This is a really thoughtful take, you have a good eye for design. On the subject of video game sci fi universes which have a realistic aesthetic while avoiding that “these characters don’t fit together” problem is Mass Effect; your crew comes from different planets and cultures and are different races, but their armour design and the designs of world elements like the ships and architecture all feel cohesive which sells the Mass Effect setting as a real world and not an oddly artificial-feeling one like Concord comes across as.
Oh my goodness THANK YOU for going into detail about this and not just saying “well the designs weren’t sexualized enough, that’s why they don’t work” which is what I heard from most redesigners 😭 there is SO much more nuance to why the game looks so goofy then just that You made a great point about the characters looking like cosplayers, they really do just look like high end costumes This was a great breakdown, thank you for making thus!!
This is the best analysis of concords aesthetic I’ve seen until now. I’m surprised that you don’t have more views/subs. Also the first time someone has brought up the realism ceiling in context of game design of aesthetics and cohesion. Games now are nearing the end of the “most realistic” appeal as a crutch in lack of thoughtful design and art style. Looking back at older games the process of creating and implementing the art style and design was much more extensive and thoughtful. One Example that you mention was TF2. the behind the scenes look at the sketches and models etc. really showed how important all of it was for the final product I think that’s part of the reason indie games and smaller games that focus more on appealing design/artstyle are finding much more success then AAA games with overinflated budgets. Thank you again for the video !
Ditto. I'll take a HADES or TF2 or TF|2 or Outer Wilds (not Worlds, that game sucks, although i guess it also has a cohesive art style.) any day, over call the doodoo 37.
Something I noticed is that while they are trying to emulate older sci-fi aesthetic i think the reason it struggles is because it's too excessive. Older sci-fi to me looks very "smooth", with more effortless and minimal elements. I also tend to think of older sci-fi as more optimistic hence better technology. However Concord is more excessive like modern sci-fi is. Giving the example of Blade Runner, that film features lots of excess in the designs. (I think if Deckard's car with all of its exposed wires and just so much added garbage)
This is what I wanted someone to say for a very long time! I didn't know why they weren't working, but I knew they just weren't appealing correctly. Thanks so much.
Since people subscribed for my game, I just wanted to say the game's still actively developed, but there's less and less stuff I want to talk about in devlogs, so I figured making bigger non-devlog videos would be fun.
Also, Firewalk Studios, who made Concord, were shuttered while I was making this video, so now I feel a bit guilty that the horse died while I was walking over to beat it. Hopefully it's clear from the video that I think the problem was with the direction and coordination of the artists, not any individual artist's work. The fact that a lot of good work went into this game, with beautiful concept art and world-class modelling, and the result was so much less than the sum of its parts, should tell you it was a problem with putting the artists' skills to good use. I can imagine they wanted as many styles of character as possible for broad appeal, but also wanted realistic graphics because of the AAA prestige, but also a T rating to not exclude the kiddos, etc, and tied the artists' hands. I don't know anything about the internals of the studio, and this video isn't about that. I'm just examining the final result and seeing if I can draw any insight out of it.
What I find fascinating about Concord is the matter of fact it exists in the first place. With how much time, time, and more time is spent game developing one would think eventually someone brought up the idea of "hey man this looks weird". I am sure the people that worked on the game are talented and know their stuff through years of practice but that doesn't mean much when the product is lackluster. There's so much thought that's put into developing a game that many understate, at times it's a wonder when said game actually releases. While Concord itself is a failure in plenty of ways it's also a boon too. A perfect example of what not to do in multiple matters of making a game. It's a shame for any game to fail but from those ashes they can both inspire and birth new creations.
I'd love to get some inside information at some point to understand it. I think maybe they avoided getting outside feedback until the project was so far along they couldn't change anything, or they figured they could just power through on the game's good aspects, possibly because Sony higher-ups seemed so sure the game would be a success. Creative works also tend to get worse the longer people work on them, after a certain point, because the creators get used to all the weird decisions and start piling on more weird decisions. Spending so long looking at the characters to make this video, I find them completely fine now, and actually kind of like them. The designs *can* grow on people, just not enough to get people buying a $40 game after watching a few minutes of gameplay. Another issue is, in large enough teams, nobody feels like they have the power or the responsibility to stick their neck out and convince their boss the project's going in a bad direction. I've been there in tech, so I can imagine the same happens in games.
