Thoughts on art direction...

So....... Star Control 3?

Seriously, though... The currently released art hasn't put me off. I'll reserve judgement until I see more aliens and artwork.

I need to see more art and designs of the game to make a concrete opinion.   They can mix in more realistic and threatening-looking aliens while keeping the fun, cartoonish characters.  That was part of the fun of Star Control II, some of the weird races were really really fun. Zok Fit Pik comes to mind. Then the Ur-Quan and the Mycon, and a few others, just freaked me out when interacting with them.

Again, this isn't going to be Star Control II HD 2.0.   I just hope it doesn't FEEL like Spore 2.0, but again, I'll reserve judgement when more work gets released. I know Stardock is looking at this forum, and they need to produce more artwork to have the art direction actually  have movement to the end goal. Then constructive criticisms will help out the direction of the game.

I'm not a huge fan of the cartoon planets, but then again, I haven't seen them in action.  Not a massive fan of the 3D aliens concept and feel a 2D art directions is a better way to go, but then again I haven't seen the 3D characters in action either.

Let Stardock get some working concepts working and then we can bash it.

Until then, I'm playing both Star Control II and Starflight out of nostalgia to keep the memories of this genre alive.  Which reminds me, anyone have any other games that they'd want to add to the list of adventure space games?  

That's right. Tywom is already being secretly hated by many. But again, not all the aliens need to be amazingly mind-blowing (Mukay). What turns my stomach with Tywom is 3d connexxion space pilot and logitech gameboard on his belly. 

I absolutely agree that scrapped Thrax art looks fantastic. UI in that picture looks great. Perfect colors. Love the font. Thrasher looks impeccable looks and idea-wise (to my understanding it's literally a melee ship with that massive front grinder). But, that art is dark and gritty. Darker and heavier than Mass Effect even IMO. It's not SC2 at all and SD decided to keep the light-heartedness of SC2 art. Can do nothing about that. Also, I have to agree with Andrew Z. that cartoony art will age better than "realistic" one. It shows that SD is serious about keeping the franchise alive. Though, I wouldn't mind if Thrax was the new art direction since it's a complete reboot and all aliens are thrown out the window etc.

I completely disagree with the decision of humanoid aliens exclusion. Who doesn't love blue space babes?......   But this will be fixed with the community campaigns (can't wait to play Mass Effect one with non-f'ed up ending) since SD promised all the tools to make that happen.

Planets art needs to be seen in 3D to judge.

Double post.

P.S. I hate this forum buttons. 

Starting with being wierded out - you better believe that will happen. The discarded Crab-Hand alien did that to me last night when I saw it. If that's the kind of thing they are DISCARDING, then I can't WAIT to see what they're keeping!!!  Voices, fonts, music, etc, will also help make aliens freaky or friendly.  The Orz were, by appearance, the friendliest aliens in SC2, but as the years slip by, they freak me out more and more and more because of their story and mystery surrounding them.

In regards to realism, when I think about games, the only things that come to mind are fairly realistic portrayals.  I personally don't think we are over-saturated by cartoony or light-hearted art direction in game aliens.  I could be wrong, as I haven't played a lot of Space games lately. Dark, gritty humanoid knock-offs with console source lighting on a bridge of a ship has been so overdone.  The Spathi bridge from SC2 embodies perfectly the way SC2 did it well.  An obviously terrified critter barely peeking up over the console, hilarious!  Give us something strange for strange sake.

By the same token, I am slightly concerned about the cartoony planets.  I was not expecting that *at all.* That being said, I can't wait to see them and see how they work.  I trust that SD knows what they're doing, and I look forward to adjusting to it.

^ More to say - I can't wait to be weirded out. Wasn't it one of the best things ever when playing SC?..

The pincers-armed miner slug instantly reminded me of f'ed up (in a good weird way) Silent Hill creatures. I'm glad it was discarded though, 'cause it was a pretty lazy design and didn't look like a space-faring alien at all. The "drooler" though looks interesting, but probably way too offensive if you know what I mean (S.H.?).....

• The stated goal of not wanting to be "too realistic"
• Some of the rejected artwork is AWESOME
• Said rejected artwork appears to have been rejected for many of the reasons said artwork is awesome (although I'm 100% on board with avoiding humanoid aliens)
• The non-rejected aliens are skewing way too Spore/Pixar/Dreamworks
• Planets are also skewing WAY too Spore (while taking it to a new "Populous box art" extreme)
• I still hold a grudge over the ugly placeholder-art "style" that ultimately shipped with the Elemental games (I hate it so much I can't even bring myself to play those games, regardless of how much they may have improved). I always hoped that would evolve into something better and more developed. It never did.

We'll see. I hope we get a bigger art dump soon to pour over and discuss... but we're still very early in the process, so easier to discuss these things now than later.

For the record, I totally agree. Though I must hold off my finale judgement on the art until I actually see more, (there was only a few pieces in the vault), the overall direction of the art is not my favorite. I do not deny that some cartony elements would be a great plan, some art in SC2 was very cartony (Pukunk, need I say more) But other aliens were portrayed very siriusly (Kor-ah and Ur-quan kzer-za for example). Maybe it can be the same for planets? Some with foreboding gloom and danger in their realism, others lighter and more playful towards the carton edge of the spectrum? 

I don't know. The community seems to be very divided regarding this topic (I mean just LOOK at the planet design thread) and I don't want to step on anyone's opinion or offend anyone, but if you dislike completely cartony world systems, you are not alone (and if you like them, you also are not alone).

I am to often reminded though that what we give is just feedback, with the which Stardock may do as they please. So if Stardock wants all carton planets... they get all carton planets. Its just the way it is.

A compromise might be possible however. There are times in SC2 when the mood is very cartony, there are times were it is not. Perhaps planets can be depicted in a similar way? Feedback is appreciated. Thanks for listening, I appreciate your attention and feedback. 

I agree with the stance in the topic and others here who have made similar statements.

It's interesting that you immediately drew comparisons to modern animation studios as that was pretty much the established statement from Stardock. The Pixar film 'Inside Out' was given as an example of the kind of art direction being used as inspiration. I know that has caused several to raise an eyebrow and is provoking some strong discussions, but I am reserving judgment until more becomes known.

I personally would like the series to stay grounded in a pseudo-reality that doesn't skew too heavily cartoonish lest it become absurd. Of course it has its absurd moments but I never felt that's what Star Control really was. I loved it because it seemed like a blend of the best aspects of Star Trek (exploration, curiosity, diplomacy, possibilities, and wonderment) with the heart of Star Wars (action, adventure, strongly defined character arcs, and a little bit of humor and charm).

Even though both of those franchises have lots of material that strains plausibility and is often times even silly, they were still grounded in a reality that we could relate to and didn't feel zany or overwrought. I would like to see a happy medium between what we know about the universe versus the many undiscovered possibilities its holds. I'd like it to be a partial fantasy, not a complete one.

While grounded in reality, what I remember about them is the crazy Orz, the mercantile Melnorme, the cruel Druuge, and the ridiculousness of so much of it!  They can do this right, IF they are internally consistent with their art direction in the whole game.