Unless that’s the gimmick. Even then, you still need to be well-versed in other art styles to make it work (especially with frame rates). It’s not a video game, but Learning with Pibby is a great example.
I know nothing about Stone Story RPG, but I think you are really underestimating the artistic skill that goes into that ASCII art. Conveying as much as possible with the minimal amount, is a sign of a good artists.
Not to mention doing it in 1bit black and white. I'm sure the dev spent countless hours making sure the screen doesn't turn into a complete mess when many objects are on screen.
As an artistically talentless muggle struggling to learn the ropes of the ancient magic we call pixel art, this video really speaks to me. I think I am still going to spend time to develop this skill as I really like that art style, but i feel as if my mind has been expanded to a lot of other options as well as reframed to understand whats really important: gameplay > aesthetic.
"How to make art for developers who are bad artists: Use this tool with a steep learning curve and this technique that artists know about!" Brilliant. Why didn't anyone else thing of this?
Thank you for producing these videos. Your love for the craft and concern for those that aspire to join the ranks really shows through. I'm new to the community and find inspiration through videos such as these.
I appreciate your comment. I remember all too well the challenges faced in the early learning phase of this craft. If I can improve a few peoples lives though game dev, as mine was, that's a good thing. :)
I spent so many hours playing Kingdom of Loathing back in the early 2000s. Those guys really leaned into the stick figure art style and made it part of the hunor of the game.
This video is dedicated to all of you who think your art sucks. What Art styles are your fav? Looking for a friendly game dev community? > discord.gg/yeTuU53
A varient of low poly Ive been playing around with is mimicking the graphics of the original SNES star fox but in a modern engine and high frame rates. I find it works if your game doesnt rely on human or organic looking things, and more mechanical looking things. If something can be represented using a simple prism type shapes you can get some interesting results thay make your game look supet clean. Its like a happy balance between primitive shapes in 3D and what we normally call lowpoly (which is actually high poly).
I took note of the styles you mentioned. I am tempted to start learning at least some pixel art to create beatiful watermelons like you do and then of course...SHIP IT! Thank you again for sharing the knowledge John!
The soundtrack in VVVVV took musical talent to be so catchy, not just technical skill. Technically it was just 8bit retro style and theres lots of tutes on that.
Thanks! I'm finally getting to the point where I need to start thinking about art. I've had the idea the whole time I could only do pixel art but now that I've bought a screenless tablet, I want to try my hand at drawing stuff. I really like watercolor and how the old Pokemon pictures looked. So I might try working on that. RIP all the 2D assets I've bought. LOL! But I can probably use them as reference when drawing my own stuff.
rotoscoping is no way easy. You need a graphics tablet to do that properly and make it look presentable. Moreover you need to know how to draw to make eyes and stuff. It just adds a kind of an effect that makes it look peculiar and makes people try it. It makes making frames of animation easier thats it
True. Rotoscoping is a skill and if you want to do line art, you prolly need a graphics tablet. But if you went for *simple flat shaped vector art* ("Out of This World" (1991)) or *pixel art* look (original "Prince of Persia" (1989)), nearly anyone could do it. Or at least i have tried to mimic those styles (especially OoTW), and it was relatively easy. The only stumbling blocks for me, have been that i get the urge to add too many details, and ruin it. Another problem i have is the difficulty of keeping a contrast between the characters and the background. I often resort to using gradients, thats making it more complicated (and time consuming) than OoTW's art style.. But i was trying to make comics in that style. If one made animations (or game graphics), the fact that characters are moving, would help the characters pop out of the background more. Also if you carefully select the background to have contrasting colors to the characters, that could also work.
Some solid advice. For 3d there are these asset forge tools that help you put together block pieces to form more complex objects. They allow you change color and tweak some attributes
Is it just me or wouldn't most game programmers have this issue? We went into programming games because we didn't devote our time to artistic skills. Or you're just naturally talented at everything, but those are a dime a dozen.
Yes. I'm seeing this with my son, who wants to make his own games. But I'm encouraging him to attempt some artwork. My thought is 1:You need something 2: If you can get an artist, it'll give him something to start with. Either way, it'll be good for a programmer to have some idea as to how art will work into the game.
VVVVVV wouldn't work today. Stone Story RPG is everything but simple, it would be much simpler to create a decent pixel art look than to create something even close to this level of ASCII art. With the rest I agree.
I agree, the level of creativity/talent needed to do something like Stone Story RPG is quite high on the "artsy" scale. The idea is "simple" but the execution is very difficult.