I feel like Guilty Gear (strive in particular cause it’s not quite as traditionally anime looking as Xrd) is a good example of disparate character designs working well together. That design choice: leather and belts. Lots of belts
Whoa, this is genuinely helpful for me, as I’m currently designing the enemies for my game. I had some strong coherent themes but the point about shared manufacturing, shared religion, more unified color spectrum show how many ways there are to unify characters.
10:15 ash from apex was already a character in Titanfall 2 with largely the same design also she and revenant look different because they are human mind in robot bodies while path is just a robot
Very nice commentary on these 👍 I like your comparisons. Concords was such a failure now everybody knows it. It was an example of why sticking to the formula might not be the best idea (especially when the formula is changing and they took 8 sweet years to make this)
While i agree, i think the big problem is that each character design doesn't really inform the player what the role of the characters is. What this leads to is that you get a bunch of just random chunguses (chungii?) that just feel like the odd group of fellas. And as you said, it is a little bit hard to imagine them being pals.
![Gamedev Stream: At the Ends of Eras [221]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/i-C-2GjL_-k/mqdefault.jpg)
This is a really thoughtful take, you have a good eye for design. On the subject of video game sci fi universes which have a realistic aesthetic while avoiding that “these characters don’t fit together” problem is Mass Effect; your crew comes from different planets and cultures and are different races, but their armour design and the designs of world elements like the ships and architecture all feel cohesive which sells the Mass Effect setting as a real world and not an oddly artificial-feeling one like Concord comes across as.
That's a good example!
Oh my goodness THANK YOU for going into detail about this and not just saying “well the designs weren’t sexualized enough, that’s why they don’t work” which is what I heard from most redesigners 😭 there is SO much more nuance to why the game looks so goofy then just that
You made a great point about the characters looking like cosplayers, they really do just look like high end costumes
This was a great breakdown, thank you for making thus!!
This is the best analysis of concords aesthetic I’ve seen until now. I’m surprised that you don’t have more views/subs. Also the first time someone has brought up the realism ceiling in context of game design of aesthetics and cohesion. Games now are nearing the end of the “most realistic” appeal as a crutch in lack of thoughtful design and art style. Looking back at older games the process of creating and implementing the art style and design was much more extensive and thoughtful. One Example that you mention was TF2. the behind the scenes look at the sketches and models etc. really showed how important all of it was for the final product I think that’s part of the reason indie games and smaller games that focus more on appealing design/artstyle are finding much more success then AAA games with overinflated budgets. Thank you again for the video !
Ditto. I'll take a HADES or TF2 or TF|2 or Outer Wilds (not Worlds, that game sucks, although i guess it also has a cohesive art style.) any day, over call the doodoo 37.
1:33
The differnce is that one celebrates CHRIMMAAA the other one is just a toddler wearing a stupid rat disguise.
3:15 this made my skin crawl
Something I noticed is that while they are trying to emulate older sci-fi aesthetic i think the reason it struggles is because it's too excessive. Older sci-fi to me looks very "smooth", with more effortless and minimal elements. I also tend to think of older sci-fi as more optimistic hence better technology.
However Concord is more excessive like modern sci-fi is. Giving the example of Blade Runner, that film features lots of excess in the designs. (I think if Deckard's car with all of its exposed wires and just so much added garbage)
This is what I wanted someone to say for a very long time! I didn't know why they weren't working, but I knew they just weren't appealing correctly.
Thanks so much.
I looked at the view count and it is under a 1000 views like how this video is really well done
Since people subscribed for my game, I just wanted to say the game's still actively developed, but there's less and less stuff I want to talk about in devlogs, so I figured making bigger non-devlog videos would be fun.
