I Originally had other videos planned, but my last two videos ended up being more controversial than I expected (well, I guess I expected criticism from the pixel art video). So I felt I needed to talk about an implicit premise in most of my videos. I tend to never assume "the ability to do something" as a good argument for doing it, I think almost everything should be evaluated on a scale of Time vs quality (you might agree or disagree, but you should be aware of where I am coming from). With that said, I am obviously aware that the example I showed in the video isn't that unique, it actually kind of looks exactly like my art (which is kind of my point). But I wanted to show that if I wanted to avoid the label "hk clone", this is about as unique as I could make it without completely ruining the ROI, if I made it more unique it would look worse and take longer time, and at that point living with the label would be better. Similarly, I think unless you are a really good artist, or naturally draw very different, trying to shoe-horn uniqueness by learning to draw a new way, seems like something that would generally be a bad time investment. And in that sense I think making things slightly different is as of now (when hand drawn is still less saturated then pixel art) still easier. But nonetheless, uniqueness isn't everything. Thanks for watching, feel free to argue with me down below :)
I didn't read the controversy on the pixel art video, but l'm guessing that a lot of us (maybe most of us) grew up with 8 or 16 bit systems and DOS games which were all pixel art, and therefore we don't agree with the premise that pixel art tends to look the same, on the contrary, it seems that there was more variety back then. Maybe we can agree that the system in which a game was developed tends to show, whether it's a game made for the ATARI or made on Unreal. In this video you showed us two different types of art, one of which resembles Hollow Knight and the other one resembles games like Gris. I suppose your emphasis on readability and ROI makes a lot of sense and is one of the reasons these videos are so valuable, because they deliver powerful tools for developing the art of a game. Hope to see more of your work, it looks very good, and it would be great to see it in action.
I would've loved to have seen those other videos. For as subjective as art is I'm surprised how many people can't handle new ideas or a different change of thought. Videos like these are great for creativity because it gets you thinking. I don't know why people anymore are so on edge and take the slightest opinion as some authoritarian decree of absolutism. Sad, really. You're game is looking great, btw.
You probably don't wanna hear this, but i actually honestly prefer the artstyle at 5:54 over the one at 5:55. The former has some gris vibes to it, which is one of the most beautiful games ever. The latter on the other hand does indeed go more of that HK route, which i'm seeing more and more. Now that's not a bad thing for me, similar art is fine, but most hk fans aren't as forgiving and will unfairly write off your game based on perceived copying of the style. Deviator is a game i've seen appear at the last steam next fest and it was blasted by toxic hk fans for looking 'too similar' as if the HK lineart style is that unique. I'd argue that the uniqueness of that game is more due to the character designs rather than the art itself
c'mon. I just looked at the Deviator, it looks like a hollow knight mod. fandoms can get toxic I agree but the example you gave is borderline stealing. the style of him in this video resembles hollow knight but not a carbon copy.
I absolutely love the watercolor level with the dog , you should go that way. It looks 💯 better. Def the difference of me playing or not playing the game.
I think this video is really helpful. I'm working on a top-down zelda-like and there's part of me that wants to do pixel art, and I did some in a test and it looks pretty decent, but after this video I thought about how long it took me to get the pixels just right for the auto-tiling system, and the ROI is pretty bad. Realistically, I don't need to adhere to any technical limitations, so I don't NEED to re-use a lot of assets over and over again. Though it was a useful learning experience. And maybe the route I'll take is using the auto-tiling assets I made as a basis for individually hand-drawn assets. I'm still on the fence, but I think any content like this video is really useful, because it makes creators reconsider their their preconceived notions for doing something in a particular way. I was doing pixel art because A Link to the Past is in pixel art.
Do you have a name for it yet. Even if you're a ways away? I'm trying to follow all zelda-likes. Like Horn of Balance that's in a kickstarter right now. I'd like to keep an eye out in the future for yours too.
@@ultimaxkom8728 The main character of the game is a small beetle-like creature, and the setting is basically just the undergrowth of a forest floor. So lot's of leaves and roots and mushrooms.
I really enjoyed your video, and watched some parts several times. You are giving so many references and comparisons, and it helps me a lot to wrap my mind around what I’m looking for when I draw my tiles. Instead of a solution, you gave me tools to think better. Thank you
Since I just started drawing, I'm still trying to find a style. I really like watercolor so I'm playing with that at the moment. My current project is a little virtual pet game so I think watercolor will work for that. I'll have to decide with my future projects if watercolor is still appropriate.