Arguably ASCII art is even harder than pixel art due to how limited you are with animation as well, imagine trying to make anything but a stickman with those characters
That visualization of the single 'X' among all the 'O's' at the end was really great. You hear that sort of sentiment alot, but the visualization really sold the idea. Very strong way to end.
Man, you are the only one from we can learn something, you explain everything so good. Make a full tutorial on inventory, and I couldnt find anywhere how to create lets say loot bag on monster kill that when you open it it gives random items in it and that you can set droprate of item in that loot bag. It would be awsome to see inventory tutorial from you.
I've gone with simple 3D objects for my game. Cubes and cylinders go a long way towards a cohesive art style. It's also worth noticing the little details that your brain filters out when analysing low-fi games, such as the cool background that 140 has which I'm guessing moves in time with the music? Those things add so much to the look and feel of your game. Also are you an NZ game dev? Cos me too.
Bonus style: 3D modelling. You'll be surprised how easier than hand drawn or pixel art illustrations it is, although it requires more work, especially on the animation department. First person 3D puzzle games where there aren't many animations other than doors opening, cubes/furniture moving and buttons/levers, you'll have an easier time making the 3D models yourself and getting free textures from the internet.
Some art styles I think would be great for 3D: Basic Shapes which carries over from 2D. Unless you need custom shapes, you won't even need to leave your game engine of choice. Low Poly This might be a bit trickier but PS1/N64 style Voxel You can even apply some shader or texture work to make it a little more unique too
I can make realistic environments all day long easy .... Real life has plenty of reference ... But ive been studying stylized and its such a hard art to learn .. its like take what you know and make it up as if youve never seen it before
Just wanted to say that Stone Story RPG was made by professionals in textmode aka the art of making mona lisa in a text app, and they ( at least someone I know that worked on it) are professionals that have years of experience in textmode. Still though great video and I get the point
I have lots of ideas, 20+ years of programming knowledge (including some graphics programming), but basically no talent for art. At least I doodled a lot as a kid. And that'll have to do! I need to figure out an art style that's super easy to do, because I want to spend 30% of the time on the core gameplay and feel
Animating your own art can be hard. I say Start with the initial pose then make the ending pose. Then create a Middle pose. Then you can add more frames and make minor tweak to get the the mid point or end of animation. Remember you can slowly make adjustments as you get better. When you need a break from animating do some programming and vice versa.
I never understood that blank canvas, randomly placed objects or stuff out of trash, at least the last one can look like something and be really creative...
That's me in the first scene working on the art. ;) There should be a couple of dev logs floating around where I share more of the vector drawing techniques I use
Idk why, but after flash games died out I never bothered playing any "primitive shape" artstyle games. I feel like if I'm paying for a game I want a visual fantasy fulfilled.
Hello Excuseme ¿Can I use part of your video to explain someting to my students? they do not speak english or know about diferent technology. Kind regards from ecatepec, this time!
there is this perticular visual style in low poly which i totally dont like at all, and it seems to me that a large chunk of low poly games are made in this style, i dont know what is in it that i dont like, the big pieces of poly, the colours, lighting, how they draw objects and world with low poly. Some examples like Morphite, Clustertruck, Virginia
Minecraft is one of the most successful and beloved games in all of history, and made an equivalent amount of money to that status. Literally everything is an ugly cube. Even the sun. I thought South Park looked like shit when I first saw it and didn't even want to give it a chance. Now it's one of my favorite shows of all time. Pac-man just looks like a wedge of cheese and it is the cornerstone of all of Capcom and saved their company from bankruptcy and made them into a titan of the industry. The point is... it's not the graphics that matter. It's whether or not your game sucks.
I 'guess' this video says something to the effect of 'even you can do it', but overall I found it rather shallow and not much information really being given. I came away from it with weird conflicting feelings of 'ok I'm slightly motivated' and 'meh, maybe it's too much work and not worth my trouble after all.'
➤ Unity Asset I made to help beginners easily make platformers - u3d.as/2eYe
➤ Wishlist my game - store.steampowered.com/app/1081830/Blood_And_Mead/
Most importantly: be consistent in your artstyle. Not mixing and mashing different styles (from the asset store)
Unless it's Sally Face
Unless that’s the gimmick. Even then, you still need to be well-versed in other art styles to make it work (especially with frame rates).
It’s not a video game, but Learning with Pibby is a great example.
I know nothing about Stone Story RPG, but I think you are really underestimating the artistic skill that goes into that ASCII art. Conveying as much as possible with the minimal amount, is a sign of a good artists.
Not to mention doing it in 1bit black and white. I'm sure the dev spent countless hours making sure the screen doesn't turn into a complete mess when many objects are on screen.
