For me it's just such a 90s thing in general: low-poly games about people in bright clothes driving fast cars or doing crazy stunts under a big ol' saturated jpeg of a blue sky.
Thanks for talking about my project! I agree with some of your feedback, I actually reworked the lighting and the colors since that alpha demo to match closer the original, especially the far background.
4:28 I live in Brazil, and it's almost the same. Sunny Blue sky days here are beautiful, and when im inside a car, especially next to a beach road, i always blast Passing Breeze, its such a nice feeling
This is something I've always had in the back of my mind but never thought anyone else did lol. Jet Set Radio especially comes to mind. The last truly beautiful blue sky I've seen though must've been in the OG Mirror's Edge. Not quite Sega skies, but something else entirely, another tier of beauty.
Mirrors edge was one of my favourite games of all time and stuck with my till this day, many times I looked at the blue sky and mirrors edge was on my mind. Beautiful game
I found this video after getting this feeling while playing Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. I was on Aloha Beach thinking "Man, SEGA makes some amazing skies. I wonder if there is a way to find a design document about how SEGA dictates how skies look". Was surprised that people do look into it!
I have always been a fan of sega arcade games and this is legit one of my favorite reasons why I love sega. I love their skies. The bright colors. The cartoonish vibe. I adore it. It's fun looking. It screams fun and excitement. I love it so much!
if you pay attention you can see that even sega themselves have been bringing it back recently - they've added a new track to initial d the arcade that has the skies, and they're evident in apex rebels, a brand new game developed by a hong kong-based arcade studio startup supervised by an AM3 veteran + distributed exclusively by sega amusements international
Found this video because while thinking of writing I thought of SEGA Blue Skies and wondered if anyone had made a good video on it. Great work, subbed and I hope you blow up one day!
Great video, you did an excellent job of expounding on the key aesthetic aspects that make Sega games from this era stand out and the psychological emotional response they elicit. I feel as if the vibrant, playful, and overwhelmingly charismatic design aspects are a direct result of zeitgeist of 80s-90s era Japan and it's culture, you can even see these same "bubbly" and "cheerful" aspects in other forms of media from that time period as well. It's weird because you kind of see the complete antithesis with media made during the 2010s being much inclined towards cynicism and realism because of the cultural attitudes at the time.
I'm happy that someone talk about this detail, there blue blue sky was not natural tone, it's almost an electric blue like the spike of Sonic, it's also obsess me , but the most beautifull and dramatic Sega sky for me was some on the Panzer Dragoon series same for the RPG they draw something unique ...
I know exactly what you mean about Sonic Adventure. This is why it's one of my all-time favorites. Another clear example: Sunset Riders for Sega Genesis. Maybe to a lesser degree the SoulCalibur series, the Simpsons: Hit and Run, the first Serious Sam. These games have provided me with some of the brightest, most positive childhood memories and probably ruined my life. I think it's the clearness of those skies that makes them so appealing. In reality a sunny day is never that clear, and it's also not always pleasant just being in the sun, but I feel like as a kid I didn't notice as many negative aspects of experiences and just enjoyed life. However, no matter the color palette, games in the late 90s and early 00s all had this pretty cartoonish look, with clear sharp colors and flat textures. And as someone who grew up playing those, I miss that aesthetic very much. I'm happy to see that the late 90s graphics are very popular now (esp. among retro/boomer shooters), many of which come with dithering and low resolutions to emulate PS1. My most favorite era was the sixth generation though. Even when I think about the darkest-looking games from that era, the aesthetics feel very comfy to me.
I didn't grow up with Sega games (big shocker I know lol), but I definitely understand where your coming from with this. When I would watch gameplay of Sega games out of curiosity, those blue skies always stuck out; it doesn't seem like much, but they really helped add to the vibe of whatever game you were playing. Before Sega though, I always associated blue skies with windows 98 lol.
this is an aesthetic i've very often thought about and have fond memories, but didn't know how to express or describe it. this along with glittery lights at nighttime akin to Casino Night Zone in Sonic 2 and NiGHTS in to Dreams. or games having a purple night sky with grey lighting, set in an Arabian Desert type location
One game I hope everyone remembers: Virtual-On (and it's sequel) had such Sega Blue Skies too! *I'm surprised Skies of Arcadia wasn't used here, I remember Phantasy Star Online but it's just one dungeon and the camera doesn't look at the sky that much.