I really like watercolour and think it works quite well in the context of game art. You can get quite decent results with watercolour paper textures as well, it's a bit tricky to get right, but I definitely think it's something worth exploring!
@@Nonsensical2D I think I first saw it in Doraemon Story of Seasons and really liked it. Then, I saw it in Cozy Grove and fell in love. It's such a gorgeous game. Calico also has it but in 3D which reminded me of a video called, "The Prettiest Pokemon Game That Doesn't Exist" and that got me inspired. I don't know how far I can go with it but if done well, it looks really good in 2D and 3D.
To me, atmosphere, mood, ambience, and tone always trumps art style or aesthetic choices. Unless you learn to specifically copy another artist's design (like in the case of source-accurate fan art), all art is unique due the artists personal experiences in life (including other games). Making comparisons to other artwork shouldn't be treated negatively at all unless it's out-right plagiarism. Art is just as much apart of storytelling as everything else - even music - and some things just fit perspective. If true to oneself, art will always be unique.
I'd love to see a video about designing 2d art for a day/night cycle or variable light source locations. I'm having a really hard time conceptualizing coloring my assets because of this.
From a results standpoint I'd say yes, since a unique artstyle allows your setting to stand out. But far more importantly, it depends on what you wanna do. If you like a very common style and wanna do that, go for it!
Another video other concept I'm interested in is level designing platforming areas that you return to simular to Night in the Woods to allow for continued exploration and discovery.
Always helpful. I’d love to work with you, as the backend guy. I’m a 40 year old math teacher and know my people. You’re my people. I love how seriously you take this
I have a question as I'm rlly struggling with art. I stopped my game bc of it, and bc without it, the programming ideas and everything , even though there are working, doesnt seem to give any concrete result to motivate myself. Or it looks bad, or its infinitly long to do. I can't find a style, I'm just copying art from other well known games at this point, and it just putted me away from game development. How do you motivate yourself to do it? Regularity and precise times in a day to do it? Bc its fun? Bc ur good at it? It will be a shame that I stop my lil journey into game dev just bc of it
Hopefully I can help with some recommendations. Firstly, with finding your "style". It comes down to three things. Making lots of art, looking at lots of art, and developing opinions. The opinions part is probably the most important part. So when you make art and you are "copying art from other well know games" you have to look at their artwork and ask yourself "what do I not like about this?" and then you change your art based on that. Think of it like doing fan art. This is YOUR version of the things you like from the art of those games. Looking at lots of art will help you form these opinions. I would recommend, making a board of references of art you like on a given topic. So if you're making art for Trees in your game, get a bunch of references of trees that you like from other games. Then comes the part no one wants to hear, you have to draw(or paint or w/e), a lot. Art is an iterative process, you're going to have to make dozens or hundreds or pieces of art until you look at your work and feel like "this is mine". For the motivation part, I recommend making a list of things you want to get done, and then breaking those down into smaller and smaller tasks until they are as reasonably small as possible. And then, based on how much time you have, decided to get 1 of those done within a specific timeframe. So maybe 1 per day, or 1 per week. Basically it comes down to the saying "How do you eat an elephant?" One bite at a time. Lastly, I would recommend trying to get interested in the aspect of development that is related to solving problems. People love coming up with ideas, but when it becoming challenging they want to go back to the initial phase of coming up with an idea, but if you can get to the point where "solving a problem" excites you, then development will go smoothly.
I alredy think your digital art is unique I keep seeing your videos and thinking "wow how did he make that, it's so unique, this is going to be so nice to play when it releases, such atmosphere, wow is that scene made up of that many layers cool! " Im glad you chose the style for your game that you did It would be cool to se a new game that you made with your traditional art tools at somep point tho. But I like your digital art better when it comes to games so smooth.
Great video. I don't think your game looks massively like hollowknight but it's just a close comparison that some people make because they want to compare it to something familiar. I bet hollowknight went through a similar process when it was new.