As an artistically talentless muggle struggling to learn the ropes of the ancient magic we call pixel art, this video really speaks to me. I think I am still going to spend time to develop this skill as I really like that art style, but i feel as if my mind has been expanded to a lot of other options as well as reframed to understand whats really important: gameplay > aesthetic.
But dude! That guy in your profile picture is pretty well done!
Good luck with your learning. That art style is an investment :)
Option 6: use blender, make low poly and use linear colors
I've been using blender for years, and I don't know what linear colors are.
what are linear colors?
"How to make art for developers who are bad artists: Use this tool with a steep learning curve and this technique that artists know about!"
Brilliant. Why didn't anyone else thing of this?
Use blender lmao that's just an insane barrier to entry, you might as well just learn art theory and become an artist on the side
That's a great advice actually. You are bad at art not at using hard tools (you are already a programmer, no one said it would be easy)
"You might start ripping sprites that you can't use."
That didn't stop Terraria. ;D
lol
like minecraft and the audio lol
Thank you for producing these videos.
Your love for the craft and concern for those that aspire to join the ranks really shows through.
I'm new to the community and find inspiration through videos such as these.
I appreciate your comment. I remember all too well the challenges faced in the early learning phase of this craft. If I can improve a few peoples lives though game dev, as mine was, that's a good thing. :)
Vector art is a good way to turn simple shapes into a neat character design. Also really easy to edit, too.
You nailed it. This is where I get stuck often and I guess many others. Especially for my metroidvania, the amount of work is unreal for solo dev.
I spent so many hours playing Kingdom of Loathing back in the early 2000s. Those guys really leaned into the stick figure art style and made it part of the hunor of the game.
This video is dedicated to all of you who think your art sucks. What Art styles are your fav?
Looking for a friendly game dev community? > discord.gg/yeTuU53
A varient of low poly Ive been playing around with is mimicking the graphics of the original SNES star fox but in a modern engine and high frame rates. I find it works if your game doesnt rely on human or organic looking things, and more mechanical looking things. If something can be represented using a simple prism type shapes you can get some interesting results thay make your game look supet clean. Its like a happy balance between primitive shapes in 3D and what we normally call lowpoly (which is actually high poly).
I took note of the styles you mentioned. I am tempted to start learning at least some pixel art to create beatiful watermelons like you do and then of course...SHIP IT! Thank you again for sharing the knowledge John!
SHIP IT!!! :D
VVVVVV had a killer soundtrack though. You gotta teach us how to easily make classic hit sountracks now.
It's soundtrack was a killer! As a package it was all so well put together: art, gameplay, music in perfect harmony :)
The soundtrack in VVVVV took musical talent to be so catchy, not just technical skill. Technically it was just 8bit retro style and theres lots of tutes on that.
If you're still a game dev, as someone who doesn't normally make music, I can casually make music with "Chrome Music Lab".
I use GarageBand to record all my game music.
Lmao. Composer trying to find a visual artstyle here
0:33 basically me when attempting everything programming-art-design related :(
Great video, man! Thanks for your work.
I didn't know John Wick made games :0
Thanks! I'm finally getting to the point where I need to start thinking about art. I've had the idea the whole time I could only do pixel art but now that I've bought a screenless tablet, I want to try my hand at drawing stuff. I really like watercolor and how the old Pokemon pictures looked. So I might try working on that. RIP all the 2D assets I've bought. LOL! But I can probably use them as reference when drawing my own stuff.
This channel goes over all the stuff I subconsciously needed to know
No title on TH-cam has ever resonated with me more. Insta-click. Thank you, LRG!
rotoscoping is no way easy. You need a graphics tablet to do that properly and make it look presentable. Moreover you need to know how to draw to make eyes and stuff. It just adds a kind of an effect that makes it look peculiar and makes people try it. It makes making frames of animation easier thats it
True. Rotoscoping is a skill and if you want to do line art, you prolly need a graphics tablet. But if you went for *simple flat shaped vector art* ("Out of This World" (1991)) or *pixel art* look (original "Prince of Persia" (1989)), nearly anyone could do it. Or at least i have tried to mimic those styles (especially OoTW), and it was relatively easy. The only stumbling blocks for me, have been that i get the urge to add too many details, and ruin it. Another problem i have is the difficulty of keeping a contrast between the characters and the background. I often resort to using gradients, thats making it more complicated (and time consuming) than OoTW's art style.. But i was trying to make comics in that style. If one made animations (or game graphics), the fact that characters are moving, would help the characters pop out of the background more. Also if you carefully select the background to have contrasting colors to the characters, that could also work.
