This video covers slightly more things than readability, but I wanted to have a more comprehensive discussion on how we need to be mindful about what we communicate. I mention a few things that I've talked about before, but I really wanted to have a video dedicated to the topic.
When i saw the title, the thing that came to my mind instantly was "readabilty and cohesion", and it seems i was correct haha. I think is such an important part of game creation, while it may not ruin the experience for all, why not make it as accessible as possible? I think visibility is essential so that people don't leave the game 30 minutes after starting.
I just found your channel a few weeks ago and your videos have been hugely helpful and inspirational to me. You explain, in ways that are easy to follow but that contain immense depth, what I feel are the more intermediate stages of art. The "why doesn't this look good?" stage. Readability is obviously a fundamental skill, but it's very often not taught as one. This video has made it click for me why my backgrounds have gone from "too simple" to "muddled." This is an art direction level lesson being given to us for free, and I deeply appreciate the time and effort you must have put into making this.
You are 100% correct, readability is indeed paramount to having a good experience. Good readability isn't noticable necesarily, but poor readability certainly is. Especially when it comes to platforming. Missing a jump because the visuals don't match with the coliders is one of the best ways to have people drop playing your game and move onto something else. I recently played two metroidvania's with this issues, aquaria and goo keeper. And while i'm very dedicated to completionisting games, these ones were a slog to sit through and i just wanted them to end. Now these games had issues beyond readability but that was one of the many things that bothered me. Other games that i recall having played with readability issues (although not as severe as the previously mentioned) were Vigil the longest night, dark light and the library of babel
@@Nonsensical2D while they are decent examples i feel like aeterna noctis is still the worst offender. And salt and sanctuary is also not that good at it. In the roguelike category source of madness is nearly impossible to see what's going on
hello autor! First i wanted to say a big THANK YOU! cause you're doing a great job for making indie games cooler by explaining a lot of things that aren't that obivous for beginners i learned A LOT from your videos and now it's much easier for me to bring my ideas to life another important detail for me is that in most cases you show examples with your characters - it makes it a lot easier to understand what you are talking about but on the other hand i want to ask you for one little thing. You're showing a lot of great games in your videos, and i like it a lot cause they're good examples for us. But sometimes i want to know more about them... and couldn't find it. Can you please show a game title somewhere on the screen? For example i really love a style from a game with toad on the left ( 1:57 ) but i can't find it anywhere (you said it's called "Candle" later, but i think it will be better to have a name of the game each time its footage appears - easier to find) Thank you!
Hi, yes. I’ve gotten this request a few times before and actually tried doing it a bit in this video. But it’s only shown once per game, maybe i should do it every time. Anyway, the game is called candle and it’s a cute puzzle platformer
@@Nonsensical2D oh, okay, it's great then :) if you mentioned the text at 4:29 - it is too low and hard to see when watching with slider. Maybe move it to the left corner - then it will be more visible. In addition, if previously in video games were without title, the viewer no longer expects that the title would be somewhere and i thought about how to do it another way - can also work to add timecodes for each of them in the description c:
One thing I find also to heavily alter readability is the type of lineart used, I've noticed in game design that if I use solid black lineart (especially if the lines are very thick), moving around and looking at the screen could give me much more eyestrain as opposed to using colors to match the asset. For example on dirt I'd use a darker brown for the lineart as opposed to black or any other vastly different color.
I think about this a lot and the concept of design feeding feedback to the player. It's one of those things that when done well is seamless but when done poorly effects basically the whole experience of the game since games are such a visually interactive media. Getting into pixel art has been hugely beneficial for my art as a whole because of its limitations. I've always been highly detailed oriented and struggled with simplification and composition in art because of this, but the pixel art/readability considerations really force me to think about my choices in form, elements to include and palette in a way that traditional art never has. And I love that cracking how to make these effects work with just a few pixels is like a puzzle.
i think game art is way harder than actually making the game esp after seeing your channel lol. I mean most games seem incomplete gameplay wise. So i think my idea is correct. Most care about getting the art right.
