Computer Game Graphics

Computer Game Graphics

Pixel Art

A form of design in game where an image is built up and edited through the use of many pixel with them being the smallest building block within design, often taking the form of a 2D sprite or 3D isometric sprites. Often found in older games or in those created by indie developers some famous examples of these are Mario, 2D Zelda games, Castlevania, and Super Meat boy.

Concept Art

Used to showcase an idea or design, concept art can be used to present the look of things such as an ingame item, weapons, vehicles, characters, environments and many more such as these used in the creation of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This concept art shows the lead protagonist and player charcter, Big Boss, and clearly shows is details of the characters over all appearance such as his clothes, hair, facial feature, robot arm and makes clear where an unseen insignia would be placed.

Texture Art

Texture art is used in finalising the appearance of something with it often being applied to things in the landscape in order to help add to the atmosphere within a game, a clear example of this is within the silent hill series where the player enters the distorted world and is a hellish environment designed to evoke a sense of dread within the player. Another use is a games skybox which is present in many many 3D games, aiding in giving the enviorment a 3D look and feel. Texture art has always been a key part of game design with an obvious example being the brick texture in the original Super Mario Game

Background Graphics

Like my earlier example of graphics, objects that build up the location’s scenery like lakes, mountains, any type of buildings (e.g. a castle) and trees are made to become part of a background creating depth within the world. Levels that use things like snow to create atmosphere add things like rain par5ticles giving the world around the player a more alive feeling immersing the player even

more.

In Game Interface

An ingame interface is either an or a set of icons giving the player information about what is happening within the game, often called a Heads Up Display (or HUD for short) it shows the player charcter vital information such as their health bars, objective, any sort of time linit there may be or any other bars and status ailments. Some games such as Dead Space intergrate the heads up display into the character themselves to add an extra layer of immersion with the ammo counter being holographically didplayed by the gun and the health bar being displayed on the suit.

Print Media

Print media covers many things such as promotional images and posters, manuels, game and more.

Print media needs to catch the eye but be faithful to the title it advertises as to not give the wrong impression of the game such as confusing the genre of the title by showing a 3D game and actually being a 2D platformer. The box art will often prodominantly feature the main protagoinist showing any potential buyer the character they’ll be in control of and a more generic blank charcter with no real identity if it’s a multiplayer focused game showing its not about a certain character and their storyline.