Also, Firewalk Studios, who made Concord, were shuttered while I was making this video, so now I feel a bit guilty that the horse died while I was walking over to beat it. Hopefully it's clear from the video that I think the problem was with the direction and coordination of the artists, not any individual artist's work.
The fact that a lot of good work went into this game, with beautiful concept art and world-class modelling, and the result was so much less than the sum of its parts, should tell you it was a problem with putting the artists' skills to good use. I can imagine they wanted as many styles of character as possible for broad appeal, but also wanted realistic graphics because of the AAA prestige, but also a T rating to not exclude the kiddos, etc, and tied the artists' hands.
I don't know anything about the internals of the studio, and this video isn't about that. I'm just examining the final result and seeing if I can draw any insight out of it.
People can tell when something is bad but are not smart enough to put it into words.
6:44 That random Berserk outro drop made me laugh and cry all at once. Thanks for cutting it before the godawful singing started though.
What I find fascinating about Concord is the matter of fact it exists in the first place. With how much time, time, and more time is spent game developing one would think eventually someone brought up the idea of "hey man this looks weird". I am sure the people that worked on the game are talented and know their stuff through years of practice but that doesn't mean much when the product is lackluster. There's so much thought that's put into developing a game that many understate, at times it's a wonder when said game actually releases. While Concord itself is a failure in plenty of ways it's also a boon too. A perfect example of what not to do in multiple matters of making a game. It's a shame for any game to fail but from those ashes they can both inspire and birth new creations.
I'd love to get some inside information at some point to understand it.
I think maybe they avoided getting outside feedback until the project was so far along they couldn't change anything, or they figured they could just power through on the game's good aspects, possibly because Sony higher-ups seemed so sure the game would be a success.
Creative works also tend to get worse the longer people work on them, after a certain point, because the creators get used to all the weird decisions and start piling on more weird decisions. Spending so long looking at the characters to make this video, I find them completely fine now, and actually kind of like them. The designs *can* grow on people, just not enough to get people buying a $40 game after watching a few minutes of gameplay.
Another issue is, in large enough teams, nobody feels like they have the power or the responsibility to stick their neck out and convince their boss the project's going in a bad direction. I've been there in tech, so I can imagine the same happens in games.
I’m pretty sure there were leaks recently of the designs earlier in development
7:19 wasnt there an episode of mystery incorperated where this exact thing happened
I feel like Guilty Gear (strive in particular cause it’s not quite as traditionally anime looking as Xrd) is a good example of disparate character designs working well together. That design choice: leather and belts. Lots of belts
Whoa, this is genuinely helpful for me, as I’m currently designing the enemies for my game. I had some strong coherent themes but the point about shared manufacturing, shared religion, more unified color spectrum show how many ways there are to unify characters.
Mythic recomendation
Never seen your channel before but I enjoyed this video a lot!!! ^^ Really well done
O, algorithm. One of thy children deserves thine blessings
I like your humour and you should have committed on the scooby doo bit
10:15 ash from apex was already a character in Titanfall 2 with largely the same design also she and revenant look different because they are human mind in robot bodies while path is just a robot
Fair enough. I'm just not a fan of robots with human faces. They feel cliche to me.
@@needleful fair , for me its kinda hit or miss too, old revenant looked better imo for example
I'm sure this video will have a very civil and polite comment section
2:28 I saw the thing thats from, terrible I am telling you
I really like to this style of content on top of your game stuff. Keep it up!
i really neededful this video , i like these kind of videos where u just talk, do more
Very nice commentary on these 👍 I like your comparisons. Concords was such a failure now everybody knows it. It was an example of why sticking to the formula might not be the best idea (especially when the formula is changing and they took 8 sweet years to make this)
Mate that Crocodile Dundee accent was on point! Hahahahaha
While i agree, i think the big problem is that each character design doesn't really inform the player what the role of the characters is.
What this leads to is that you get a bunch of just random chunguses (chungii?) that just feel like the odd group of fellas. And as you said, it is a little bit hard to imagine them being pals.
good video
Concord did so bad to where I was able to trade 3 copy's of it for a fortnite founders code the day before Concord got recalled 🤑
797th sub almost at 800