Why I choose stylized art as the focus of my research
I really want to be good at actually making stylized game asset, that is why I’m doing this study theoretically to enhance my understanding. Also I believe there’s a lot potential in stylized game art as well.
Notes on the history of the development of video game
In 1980, NAMCO launched the “Pac-Man” game that became popular around the world.
In 1983, the superstar “Nintendo FC” with global sales of 60 million units was officially launched. Needless to say, Nintendo’s FC’s status in the gaming industry goes without saying. Nintendo and its FC have given birth to a new culture – gaming culture.
In 1985, two of the most classic games in history were born: Tetris and Super Mario. All related versions of Super Mario have sold 540 million units. Subsequently, classic FC games appeared one after another, such as “Contra”, “Tank Battle”, “MapleStory”, “Street Fighter”, etc.
In 1988, the first CD-Rom-based “The Manhole” was released, laying the foundation for the popularity of CD-type games.
In 1989, Nintendo officially released the Game Boy portable game.
In addition to console games, arcade games also began to enter the “golden age” in the 1980s, reaching their peak in 1983. The aforementioned Pac-Man and Donkey Kong were both initially released on arcades. However, due to the impact of the “Atari Shock”, American arcades gradually declined, and the focus began to shift to Japan. In the late 1980s, TECHN S JAPAN released “Double Dragon”, becoming the ancestor of the scroll fighting game. In the same year, CAPCOM launched “Street Fighter”, the first fighting game.
In 1990, SEGA launched the Game Gear, the first handheld color game console. In 1994, another epoch-making electronic game console, the PlayStation, came out, completely overthrowing Nintendo’s 10-year dominance.
At the same time, on the PC platform, the emergence of “Wolfenstein 3D”, the originator of FPS games developed by idsoftware, created an unprecedented new game mode. Then in 1993, he created another game that changed the history of the game industry – “Doom”, which completely opened the era of first-person shooting games. Today’s 3D games are basically designed based on these classic games.
In 1994, Blizzard’s father appeared on the scene, and “Warcraft” became popular all over the world immediately after its launch. In the following years, Blizzard launched several “Warcraft” games one after another. Of course, when it comes to Warcraft, we have to mention the king of MMORPGs – “World of Warcraft”. “World of Warcraft” was released in 2004 and soon became the It became the production model of MMORPG. Later, the game mechanisms of many large-scale online games were made with reference to World of Warcraft. The release of these games directly established Blizzard’s dominance in the gaming field.
The new generation of game consoles and the era of online games
In 2000, Sony released the PlayStation 2, which directly dominated the entire game console market. In 2001, Microsoft also launched the XBOX console. For a while, game consoles were almost monopolized by Sony and Microsoft. However, Sony was not satisfied with the console market. In 2004, it launched another classic game handheld console-PSP. In the same year, Nintendo also launched an equally excellent handheld console – NDS, and later launched 3DS and Switch. The sales of these game consoles have reached tens of millions.
Around 2000, the rapid development of computer hardware led to a significant increase in Internet speed. Against this background, the era of online games arrived. Starting from the open beta of “Legend”, various online games began to explode. Major domestic manufacturers gradually switched from agent online games to self-developed online games. After a period of time, “Fantasy Westward Journey”, “Audition”, “Zhu Xian” were born one after another. “, “Dragon”, “DNF”, “Zhengtu”, “Bubble Hall”, “Kart Racing”, “League of Legends” and a large number of classic PC games. In addition to these “heavyweight” online games, there are also countless online casual chess and card games. Due to their wide coverage, the number of players is not inferior in comparison.
Draft for abstract and introduction
Abstract
It is controversial when it comes to the topic of whether video games can be art. One of the reasons may be that because the initial focus of a video game has always been its interactivity, the visual art in video games is overlooked. However, the art in video games is phenomenal and influential, which indicates perhaps the art aspect shouldn’t be ignored. Through analysis of the application of stylized art design in video games, this research suggests that stylized art contributes enormously to the aesthetic value and interactive experience of players.
Key Words: stylization, game 3d graphic production, video games, art direction, traditional art.