Hotshot Racing is co-developed by Sumo Digital who developed Outrun 2006, and scratches that Blue Skies itch. While it may be a bit too stylized visually, using cel shading and simplifying the art style brings it closer to that Model 2 aesthetic than Over Jump does. That simplified style also has knock-on effects for readability in gameplay that make for a better experience.
I considered talking about Hotshot Racing in this video but I wasn't sure how I felt about it. My main point in this video was that Sega developed a very memorable art style/vibe in the 90's that featured striking blue skies. Hotshot Racing is undoubtedly inspired by Virtua Racing (which I accidentally called "Virtua Racer" in the video lol) but I thought it was a bit too stylized to fit the mood of most of my examples. Not that I thought it looked bad, or quite off the mark, but I just wasn't able to fully form an opinion on it for this video. It's an alright game though.
I encountered the term "Sega Blue Skies", and of course, immediately searched it to confirm what it meant, and of course it was that hyper-vibrant Sega Arcade look I had in my head. I never had a name for it, but I can't think of a better one, especially because it indirectly references one of the great examples of it. Sky High, the music for Daytona USA's "Expert" course, has lyrics about "blue, blue skies" (which is the reason I was pretty sure I knew what "Sega Blue Skies" were).
I don't know if it would fully count but Ristar's first level has a great Sega Blue Sky. Ristar has an overall amazingly colorful art direction, legit one of if not the best looking Genesis game IMO.
Cool video. I wish more developers would go back to the old Sega Blue Skies aesthetic and make some 90's style arcade racers. Probably the best modern examples of this are Hotshot Racing and 80's overdrive, but having said that though, they're still aesthetically not quite what I'm after. I want something that looks like Outrun 2, Scud Race or Daytona USA 2. not a pseudo 3D sprite scaler impersonation with polygons or something that's trying to look like Virtua Racing.
Absolutely brilliant video, I think a key comparison is that I've always found certain Sega Game Skyboxes to be similar to Mario 64 Skyboxes, specifically in Sega Rally Championship 1995 and Virtua Fighter 1, I've always thought Wolf's stage in VF1 resembled Lethal Lava Land, and Lau's Stage resembles Shifting Sand Land, I'm not surprised as I've seen a behind the scenes video of VF1 where it is revealed to us they used Silicon Graphics Workstations to make the game, the exact same workstation used to make N64 Games. As for Sega Rally, the Skyboxes can be seen when selecting the track on the practice mode in the arcade version, and it shows. I absolutely love Sega games and skyboxes and they are always interesting to look at.
Great timing for me stumbling upon this video. I recently decided I wanted to make a lowpoly arcadey racing game in the spirit of Sonic R and i want to put in as much SEGA dna into it as i possibly can
One of the stage songs in the original Daytona was called "Sky high" in which the chorus of it goes "Blue, blue skies...blue, blue skies I see...." Coincident? Great tune.
Blue blue Skies of Arcadia. When your entire world takes place on floating islands in the sky, you'd be remiss to make them anything but that most brilliant of blues. (Unless it's around Valua or the Great Rift or something)
Honestly, the Sega Blue Skies can be kinda vague since all the games shown have different hues of blue for the sky. The Virtua Racing one looks like the closest (or maybe precise) example of it.
surely its just a matter of playing with the tone mapping and post processing of Overjump to match the original Sega Rally aesthetic? like, increasing the saturation and contrast, and disabling the dynamic colour shifting seems like it would do the job
maaaaan.... look at all that POP IN in the unreal engine! WOWOWOW also, this is something that should be iterated on by devs. Try just tuning the saturation higher first, and see if it does capture the same vibe. Then, maybe try to warp the terrain geometry so that it's 100% focused on "fun" rather than realism.
