Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
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The main principle of a good artwork is simple: solidity . All the elements of graphics
must have equal style and quality and should have identical principles of formation.
Each of them can have his own color, texture, and details, but all these character-
istics must obey the general rule you've designed for your game. Think about the
music, a melody (for example, the famous James Bond theme) can be mixed in a
hundred ways, can be played faster or slower, or can be rearranged for new genres,
but it will still be recognizable because the core is always appreciated. This analogy
helps to illustrate that each element made out of the general rule may look fake.
The audience will notice that unconsciously and this will reduce the perception of the
product's quality.
In the authorized biography by Walter Isaacson of Steve Jobs , there is a wonderful
quote by Jobs :
"When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to
use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will
ever see it."
It is pity, but some developers or designers try to ignore such philosophy; their
products have a pretty beautiful facade but ugly backyards; for example, menu
pages and some secondary-class game graphics are made slovenly, without any
love and attention to the details, as though such components "are facing the wall
and nobody sees them". This approach is wrong because your game is not only
one game screen but a product with many edges, each of which must be done thor-
oughly. Otherwise, it shows that you don't like and don't respect your audience, and
the product is not professional.
I recommend using a vector-based graphic editor to work with artwork for games. It
is a much more flexible and secure way to provide graphics for different resolutions
and situations. My favorite tool is Adobe Illustrator, which lets you draw complicated
illustrations using graphic tablets; it supports both vector instruments and some use-
ful raster effects. There is truly direct manipulation philosophy, not like the layered
one in Photoshop, which lets you edit objects more easily. It has multiple artboards,
which is very good for exporting routines (especially together with slices). There are
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