Hey! Recently watched the Procreate workflow video and wanted to ask if you still use procreate, and if you then chose to move the animation work to the Procrate Dreams app instead, and how that is working out? (If you still use the ipad that is)
I still use the ipad and still use procreate. I have dreams installed and have played around with it, but if I recall i had problems with the lack of lasso tool and some zoom issues so for actual animation ive stuck to procreate. I do fairly simple animations still ( like 12 frames) so i feel that procreate is technically good enough. I expect that I will move over to dreams eventually ( and ill probably make a video on it eventually )
I'll mention things that might be relevant for unity devs on occasion, but I don't use Unity anymore so making videos on that topic will be cumbersome. I generally make content dedicated to 'drawing' and game art, and try to keep everything engine agnostic. I Might look into it in the future though, thanks :)
I have played hollow knight and it doesn't look the same to me. When it was pointed out I was able to see the similarities but still it doesn't look like hk to me. The controversy reminds me of when people see a white haired character in black and think it looks like some anime character they saw once just because of a couple things that look the same. Familiar does not mean the same neither does similar. I think the lack of ability to see the originality is in short in their minds. Those type sound like the type to not actually consume much art outside of that specific media or if they do it's still very limited.
Ye, I agree, I have a video on the topic. But I frankly don't think you'd be able to convince those people that it doesn't look that similar. There is an aspect of this where you would "need" to make it different enough to convince the consumer, even if you don't agree with their opinion. (if you value looking different that is)
define unique among copies, actually unique, not just a copy, in any way. well did you make it without trying to copy or to look same as anyone, not even what teachers told you to do. thats unique. if someone told to do it some way, its a copy, not unique. school produces non-unique materials. you only do unique when alone. "paint this way", not unique. dont even try. better be original 100%. nothing copied. well you can go very deep in the uniqueness hole. priceless means incomparable.
I Originally had other videos planned, but my last two videos ended up being more controversial than I expected (well, I guess I expected criticism from the pixel art video). So I felt I needed to talk about an implicit premise in most of my videos. I tend to never assume "the ability to do something" as a good argument for doing it, I think almost everything should be evaluated on a scale of Time vs quality (you might agree or disagree, but you should be aware of where I am coming from).
With that said, I am obviously aware that the example I showed in the video isn't that unique, it actually kind of looks exactly like my art (which is kind of my point). But I wanted to show that if I wanted to avoid the label "hk clone", this is about as unique as I could make it without completely ruining the ROI, if I made it more unique it would look worse and take longer time, and at that point living with the label would be better.
Similarly, I think unless you are a really good artist, or naturally draw very different, trying to shoe-horn uniqueness by learning to draw a new way, seems like something that would generally be a bad time investment. And in that sense I think making things slightly different is as of now (when hand drawn is still less saturated then pixel art) still easier. But nonetheless, uniqueness isn't everything. Thanks for watching, feel free to argue with me down below :)
I didn't read the controversy on the pixel art video, but l'm guessing that a lot of us (maybe most of us) grew up with 8 or 16 bit systems and DOS games which were all pixel art, and therefore we don't agree with the premise that pixel art tends to look the same, on the contrary, it seems that there was more variety back then. Maybe we can agree that the system in which a game was developed tends to show, whether it's a game made for the ATARI or made on Unreal.
In this video you showed us two different types of art, one of which resembles Hollow Knight and the other one resembles games like Gris. I suppose your emphasis on readability and ROI makes a lot of sense and is one of the reasons these videos are so valuable, because they deliver powerful tools for developing the art of a game. Hope to see more of your work, it looks very good, and it would be great to see it in action.
I would've loved to have seen those other videos. For as subjective as art is I'm surprised how many people can't handle new ideas or a different change of thought. Videos like these are great for creativity because it gets you thinking. I don't know why people anymore are so on edge and take the slightest opinion as some authoritarian decree of absolutism. Sad, really.
You're game is looking great, btw.
You probably don't wanna hear this, but i actually honestly prefer the artstyle at 5:54 over the one at 5:55. The former has some gris vibes to it, which is one of the most beautiful games ever. The latter on the other hand does indeed go more of that HK route, which i'm seeing more and more. Now that's not a bad thing for me, similar art is fine, but most hk fans aren't as forgiving and will unfairly write off your game based on perceived copying of the style. Deviator is a game i've seen appear at the last steam next fest and it was blasted by toxic hk fans for looking 'too similar' as if the HK lineart style is that unique. I'd argue that the uniqueness of that game is more due to the character designs rather than the art itself
c'mon. I just looked at the Deviator, it looks like a hollow knight mod. fandoms can get toxic I agree but the example you gave is borderline stealing. the style of him in this video resembles hollow knight but not a carbon copy.
