Catchy Cartoons & Colors: Picking Stylized Graphics for Mobile Games
Enhanced Mobile Game Development through Stylized Art Approach
Want your mobile game to stand out in today's crowded market? Consider focusing on eye-catching stylized graphics!
Mobile gaming demands strategic moves to hit the big leagues. Speed, catchy music, resource availability, and easy gameplay are essential components. And like any other game, creative decisions about the graphics — from the art style to the expressionism — will have a significant impact on a game's success, particularly among the target audience. So let's take a closer look at the advantages of employing stylized graphics for your mobile gaming project. But first, let's quickly cover what we mean by "stylized graphics."
The Stylized Graphics Scoop
Laced with impressive realism, PUBG Mobile boasts a more serious art style. The game's characters and objects are crafted with dimensions and physical attributes similar to those found in the real world. Consequently, the in-game animations mirror reality. This realistic approach keeps players absorbed and attracts a mature crowd. However, when comparing graphics into two categories — realistic vs stylized art — PUBG Mobile falls into the former.
Stylized graphics, on the other hand, showcase a unique interpretation and characterization of the universe's physical properties. This approach enables developers to enjoy creative freedom and set their game apart in a competitive market. Games like Hay Day, Fallout Shelter, and Subway Surfers exemplify the successful blending of realism with an authentic art style.
Why Choose Stylized Graphics for Your Mobile Game?
Stylized graphics, although more modest in appearance, have immense potential to positively impact the player base. Games such as Clash Of Clans, Subway Surfers, Genshin Impact, and Ragnarok Mobile are among the top-played games on both the App Store and Google Play Store. Furthermore, all games with stylized graphics share a category known as "Stylized Games" on the Play Store and App Store. By featuring your game in this prestigious category, you'll attract a larger player base.
All About Appealing to Your Audience
Understanding your target audience can offer valuable insights into effective strategies. It's no secret that most children and teen media cater to goofy, cartoonish, and unique art styles. So by focusing on a mobile game intended for kids and teens, you'll likely benefit from using stylized graphics since they're familiar with these visuals from TV, the internet, and social groups. Stylized art also has the versatility to appeal to a wider audience, especially when it incorporates popular culture elements like anime or manga.
Additionally, you can also interest older audiences by developing stylized art that isn't necessarily cartoonish and features a more mature gameplay style. For example, "Ragnarok Mobile" showcases manga-style characters and objects, which also fall within the stylized graphics category. Since many adults appreciate anime and manga, they'll be more inclined to play a game with a similar aesthetic.
From this angle, it's reasonable to infer that games with stylized graphics can appeal to a wider demographic, encompassing children, teens, and young adults. Games such as Team Fortress 2 on PC and Subway Surfers on mobile are prime examples of this trend. However, there are additional benefits that stylized graphics can provide, particularly in regards to the gameplay experience. Let's explore further!
Advantages of Stylized Graphics in Gameplay
Stylized games often offer more opportunities for humorous scenes and characters, enhancing the overall laugh factor of the game. But, critical in-game information also benefits from stylized graphics. For example, "Team Fortress 2" aimed for realistic graphics initially but soon realized that identifying enemy classes with realistic graphics would take longer. The Team Fortress 2 team recognized that a game with classes and twitch action wouldn't benefit as much from realistic graphics. The timeless popularity of the game is a testament to their success in this regard. Similarly, in realistic games, any hiccups or jaggies will be more heavily judged by the audience, as they lessen immersion.
Ageless Attraction
While a project aiming for realism may be well-received upon release, realistic graphics in video games are constantly evolving. As a result, a previously realistic game may lose its charm after a few years when other games offer higher levels of detail and hyper-realistic objects and textures. However, games with stylized graphics tend to hold up better, as they're not directly competing with realism. Classic PC games like Oblivion and Morrowind are gradually fading, while the Nintendo GameCube hit, Wind Waker, remains captivating. To summarize, distinctive art will retain its appeal even after a decade, while realistic graphics may show signs of aging sooner.
Visually Captivating Stylized Art
Stylized graphics can make your game more noticeable in over-saturated categories. For example, notice how realistic graphics have saturated the FPS genre. In this scenario, presenting an FPS with stylized graphics also offers a competitive advantage. This technique can be seen in games like World War Polygon.
The Freedom of Game genres and Technologies
Investment and advancements in technologies and software focusing on realism improvements concerning graphics in video games are substantial. To achieve realistic graphics, you may need state-of-the-art devices. Consequently, usingdated technology can impact the overall quality of the final product. However, stylized graphics won't necessarily require the latest technologies; they are more flexible and offer comparable results with fewer limitations.
Jaw-Dropping Artistic Lighting
Realism-centered graphics tend to be limited by real-life rules of lighting and colors. Although this can produce outstanding results, mobile devices struggle to reproduce these intricate details effectively. On the other hand, stylized graphics open the door for creative lighting techniques with an artistic twist. This allows artists to enhance and manipulate lighting to their liking without being confined to realism.
For example, creating an in-game atmosphere that resembles being under a "filter" is acceptable in games with stylized graphics. Stylized games often feature exciting lighting techniques, as seen in the PC title Kynseed:
And in The Unliving - a rogue-lite pixel art action RPG currently under development:
Faster 3D Sculpting and 2D Art Flexibility
Though not always the case, stylized sculpting tends to be quicker and more straightforward. Assets with stylized graphics have fewer surface details and more prominent shapes, making them shorter to produce and texture. However, it's crucial to determine if the stylized graphic style will aim for an exaggerated tone or a more minimalistic one. Exaggerated stylized assets are typically easier to sculpt and texture since they feature more prominent and straightforward shapes.
Stylized art style has become a popular choice among mobile casual games due to its inclination towards casual, light, and playful atmospheres. So pick your visuals wisely, and seize the opportunities stylized graphics can offer to make your mobile game a winner!
Fun Facts and Trends
- Stylized graphics cater to a wide range of preferences, making them appealing to a broader audience.
- Games with stylized graphics tend to consume fewer resources, making them better suited for mobile devices.
- Popular stylized games such as Subway Surfers, Genshin Impact, and Clash Of Clans maintain high rankings on App Stores.
- Stylized graphics enable a high degree of creativity, allowing developers to express their unique vision.
- Implementing visually appealing stylized graphics can lead to more opportunities for monetization.
- By incorporating elements of popular culture like anime or manga, stylized graphics can attract a larger player base.
- Games featuring stylized graphics have been proven to be engaging and appealing to various age groups.
- Stylized graphics offer greater resource efficiency, allowing smoother performance across many devices.
- The flexibility of stylized graphics makes them suitable for a variety of game genres and technologies.
- Artistic lighting and color choices are more prevalent in stylized graphics, leading to visually captivating games.
- Incorporating stylized graphics, which offer a unique interpretation of the game universe's physical properties, can allow developers to creatively differentiate their mobile game from competitors and cater to a wider demographic, including children, teens, and young adults, as shown by the success of games like Subway Surfers and Ragnarok Mobile.
- Stylized graphics also provide advantages in gameplay, offering opportunities for humorous scenes and characters that enhance the player experience, as well as making it easier to identify game elements, such as enemy classes in Team Fortress 2, due to their distinctive visuals. These advantages contribute to the game's overall success and longevity in the competitive mobile gaming market.