Some solid advice. For 3d there are these asset forge tools that help you put together block pieces to form more complex objects. They allow you change color and tweak some attributes
Is it just me or wouldn't most game programmers have this issue? We went into programming games because we didn't devote our time to artistic skills. Or you're just naturally talented at everything, but those are a dime a dozen.
Yes. I'm seeing this with my son, who wants to make his own games. But I'm encouraging him to attempt some artwork. My thought is 1:You need something
2: If you can get an artist, it'll give him something to start with.
Either way, it'll be good for a programmer to have some idea as to how art will work into the game.
Another valid option is 3D renders which are then rasterised, as some may find it easier to create in 3D.
Even great artists can look at others art and feel intimidated. What you’re seeing in an instant is actually hours of work + years of experience.
VVVVVV wouldn't work today. Stone Story RPG is everything but simple, it would be much simpler to create a decent pixel art look than to create something even close to this level of ASCII art.
With the rest I agree.
I agree, the level of creativity/talent needed to do something like Stone Story RPG is quite high on the "artsy" scale. The idea is "simple" but the execution is very difficult.
Arguably ASCII art is even harder than pixel art due to how limited you are with animation as well, imagine trying to make anything but a stickman with those characters
I agree. It's very impressive that this game can convey so much with ascii art
That visualization of the single 'X' among all the 'O's' at the end was really great. You hear that sort of sentiment alot, but the visualization really sold the idea. Very strong way to end.
0:11 what is this art style called? The one in that character in his screen?? I have been struggling to find out the art style name for so long
It's named Chibi in Japan.
ascii art looks difficult asf
Cuz it is difficult af lol
1:46 Just for your info, the comunity made levels in Geometry Dash go FAR beyond simple circles and squares.
Man, you are the only one from we can learn something, you explain everything so good. Make a full tutorial on inventory, and I couldnt find anywhere how to create lets say loot bag on monster kill that when you open it it gives random items in it and that you can set droprate of item in that loot bag. It would be awsome to see inventory tutorial from you.
I've gone with simple 3D objects for my game. Cubes and cylinders go a long way towards a cohesive art style. It's also worth noticing the little details that your brain filters out when analysing low-fi games, such as the cool background that 140 has which I'm guessing moves in time with the music? Those things add so much to the look and feel of your game.
Also are you an NZ game dev? Cos me too.
Bonus style: 3D modelling. You'll be surprised how easier than hand drawn or pixel art illustrations it is, although it requires more work, especially on the animation department. First person 3D puzzle games where there aren't many animations other than doors opening, cubes/furniture moving and buttons/levers, you'll have an easier time making the 3D models yourself and getting free textures from the internet.
Voxel art and low poly are another good options.
TH-cam recommended this to me and it had a point.
Very nice to see Exordium for rotoscoping. Nice video overall.
Medal winners 24 is a game project that's the x among the circles. Unique vector style.
Where is this from 1:00?
Some art styles I think would be great for 3D:
Basic Shapes which carries over from 2D. Unless you need custom shapes, you won't even need to leave your game engine of choice.
Low Poly
This might be a bit trickier but PS1/N64 style
Voxel
You can even apply some shader or texture work to make it a little more unique too
Good to see the game "140" represented here. What an excellent game.
I can make realistic environments all day long easy .... Real life has plenty of reference ... But ive been studying stylized and its such a hard art to learn .. its like take what you know and make it up as if youve never seen it before
Really nice video, I shall be returning to my doodle art game of destruction :P
0:17 what is this soiftware he uses for pixel art?
dd410 aseprite
I like that man! "SHIP IT" , love ya ;-)
This was inspiring! I've been debating between pixel art and handrawn, so this was useful. Thank God I dont need to be that good at art.
which game is at 1:00
Just wanted to say that Stone Story RPG was made by professionals in textmode aka the art of making mona lisa in a text app, and they ( at least someone I know that worked on it) are professionals that have years of experience in textmode. Still though great video and I get the point
I have lots of ideas, 20+ years of programming knowledge (including some graphics programming), but basically no talent for art. At least I doodled a lot as a kid.
And that'll have to do! I need to figure out an art style that's super easy to do, because I want to spend 30% of the time on the core gameplay and feel
what program is he using at 0:09
The watermelon joke made me laugh so hard because I shared your pain at some point my friend.
And I never tried pixel art ever again.. :)
Animating your own art can be hard. I say Start with the initial pose then make the ending pose. Then create a Middle pose. Then you can add more frames and make minor tweak to get the the mid point or end of animation. Remember you can slowly make adjustments as you get better. When you need a break from animating do some programming and vice versa.