Agree. It looks better on the former than the latter in my opinion.
I absolutely love the watercolor level with the dog , you should go that way. It looks 💯 better. Def the difference of me playing or not playing the game.
Love the aesthetics + technicals of these videos
I think this video is really helpful. I'm working on a top-down zelda-like and there's part of me that wants to do pixel art, and I did some in a test and it looks pretty decent, but after this video I thought about how long it took me to get the pixels just right for the auto-tiling system, and the ROI is pretty bad.
Realistically, I don't need to adhere to any technical limitations, so I don't NEED to re-use a lot of assets over and over again. Though it was a useful learning experience. And maybe the route I'll take is using the auto-tiling assets I made as a basis for individually hand-drawn assets.
I'm still on the fence, but I think any content like this video is really useful, because it makes creators reconsider their their preconceived notions for doing something in a particular way.
I was doing pixel art because A Link to the Past is in pixel art.
Do you have a name for it yet. Even if you're a ways away? I'm trying to follow all zelda-likes. Like Horn of Balance that's in a kickstarter right now. I'd like to keep an eye out in the future for yours too.
@@amandaslough125 Hmmm, well I don't know if this will be the final name, I just have the folder for the project labelled as 'Undergrowth'
@@ChrisSmith-bb1dq It's an interesting placeholder name. Can you please tell us why or what _"Undergrowth"_ signify?
@@ultimaxkom8728 The main character of the game is a small beetle-like creature, and the setting is basically just the undergrowth of a forest floor. So lot's of leaves and roots and mushrooms.
@@ChrisSmith-bb1dq I see. That's quite fitting, actually.
I really enjoyed your video, and watched some parts several times. You are giving so many references and comparisons, and it helps me a lot to wrap my mind around what I’m looking for when I draw my tiles. Instead of a solution, you gave me tools to think better. Thank you
Since I just started drawing, I'm still trying to find a style. I really like watercolor so I'm playing with that at the moment. My current project is a little virtual pet game so I think watercolor will work for that. I'll have to decide with my future projects if watercolor is still appropriate.
I really like watercolour and think it works quite well in the context of game art. You can get quite decent results with watercolour paper textures as well, it's a bit tricky to get right, but I definitely think it's something worth exploring!
@@Nonsensical2D I think I first saw it in Doraemon Story of Seasons and really liked it. Then, I saw it in Cozy Grove and fell in love. It's such a gorgeous game. Calico also has it but in 3D which reminded me of a video called, "The Prettiest Pokemon Game That Doesn't Exist" and that got me inspired. I don't know how far I can go with it but if done well, it looks really good in 2D and 3D.
To me, atmosphere, mood, ambience, and tone always trumps art style or aesthetic choices. Unless you learn to specifically copy another artist's design (like in the case of source-accurate fan art), all art is unique due the artists personal experiences in life (including other games). Making comparisons to other artwork shouldn't be treated negatively at all unless it's out-right plagiarism. Art is just as much apart of storytelling as everything else - even music - and some things just fit perspective. If true to oneself, art will always be unique.
I'd love to see a video about designing 2d art for a day/night cycle or variable light source locations. I'm having a really hard time conceptualizing coloring my assets because of this.
From a results standpoint I'd say yes, since a unique artstyle allows your setting to stand out.
But far more importantly, it depends on what you wanna do. If you like a very common style and wanna do that, go for it!
1:20 omg I love this kind of art, not the other one
Really enjoyed the professional discussion, and breakdown of what makes your art match hollow Knight. Ty!
Your analysis is great. Take the case of Medal winners 24. Its art is completly unique, but the game isn't yet popular in the wishlists trends.
Another video other concept I'm interested in is level designing platforming areas that you return to simular to Night in the Woods to allow for continued exploration and discovery.
This guy right here, always got them Philosophical devlogs💪💪💪
Always helpful. I’d love to work with you, as the backend guy. I’m a 40 year old math teacher and know my people. You’re my people. I love how seriously you take this
always nice insights
I have a question as I'm rlly struggling with art. I stopped my game bc of it, and bc without it, the programming ideas and everything , even though there are working, doesnt seem to give any concrete result to motivate myself. Or it looks bad, or its infinitly long to do. I can't find a style, I'm just copying art from other well known games at this point, and it just putted me away from game development. How do you motivate yourself to do it? Regularity and precise times in a day to do it? Bc its fun? Bc ur good at it? It will be a shame that I stop my lil journey into game dev just bc of it
Hopefully I can help with some recommendations.
