Your opinion on (W.I.P) game artwork

SolarPepperStudios

After the poll about the artwork in Meteor Man I am questioning the artwork of my newest (W.I.P) game. I included some art below and really what I am looking for is should I not use vector art. (That is currently the only program I have anyways.) Or does it need more detail?
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Images:

gamesfua

To be honest i think it comes across waaay too microsoft paint-y. Unless the game is for very young children, i think these graphics feel too simple. Take a look at some other games you admire and see what they did. I'm not saying to copy them, i'm saying look at what you like and ask urself why you like them. Now imagine someone looking at your game and ask yourself if theyd feel the same way. There's no right or wrong answer. Merely opinion.

jamie_c

I agree with @anatomyofdreams, it's a matter of opinion. But a lot of players judge a game by it's graphic style/quality (like judging a book by its cover).

You can certainly create more detailed art using a vector program if you want to, vector is certainly not a limitation. It's more a matter of how much time you want to spend learning and creating the graphics. Some vector tutorials:

http://vector.tutsplus.com/

http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.com/2011/12/game-assets.html

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/adobe-illustrator-cartoon-tutorials-best-of/

SolarPepperStudios

To be honest i think it comes across waaay too microsoft paint-y. Unless the game is for very young children, i think these graphics feel too simple. Take a look at some other games you admire and see what they did. I'm not saying to copy them, i'm saying look at what you like and ask urself why you like them. Now imagine someone looking at your game and ask yourself if theyd feel the same way. There's no right or wrong answer. Merely opinion.

@anatomyofdreams Thanks! The idea was for it to be simple yet not like MS-Paint. If you want to see what program I use then look up in the Mac App Store Sketch. It is a vector art program. Thanks for your opinion!

SolarPepperStudios

@jamie_c Thanks for those links! I'll look at them in a bit!

gamesfua

Well if its supposed to look simple then mission accomplished. And i don't mean that in a snarky kind of way. I mean, if thats what you're going after then don't let us pursudae you any differently. Only you know the look and feel you're going after. That said i still believe you can be simple but also be a bit more dynamic in design. Again just an opinion. Good luck!

JDuaneJ

I would really question your motives behind the choice to make it simple. Most developers choose simple artwork as a copout because they are not artists and want to justify how "unpolished" the art looks. (Giving some tough advice here) Remember that art drives downloads, if your art looks unprofessional and poor quality, your downloads are going to be very very low.

@anatomyofdreams It's one thing to want it to look that way, and it's another to not know what you're doing. We should persuade him differently because he is looking to us for advice. If we give @Utveckla_Games anything else but honesty, we set him up for failure. It's a Marathon not a sprint.

I really want everyone to do well so here is my best advice.

Hire an artist to get you something decent, it's not that expensive. If you plan on having this for free, then I guess go ahead and do the art yourself...but if you charge for it, you owe it to your customers to put some money and invest in your product to show them you actually care about everything that goes into it.

Look up some tutorials on google for beginner vector art, as well as some for a beginner artist. Think about the future of your ventures...if you want to be self-sufficient down the road, you'll invest the time needed to create decent looking artwork for your games.

You can also just purchase art from an online community like http://graphicriver.net/.

Good luck to you!

gamesfua

@jduanej not sure if you read my initial post but i gave my criticism there (where i called it microsoft paint-y). Then he said he wanted it to be simple. So i responded with, if simple is what youre after, then mission accomplished. However i also said that you can be simple but also still be more dynamic. I cant assume i know what hes after. Nor can i assume his skill level as an artist. I can merely show an opinion, give reason for my opinion and then wish you the best of luck. I dont believe i babied him. I wasnt being dishonest (something you alluded to).
Some artwork that is simple can have a positive reaction because it fits perfectly with the mood the developer intended. Since i dont know his intention i can only say what i had said. That said many of your suggestions are good ones and i think that should help him out a lot.

JDuaneJ

@anatomyofdreams Yeah I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, my apologies if my post read that way.

I think it's perfectly possible to know what he is after. From my experience, if he wanted simple... truly wanted simple, then he wouldn't have asked for opinions on the art. I feel he is reaching out for some wisdom on what to do, because he is clearly not a professional artist. I've played some awesome games with underpar artwork, but they were mostly driven by word of mouth.

SolarPepperStudios

@JDuaneJ @anatomyofdreams Thanks for your opinions and yes I am no artist that is why I am asking for opinions. I understand both of your points and the simple look I am after is a way of making it look like vector art yet not like MS-Paint. I will continue to take advice and learn from mistakes.

jamie_c

@Utveckla_Games, below is a link to a 'simple cartoon pickup truck' you might want to look at. It's not illustrated by me and I'm not suggesting you copy it. But if you take a close look at it and compare it to yours you might get some ides on what you can do to keep a simple cartoon feel but at the same time make the images look more polished.

This truck has more detail, but not a realistic amount. It uses flat color like you have in your samples but in such a way that the truck is more defined than yours. Also the line weights are varied, some are thick and some are thin, but just about every color shape has a black outline of some sort. This helps the 'cartoon on purpose feel' vs the microsoft paint feel mentioned above.

http://www.123rf.com/photo_12606175_minivan--cartoon-car.html

I find when I'm illustrating anything reference is very important. Not to copy it by any means but to get a feel for what it is you are trying to portray.