 6y ago
Lucas Pope is a one man army. He even did the music for that game, which is just as good as the other aspects.
- the_af 6y ago
  Also check out Helsing's Fire for devices. I don't generally rave about this kind of puzzle games, but like everything Pope does, the attention to details is outstanding.
  - the_af 6y ago
    I meant "for iDevices" but my phone's autocorrect got in the way :(
- franknine 6y ago
  He kept a very detailed devblog on TIGSource, documenting all the aspects of making the game including sound, modeling and shader programming. https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?action=profile;u=3073;sa=showPosts https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?action=profile;u=3073... Also there is an interview from Ars Technica talking about his story from Naughty Dog to Indie and why he like to work as one man team. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obra-dinn-lucas-pope-dishes-on-his-illustrious-game-dev-career/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obr...
  - 6y ago

darkerside 6y ago

The game _Before Your Eyes_ sounds particularly interesting. Not because it takes a hand drawn aesthetic, however that is defined, but because it is controlled by blinks, an action that is only partially under our control, like breathing. This probably won't mean much to people who haven't read about the ways we can blur the lines between our conscious and subconscious minds, but this seems like a way to unlock conscious control over things from heart rate to body temperature to the immune system.

lmm 6y ago

I'd very much recommend Child of Light. At the time there was talk about how Ubisoft had made a whole new engine for games based on 2D drawings, although I never heard any more about it since.

bzzzt 6y ago
They made some more games with the UbiArt engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UbiArt_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UbiArt_Framework

raphlinus 6y ago

Another game that I think really belongs in this collection is Gorogoa by Jason Roberts. It's a small game, not particularly difficult, but one I enjoyed.

ehnto 6y ago

The Witness could stack up too I feel. A handcrafted 3D world with an almost painterly feeling thanks to the modelling and texturing, yet it still feels lifelike because of the correctness of the lighting. Correctness of lighting has a really important role in making unique 3D art feel real and believable. With how mature lighting pipelines have become, the role of PBR and now the introduction of raytracing I think we actually have a lot more room to make unique 3D art that still feels immersive and "real" as it is the lighting that sells that feeling of correctness. More so than the texture map, art style or the modelling in my opinion A game like Cyberpunk for one example has some instances where an objects texture is pixelated and blurry yet it still feels entirely part of the world because the lighting correctness sells it's existence in the world so well. A game like mirrors edge was so compelling even with simple textures because the lighting made the space feel real. Even Minecraft feels like a world you can live in with Raytracing.

sneeuwpopsneeuw 6y ago

the hand drown styles and specifically the old anime tv shows such as Pokemon always fascinated me. In the last 2 years I have been learning OpenGL and other general Graphics and I hope to do a master in that area after the summer break. In that master i would like to study how a programmers could recreate that style. If anyone has any suggestions or has links to games / resources where they try to recreate that old water color / gouache style than that would be very helpfull.

hulahoof 6y ago
I quite like the cell shaded style in the Ni no Kuni games, they are designed in collaboration with studio ghibli

theandrewbailey 6y ago

That reminds me of Borderlands art style. Some of the devs did a GDC talk about it: https://youtu.be/xLi4kfmW_zg?t=47 https://youtu.be/xLi4kfmW_zg?t=47