Firstly, with finding your "style". It comes down to three things. Making lots of art, looking at lots of art, and developing opinions.
The opinions part is probably the most important part. So when you make art and you are "copying art from other well know games" you have to look at their artwork and ask yourself "what do I not like about this?" and then you change your art based on that. Think of it like doing fan art. This is YOUR version of the things you like from the art of those games.
Looking at lots of art will help you form these opinions. I would recommend, making a board of references of art you like on a given topic. So if you're making art for Trees in your game, get a bunch of references of trees that you like from other games.
Then comes the part no one wants to hear, you have to draw(or paint or w/e), a lot. Art is an iterative process, you're going to have to make dozens or hundreds or pieces of art until you look at your work and feel like "this is mine".
For the motivation part, I recommend making a list of things you want to get done, and then breaking those down into smaller and smaller tasks until they are as reasonably small as possible. And then, based on how much time you have, decided to get 1 of those done within a specific timeframe. So maybe 1 per day, or 1 per week.
Basically it comes down to the saying "How do you eat an elephant?"
One bite at a time.
Lastly, I would recommend trying to get interested in the aspect of development that is related to solving problems. People love coming up with ideas, but when it becoming challenging they want to go back to the initial phase of coming up with an idea, but if you can get to the point where "solving a problem" excites you, then development will go smoothly.
@@ChrisSmith-bb1dq A stray advice so good I feel like you deserve to get paid like it's a course. Do you perhaps have a long grey beard irl?
0:12 which metroidvania is this? Looks interesting.
A robot named fight
I alredy think your digital art is unique I keep seeing your videos and thinking "wow how did he make that, it's so unique, this is going to be so nice to play when it releases, such atmosphere, wow is that scene made up of that many layers cool! "
Im glad you chose the style for your game that you did
It would be cool to se a new game that you made with your traditional art tools at somep point tho. But I like your digital art better when it comes to games so smooth.
Great video. I don't think your game looks massively like hollowknight but it's just a close comparison that some people make because they want to compare it to something familiar. I bet hollowknight went through a similar process when it was new.
Yo buddy how i can show you my game art .
Hey! Recently watched the Procreate workflow video and wanted to ask if you still use procreate, and if you then chose to move the animation work to the Procrate Dreams app instead, and how that is working out? (If you still use the ipad that is)
I still use the ipad and still use procreate. I have dreams installed and have played around with it, but if I recall i had problems with the lack of lasso tool and some zoom issues so for actual animation ive stuck to procreate. I do fairly simple animations still ( like 12 frames) so i feel that procreate is technically good enough. I expect that I will move over to dreams eventually ( and ill probably make a video on it eventually )
You’re right! 🎉
please can you do always example with unity engine too it will help us the game devs of unity :D
I'll mention things that might be relevant for unity devs on occasion, but I don't use Unity anymore so making videos on that topic will be cumbersome. I generally make content dedicated to 'drawing' and game art, and try to keep everything engine agnostic. I Might look into it in the future though, thanks :)
I have played hollow knight and it doesn't look the same to me. When it was pointed out I was able to see the similarities but still it doesn't look like hk to me. The controversy reminds me of when people see a white haired character in black and think it looks like some anime character they saw once just because of a couple things that look the same. Familiar does not mean the same neither does similar. I think the lack of ability to see the originality is in short in their minds. Those type sound like the type to not actually consume much art outside of that specific media or if they do it's still very limited.
Ye, I agree, I have a video on the topic. But I frankly don't think you'd be able to convince those people that it doesn't look that similar. There is an aspect of this where you would "need" to make it different enough to convince the consumer, even if you don't agree with their opinion. (if you value looking different that is)
I very like your content and your clothes~ 🌲
define unique among copies, actually unique, not just a copy, in any way. well did you make it without trying to copy or to look same as anyone, not even what teachers told you to do. thats unique. if someone told to do it some way, its a copy, not unique. school produces non-unique materials. you only do unique when alone. "paint this way", not unique. dont even try. better be original 100%. nothing copied. well you can go very deep in the uniqueness hole. priceless means incomparable.