hey, i'd like to add that unreal engine's color dimming is very hard to disable when using pre-built assets like this! you need to make all of your materials around rgb instead of the strange unreal srgb colormapping, and then you need to change actual engine files. much better option for this sorta thing is to get a good-looking set of color grading parameters
Do you guys think all these sega games just happen to have that distinct blue sky unintentionally or do you think there was a guy/mandate/company spirit that SPECIFICALLY made it so this was sega’s thing , because to me it’s just WAY TOO DELIBERATE !😂 almost every sega game I can think of had this acidic blue sky and I love em for it😂 I just want to know how it came to be!
"Sega Blue Skies" isn't a popular term? I'm pretty sure there used to be a Sega fan site with just "Blue Skies" or "blue-skies" in the name though I can't find it now. Maybe it was "Planet Blue Skies" and died with the rest of the Planet sites.
Hey just wanted to let you know. A few months ago, I saw a video about the "Sega Blue Skies". Today, I saw a post on IG about Sonic aesthetics and I wanted to reference the video. I found this one in the process. I mention this because you said you wanted to spread awareness of the term at the end of the video. You uploaded this in 2022. The video I initially referenced was uploaded in 2024. Called "Why "Bad Graphics" Make You Feel Good..." by a channel called Dansplaining. That video has 200k views. All this is to say that you were an earlier pioneer of this aesthetic, and you should feel proud of yourself that you were aware of it before it got more recognition. To quote @TheAxelWorld1, "This is something I've always had in the back of my mind but never thought anyone else did lol." Same. Absolutely same. My first introduction to it was Sonic Heroes, which I played when I was 4. Ever since then, I've been chasing the high I got when I first saw the Ocean Palace level.
sega sunny blue skies : )
Love your videos. 👍
For me it's just such a 90s thing in general: low-poly games about people in bright clothes driving fast cars or doing crazy stunts under a big ol' saturated jpeg of a blue sky.
The most beautiful Sega Blue Sky I've seen in games is in Yakuza 3. The little area with the private beach outside the orphanage
Thanks for talking about my project!
I agree with some of your feedback, I actually reworked the lighting and the colors since that alpha demo to match closer the original, especially the far background.
4:28 I live in Brazil, and it's almost the same. Sunny Blue sky days here are beautiful, and when im inside a car, especially next to a beach road, i always blast Passing Breeze, its such a nice feeling
This is something I've always had in the back of my mind but never thought anyone else did lol. Jet Set Radio especially comes to mind. The last truly beautiful blue sky I've seen though must've been in the OG Mirror's Edge. Not quite Sega skies, but something else entirely, another tier of beauty.
Some of the tails games and dragon quest 11 have the same vibe and bright skies.
Mirrors edge was one of my favourite games of all time and stuck with my till this day, many times I looked at the blue sky and mirrors edge was on my mind. Beautiful game
I found this video after getting this feeling while playing Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. I was on Aloha Beach thinking "Man, SEGA makes some amazing skies. I wonder if there is a way to find a design document about how SEGA dictates how skies look". Was surprised that people do look into it!
I have always been a fan of sega arcade games and this is legit one of my favorite reasons why I love sega. I love their skies. The bright colors. The cartoonish vibe. I adore it. It's fun looking. It screams fun and excitement. I love it so much!
_Sega blue skies smilin' at me~_ 𝆕
_Just Sega blue skies do I see~_ 𝆕
_Bluebirds singin' a song~_ 𝆕
_Only Sega blue skies from now on~_ 𝆕
wait,this really fits as lyrics of In the blue sky
if you pay attention you can see that even sega themselves have been bringing it back recently - they've added a new track to initial d the arcade that has the skies, and they're evident in apex rebels, a brand new game developed by a hong kong-based arcade studio startup supervised by an AM3 veteran + distributed exclusively by sega amusements international
PSO2 Coast has that Sega Blue Skies DNA, especially with that M1 piano house.