Very important topic, covered deeply. Thank you! I would love to ask you how to balance colors in the game art. Cause I created a concept art for our game, and though many said it looks great, some said it's very busy with colors and lights. Perhaps you can make a video about that? Thank you, anyway!
I kind of have a video that covers some of those aspects (although not entirely) . But I think it’s possible that your colours might be so dissimilar that they compete for attention. You can solve this to some extent by reducing the saturation of your scene, but the most common way is probably by restricting your palette. I tend to mostly use analogous colours, some go for complementary etc. But i would generally say that limiting your palette will make the scene less busy.
@@Nonsensical2D Thank you for replying to me so fast and so on-point! You're right, I have too many bright colors and lights competing for attention. I was actually going for complementary colors, as I heard this scheme is very popular and commonly used in games. Do you think it's a good choice for a sci-fi 2.5D game, like yours or Metroid? Or would analogous be better? I'm just learning all this stuff, it's difficult for me :) Thank you!
Hmm, I'm extremely biased, I generally don't like complementary colours, I think they can be tricky to work with. I have a video covering exactly how I choose colours called "how to choose colours for your 2D art" or something similar. But I tend to evaluate the scene in regards for whether it is warm or cold and then just pick "the cold version" of any hue that I need, and try to restrict myself overall to the colder spectrum, which makes my colours more analogous. It can on occasion make the colour choice slightly more boring, but they always feel like they belong together. And that is really the problem I have with complementary colours, they are on the opposite end of the spectrum, so they contrast each other very much and compete for attention very much, and I feel like you need to be quite a competent in order to solve the problems that arises from that. What I really recommend that you do (if you can) is to actually try and do some post processing and add a gradient to your scene, just experiment with changing your scene until you get something that looks interesting, and then start changing your assets in that direction. (if you work in Godot this is really easy, but it should probably not be too difficult in unreal or unity either) @@alexanderkulaev541
@@Nonsensical2D Wow, thank you for such a detailed answer! Much to learn here, appreciate it! So you mean you kinda have 2 palettes, 1 with cold hues and 1 with warm, right? I think it's a great idea to have such distinction, as you can easily choose the right colors from the right palette for the scene in question, knowing the overall mood of it. As for the gradient, you mean like a filter overlayed on top of the whole screen? Like they did in Tunic (I heard)? So that it could blend my colors more and create some unity among them, right? And last question, is there any chance that you would have 5 mins to look at my concept art and tell me what's wrong with colors in it? :) Anyhow, thank you so much for giving me your advice and shooting these videos! Much help.
Sorry for late answer. I don't quite mean having two palettes, but rather for the most part avoiding warm colours in a cold scene and vice versa (unless that is what you mean). and if you do need to use warmer colours, to use "the colder end of that colour" (so if you pick a brown, make it a more red and unsaturated brown rather than yellow brown). Yes, I kind of mean that in terms of the gradients, you can see that I discuss the troubles this can cause in this video, because I do use post processing effects here, it adds unity, but can potentially reduce readability. But it's definitely good for 'prototyping and testing'. If you want me to look at anything specific, contact me on my reddit account and I can take a look, the name is the same, so Nonsensical2D. @@alexanderkulaev541
Personally, I definitely struggle to parse the scene in the footage of Candle, and I didn't recognize the hole as a hole -- I thought it was a walkable surface
Ye, I had trouble parsing some scenes in candle as well, but it is significantly less of a problem because candle is a puzzle platformer, you kind of just jump around and test things anyway. It's not ideal, but it would be considerably more problematic if candle was a precision platformer.
This video covers slightly more things than readability, but I wanted to have a more comprehensive discussion on how we need to be mindful about what we communicate. I mention a few things that I've talked about before, but I really wanted to have a video dedicated to the topic.
Finally new video
When i saw the title, the thing that came to my mind instantly was "readabilty and cohesion", and it seems i was correct haha. I think is such an important part of game creation, while it may not ruin the experience for all, why not make it as accessible as possible? I think visibility is essential so that people don't leave the game 30 minutes after starting.
I just found your channel a few weeks ago and your videos have been hugely helpful and inspirational to me. You explain, in ways that are easy to follow but that contain immense depth, what I feel are the more intermediate stages of art. The "why doesn't this look good?" stage.