Id rather get a xbox Kinect and use it as motion capture cause that sounds like a easier option
I never understood that blank canvas, randomly placed objects or stuff out of trash, at least the last one can look like something and be really creative...
Amazing video😎thanks man! Art is all about patience
This video was extremely helpful thankyou!
I really need this as I have amazing ideas for games but always end up been boxes doing things or spending hours doing 3D characters n never using em
0:33 Me working on my games. :3
Yup ima do crudly hand drawn artwork for my game cause pixel art isnt my thing and if it looks ugly its ugly ima just design the game to be fun
this raises a question: did you do the art for Blood & Meat yourself ?
That's me in the first scene working on the art. ;) There should be a couple of dev logs floating around where I share more of the vector drawing techniques I use
the starting of the video is the best part
VERY USEFUL VIDEO!!!! I love it; have to keep this in mind, especially the one with crude drawings and such
which game is at 1:00 ?
Idk why, but after flash games died out I never bothered playing any "primitive shape" artstyle games. I feel like if I'm paying for a game I want a visual fantasy fulfilled.
what is the name of the game in the beginning of the video?
This only really covered 2D art. But the game I want to make would work best with 3D. Any advice for that?
Start with 2D.
I could recommend either PS1 graphics, pseudo 3D (like Spooky's Jumpscare mansion or Doom), or art made with blockbench.
Just make it. 3D looking "bad" is a style too
Now I want to watch that short again (1:00)
Another option, mix and match stock photos.
Hello Excuseme ¿Can I use part of your video to explain someting to my students? they do not speak english or know about diferent technology. Kind regards from ecatepec, this time!
What's the game at 00:25?
6 days later and still doesn’t give you the name of the game.
@rwconz_live2267 tell me about it 🙄
Its Chasm
@@RockRained thank you
What program did you use to animate the cave man?
Adobe Animate
Rotoscope is the only real recommendation here
You should add low poly styles so that 3D guys are not left in the dust :)
This actually really helped, thanks
Not sure if this applies that well to VNs :)
there is this perticular visual style in low poly which i totally dont like at all, and it seems to me that a large chunk of low poly games are made in this style, i dont know what is in it that i dont like, the big pieces of poly, the colours, lighting, how they draw objects and world with low poly. Some examples like Morphite, Clustertruck, Virginia
If You Want will 3d model a stunning environment in 2 days?
Nice video! Loved the first-mentioned method!
This helped me greatly, thank you :3
this was great. thanks for the awesome vid as always!
My uncle is the creator of the game 140 shows in the video
softwares?
Honorable mention: 2.5d, these games are 2D with 3D characteristics.
Minecraft is one of the most successful and beloved games in all of history, and made an equivalent amount of money to that status. Literally everything is an ugly cube. Even the sun.
I thought South Park looked like shit when I first saw it and didn't even want to give it a chance.
Now it's one of my favorite shows of all time.
Pac-man just looks like a wedge of cheese and it is the cornerstone of all of Capcom and saved their company from bankruptcy and made them into a titan of the industry.
The point is... it's not the graphics that matter. It's whether or not your game sucks.
how can i create primitive shapes plz tell me
Every art software has squares and circles. Use the mirror tool for other shapes.
@@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y which software is best for art photoshop alternatives
How bout for 3d?
Honestly asiic art might be a little harder because of its limitations
what about 3d / blender stuff? i feel like 2d indie should be gotten over it slowly but surely
*3:05** G l a s s e s*
Keep motivating ❤❤ and SHIP IT.😜
Well this'll be helpful..... for people who are bad at art I mean.....
Totally not for me..... >.>
so if I use those, does that mean that I am bad?
"Absolute Watermelon. Ship it"
I'm uploading my first game to Google Play today, and this is my new philosophy.
Awesome Terrance! I wish you the best with it!
I 'guess' this video says something to the effect of 'even you can do it', but overall I found it rather shallow and not much information really being given. I came away from it with weird conflicting feelings of 'ok I'm slightly motivated' and 'meh, maybe it's too much work and not worth my trouble after all.'
Definitely going to recommend Rotoscoping to my friends on the fence with game dev due to making the art.
Don't you have discord ^^
This.. gave me a direction. Thank you.
I just throw together some crap and call it "charm" or "character".
0:28 name game?
Chasm
Good Art > Good Gameplay
Good Art = Good Game.
I’m glad I came here I suck at art my family calls me a pro artist but-
You don't want to be another 0 on the page. You want to be the x on the page.