demigod art direction
an open letter to Gas Powered Games
from
Demigod Forums
I'm just basing everything on the current screenshots that are released so far and all unfortunately I feel the game looks complexly boring. The bright desert sunlight over the map casts great shadows but apart from that serves no real purpose to improve the mood aesthetically or illuminate the units.
Speaking of units, they are small, tend to be huge in numbers and look unnecessarily complex. I can see there are at least two kinds of those tiny calf-like units, ones with a spear and the ones with a hammer. Here's the problem: From the main RTS view how would I, the player, be able to determine exactly which ones of the calfs units are which when there's a large battle going on.
There are also the gigantic units that look impressive but when it comes down to the real gameplay value, they're gonna be hindering alot of the view especially because everything else is so tiny.
Most of the units are also dark colored or shed off lots of tiny drop shadows in their models which makes them hard to focus on. It sure is cooler when they're just standing there with all the shadows but when I'm playing the game I'd want to know which unit is exactly which. Combined with the brightly clean texture of the ground below, that would be forcing the player's attention to focus on the environment instead of the units.
We're past the days where everything has to look ridiculously sophisticated. That's not to say I'm asking for stickmen on the field but I believe alot of things can be simplified and still look aesthetically pleasing while retaining gameplay viewability.
I don't wish to compare here or put anyone down but let me cite Warcraft 3 since you mentioned there is some inspiration from DOTA. Blizzaed managed to nail down the whole 'unique shapes/animation of units' part to improve viewability but even the better players have trouble identifying what's actually going on in massive battles.
It's not all about simplicity of course, complex units are great too but in a game where there's heavy action with lots of units, clarity and viewability should be the priority.
I'm rooting for this game so please don't go down the path of some of the games where they have let the unit designers orgy all over the place. You really need a more solid game-art direction; one that takes into account the factors in gameplay.