Readability is obviously a fundamental skill, but it's very often not taught as one. This video has made it click for me why my backgrounds have gone from "too simple" to "muddled." This is an art direction level lesson being given to us for free, and I deeply appreciate the time and effort you must have put into making this.
YUP! Visual clarity is SO important and a lot of the best selling games have incredible visual clarity. Brotato is a perfect example.
You are 100% correct, readability is indeed paramount to having a good experience. Good readability isn't noticable necesarily, but poor readability certainly is. Especially when it comes to platforming. Missing a jump because the visuals don't match with the coliders is one of the best ways to have people drop playing your game and move onto something else. I recently played two metroidvania's with this issues, aquaria and goo keeper. And while i'm very dedicated to completionisting games, these ones were a slog to sit through and i just wanted them to end. Now these games had issues beyond readability but that was one of the many things that bothered me. Other games that i recall having played with readability issues (although not as severe as the previously mentioned) were Vigil the longest night, dark light and the library of babel
Ohh, interesting, I might have to check them out :) I mean it doesn't sound fun playing, but I might get some good material to comment on :D Thanks!
@@Nonsensical2D while they are decent examples i feel like aeterna noctis is still the worst offender. And salt and sanctuary is also not that good at it. In the roguelike category source of madness is nearly impossible to see what's going on
Man I've missed your videos.
hello autor!
First i wanted to say a big THANK YOU! cause you're doing a great job for making indie games cooler by explaining a lot of things that aren't that obivous for beginners
i learned A LOT from your videos and now it's much easier for me to bring my ideas to life
another important detail for me is that in most cases you show examples with your characters - it makes it a lot easier to understand what you are talking about
but on the other hand i want to ask you for one little thing. You're showing a lot of great games in your videos, and i like it a lot cause they're good examples for us. But sometimes i want to know more about them... and couldn't find it. Can you please show a game title somewhere on the screen? For example i really love a style from a game with toad on the left ( 1:57 ) but i can't find it anywhere (you said it's called "Candle" later, but i think it will be better to have a name of the game each time its footage appears - easier to find)
Thank you!
Hi, yes. I’ve gotten this request a few times before and actually tried doing it a bit in this video. But it’s only shown once per game, maybe i should do it every time. Anyway, the game is called candle and it’s a cute puzzle platformer
@@Nonsensical2D oh, okay, it's great then :)
if you mentioned the text at 4:29 - it is too low and hard to see when watching with slider. Maybe move it to the left corner - then it will be more visible. In addition, if previously in video games were without title, the viewer no longer expects that the title would be somewhere
and i thought about how to do it another way - can also work to add timecodes for each of them in the description c:
One thing I find also to heavily alter readability is the type of lineart used, I've noticed in game design that if I use solid black lineart (especially if the lines are very thick), moving around and looking at the screen could give me much more eyestrain as opposed to using colors to match the asset. For example on dirt I'd use a darker brown for the lineart as opposed to black or any other vastly different color.
I think about this a lot and the concept of design feeding feedback to the player. It's one of those things that when done well is seamless but when done poorly effects basically the whole experience of the game since games are such a visually interactive media. Getting into pixel art has been hugely beneficial for my art as a whole because of its limitations. I've always been highly detailed oriented and struggled with simplification and composition in art because of this, but the pixel art/readability considerations really force me to think about my choices in form, elements to include and palette in a way that traditional art never has. And I love that cracking how to make these effects work with just a few pixels is like a puzzle.
Welcome back. Great video as usual.
missed your videos. every single one has felt very relevant, this one particularly. thank you
My dude is back with another banger.
Welcome back sensei
wow just discovered your channel! Feels like this is exactly what I've been looking for.
I really enjoy your videos and they have helped me make better levels and game art. Thank you!
Hej! Love the channel. All the best
thank you, this was a fantastic explanation!
i think game art is way harder than actually making the game esp after seeing your channel lol. I mean most games seem incomplete gameplay wise. So i think my idea is correct. Most care about getting the art right.
