Of all aspects of video games, art direction / style is the #1 MOST IMPORTANT element. Here's why:

Of all aspects of video games, art direction / style is the #1 MOST IMPORTANT element. Here's why:

>that game you like has been done before
>seriously, it's been done before
>the mechanics are not new, enemy AI and invincibility frames and even the highest level meta has been done before
>every genre has already been mechanically exhausted ages ago

However, what is always refreshing is a unique, nuanced art style and world design of which is truly limitless in possibilities. That is what actually makes games within the same genre feel like a new experience.

Discuss.

You're wrong.

PROVE me wrong.

i like my GAMEs with good GAMEplay

World design is part of gameplay. Your eyes see knights in that picture standing in front of a giant gothic castle, don't they? Or do they just see 1s and 0s and hitboxes?

how does the setting affect the gameplay? wouldnt it be the other way around?

>>that game you like has been done before
Papers Please was done before?

Oh wait, you're just a fucking idiot graphics whore.

by your logic battleborn should have been a rousing success, with such a vibrant art style

How doesn't it?

Design of enemies tell you all sorts of things. What angle they'll attack from, how they'll attack, what their reach might be, where their weak spots might be, etc. And, their visual design can shock / distract you.

Environmental design can distract you, or suggest that you prepare for something, or obscure things depending on use of color and lighting, or show you where to go or what to do, or make you think about what's going on. The world around you makes you feel and think things.

Design is how we understand the game we're playing. Otherwise it's just 0s and 1s and hitboxes, and who the hell wants to play that?

I agree

I agree of the art direction style is the rule. You can make a fantastic game with a good color pallet and story and gameplay but if the actual style of the art is shit its a huge hindrance.

>how does the setting affect the gameplay?

Not that guy, but let me answer that in the form of a question. How many High Fantasy golf games can you name?

Also I think you're confusing World Design and Setting but I'm sure you've figure that out by now from my answer.

Papers Please is a fairly basic puzzle game. It's liked precisely for its art direction / style, which supports the OP.

this. original games still come out and a lot of games take familiar mechanics and do new things or change the rules in new ways resulting in something fresh.

You're wrong.

>"Enemy AI has been done before".

Guess what, "3D graphics have been done before". Your entire stance is now invalidated.

the memory matching the game starting you out doing is a bait and switch for the real act of making decisions that affect the world it takes place in, which is writing related, not art style

Art style =/= 3D graphics

Art style can differ from game to game, but enemy AI is often the same thing. The variation often comes infact from variation in the art style which is how new ways of using the same mechanics emerge.

>High Fantasy golf games

That actually sounds interesting. Now I'm wondering if such a thing has been done before.

>Papers Please is a fairly basic puzzle game.
Holy shit, you stretched that one so much that its transparent.

By that logic, art direction doesn't mean shit because its all just polygons.

You can't have your argument imply art styles are distinct unique entitites and do something as retardedly generalizing as "oh well papers please is just a puzzle game" Because then any game you can present as an example of style is "Just a 3D game" or "Just a 2D game"

If you're going to argue, don't create a response that negates your own point.

It all bundles into world design during game development which is more or less a part of art direction. Writing is on the creative end, not the technical.

But mechanically, Papers Please is not really original. What makes it original or at least difficult to pinpoint in how it is the same is its art direction.

the game has simple cheap pixel art and bare bones menus so i doubt that.

>soulshit
>""""""""""art"""""""""" direction

And why do you post Dark Souls of all games as an example? It's just shitty castle corridors and 99% the "art" is based on real life constructions or manga.

Minecraft, portal, papers please, proteus, fez, 999, myst, Phoenix Wryght.

All of these games rely on writing or gameplay, are extremely enjoyable, and incredibly fun, yet they all have bland or basic style. Minecraft is rudimentary, portal is generic FPS, papers and fez are just generic pixel art, 999 and phoenix have standard VN art styles. etc.... Yet they're still playable with high large fan bases. Style does not dictate quality.

What did I just say? If you're going to argue don't create a response that negates your own point. My argument is function vs. form, while your only objective is to tear down papers please specifically as if my argument hinges on it. You don't even understand what you're arguing so either get your shit together or this is the last response you're going to get from me. Again, using your own logic, art direction means nothing because its just a selection of polygons or pixels. Because this is the rudimentary level to which you're simplifying the arguing point and I'm just replying in kind.

Further more, Papers Please has nothing original about its art style, its the fairly standard lo-bit retro style used by indie devs to save time. The art direction wasn't one of choice but one of necessity. The gameplay could translate down to text form or upscale up to full hi-rez 3D, it wouldn't affect the main drawing principle of the game which is superb writing which responds to the choices you make over time and the way your decisions affect the in-game world. You're literally judging the game based on looks alone, refusing to even look at substance in a style vs. substance discussion. You're unfit for this argument in the first place, shouldn't you be off in /vg/ shilling mass effect? Because clearly this argument is a bit above your level of understanding.

everything about the way you wrote this post makes me hate you
why are you talking like that
when did Sup Forums become fucking normie losertown

>There's nothing new under the sun
>except art style
>which also includes world design
>both of which are just combining old things under the sun in different ways which is no different form anything else

Gameplay > atmosphere > story
Execution > originality
You cannot disprove this

It's literally just berzerk ripoff, like 99% of dark and moody jap action games out there.

There are games that rely on their outstanding art direction. Morrowind for instance, Morrowind's experience wouldn't tantamount to what it is at all if it was illustrated by other people.

>stardew valley

Nice thread to find non-art games tho op

The key is uniqueness in artstyle and characters.

>shield has two straps
>only uses one

Shit game would not play

>unique, nuanced art style and world design of which is truly limitless in possibilities
>posts DaS3, which just uses what's been done in the three previous souls games which are just retreading old dark fantasy territory which has been done to death in every medium in every way

rly mk me fink