Very important topic, covered deeply. Thank you! I would love to ask you how to balance colors in the game art. Cause I created a concept art for our game, and though many said it looks great, some said it's very busy with colors and lights. Perhaps you can make a video about that?
Thank you, anyway!
I kind of have a video that covers some of those aspects (although not entirely) . But I think it’s possible that your colours might be so dissimilar that they compete for attention. You can solve this to some extent by reducing the saturation of your scene, but the most common way is probably by restricting your palette. I tend to mostly use analogous colours, some go for complementary etc. But i would generally say that limiting your palette will make the scene less busy.
@@Nonsensical2D Thank you for replying to me so fast and so on-point! You're right, I have too many bright colors and lights competing for attention.
I was actually going for complementary colors, as I heard this scheme is very popular and commonly used in games. Do you think it's a good choice for a sci-fi 2.5D game, like yours or Metroid? Or would analogous be better? I'm just learning all this stuff, it's difficult for me :)
Thank you!
Hmm, I'm extremely biased, I generally don't like complementary colours, I think they can be tricky to work with. I have a video covering exactly how I choose colours called "how to choose colours for your 2D art" or something similar. But I tend to evaluate the scene in regards for whether it is warm or cold and then just pick "the cold version" of any hue that I need, and try to restrict myself overall to the colder spectrum, which makes my colours more analogous. It can on occasion make the colour choice slightly more boring, but they always feel like they belong together. And that is really the problem I have with complementary colours, they are on the opposite end of the spectrum, so they contrast each other very much and compete for attention very much, and I feel like you need to be quite a competent in order to solve the problems that arises from that. What I really recommend that you do (if you can) is to actually try and do some post processing and add a gradient to your scene, just experiment with changing your scene until you get something that looks interesting, and then start changing your assets in that direction. (if you work in Godot this is really easy, but it should probably not be too difficult in unreal or unity either) @@alexanderkulaev541
@@Nonsensical2D Wow, thank you for such a detailed answer! Much to learn here, appreciate it!
So you mean you kinda have 2 palettes, 1 with cold hues and 1 with warm, right? I think it's a great idea to have such distinction, as you can easily choose the right colors from the right palette for the scene in question, knowing the overall mood of it.
As for the gradient, you mean like a filter overlayed on top of the whole screen? Like they did in Tunic (I heard)? So that it could blend my colors more and create some unity among them, right?
And last question, is there any chance that you would have 5 mins to look at my concept art and tell me what's wrong with colors in it? :)
Anyhow, thank you so much for giving me your advice and shooting these videos! Much help.
Sorry for late answer. I don't quite mean having two palettes, but rather for the most part avoiding warm colours in a cold scene and vice versa (unless that is what you mean). and if you do need to use warmer colours, to use "the colder end of that colour" (so if you pick a brown, make it a more red and unsaturated brown rather than yellow brown).
Yes, I kind of mean that in terms of the gradients, you can see that I discuss the troubles this can cause in this video, because I do use post processing effects here, it adds unity, but can potentially reduce readability. But it's definitely good for 'prototyping and testing'.
If you want me to look at anything specific, contact me on my reddit account and I can take a look, the name is the same, so Nonsensical2D. @@alexanderkulaev541
Thank you
Great video, thanks, really helped me.
Personally, I definitely struggle to parse the scene in the footage of Candle, and I didn't recognize the hole as a hole -- I thought it was a walkable surface
Ye, I had trouble parsing some scenes in candle as well, but it is significantly less of a problem because candle is a puzzle platformer, you kind of just jump around and test things anyway. It's not ideal, but it would be considerably more problematic if candle was a precision platformer.
1:03 that expression lol. it's funnier when you get the monotone empty looking face in every of his explanation videos
Every time I watch one of your videos I always think the same thing. Ori might be the best looking game ever made
Ye, I think I agree, I think Ori and the blind forest is my favourite platformer, period :)
didnt expect to see dota2 on here, hell yeah!
I love your videos
Nice
readability is also important for accessibility!
ty
What is that game at 8:35?
Ender lillies
platformers are probably the easiest games to draw