Found this video because while thinking of writing I thought of SEGA Blue Skies and wondered if anyone had made a good video on it. Great work, subbed and I hope you blow up one day!
Great video, you did an excellent job of expounding on the key aesthetic aspects that make Sega games from this era stand out and the psychological emotional response they elicit. I feel as if the vibrant, playful, and overwhelmingly charismatic design aspects are a direct result of zeitgeist of 80s-90s era Japan and it's culture, you can even see these same "bubbly" and "cheerful" aspects in other forms of media from that time period as well. It's weird because you kind of see the complete antithesis with media made during the 2010s being much inclined towards cynicism and realism because of the cultural attitudes at the time.
I'm happy that someone talk about this detail, there blue blue sky was not natural tone, it's almost an electric blue like the spike of Sonic, it's also obsess me , but the most beautifull and dramatic Sega sky for me was some on the Panzer Dragoon series same for the RPG they draw something unique ...
The sharp color palette is very graphical. I think that's much more beautiful and uplifting than stocking to strict realism.
I know exactly what you mean about Sonic Adventure. This is why it's one of my all-time favorites. Another clear example: Sunset Riders for Sega Genesis. Maybe to a lesser degree the SoulCalibur series, the Simpsons: Hit and Run, the first Serious Sam. These games have provided me with some of the brightest, most positive childhood memories and probably ruined my life. I think it's the clearness of those skies that makes them so appealing. In reality a sunny day is never that clear, and it's also not always pleasant just being in the sun, but I feel like as a kid I didn't notice as many negative aspects of experiences and just enjoyed life.
However, no matter the color palette, games in the late 90s and early 00s all had this pretty cartoonish look, with clear sharp colors and flat textures. And as someone who grew up playing those, I miss that aesthetic very much. I'm happy to see that the late 90s graphics are very popular now (esp. among retro/boomer shooters), many of which come with dithering and low resolutions to emulate PS1. My most favorite era was the sixth generation though. Even when I think about the darkest-looking games from that era, the aesthetics feel very comfy to me.
Virtual-on ontario tangram, another Sega classic arcade game, had a really memorable sky ship stage, with those classic, vivid Sega Blue skies.
I didn't grow up with Sega games (big shocker I know lol), but I definitely understand where your coming from with this. When I would watch gameplay of Sega games out of curiosity, those blue skies always stuck out; it doesn't seem like much, but they really helped add to the vibe of whatever game you were playing.
Before Sega though, I always associated blue skies with windows 98 lol.
This was such a fantastic watch! You did a brilliant job here putting this aesthetic into words 😊
Liked and subscribed
this is an aesthetic i've very often thought about and have fond memories, but didn't know how to express or describe it. this along with glittery lights at nighttime akin to Casino Night Zone in Sonic 2 and NiGHTS in to Dreams. or games having a purple night sky with grey lighting, set in an Arabian Desert type location
One game I hope everyone remembers: Virtual-On (and it's sequel) had such Sega Blue Skies too!
*I'm surprised Skies of Arcadia wasn't used here, I remember Phantasy Star Online but it's just one dungeon and the camera doesn't look at the sky that much.
Late to the vid, but you've got a great grasp on this aesthetic. I'm a sucker for old skyboxes
Hotshot Racing is co-developed by Sumo Digital who developed Outrun 2006, and scratches that Blue Skies itch. While it may be a bit too stylized visually, using cel shading and simplifying the art style brings it closer to that Model 2 aesthetic than Over Jump does. That simplified style also has knock-on effects for readability in gameplay that make for a better experience.
I considered talking about Hotshot Racing in this video but I wasn't sure how I felt about it. My main point in this video was that Sega developed a very memorable art style/vibe in the 90's that featured striking blue skies. Hotshot Racing is undoubtedly inspired by Virtua Racing (which I accidentally called "Virtua Racer" in the video lol) but I thought it was a bit too stylized to fit the mood of most of my examples. Not that I thought it looked bad, or quite off the mark, but I just wasn't able to fully form an opinion on it for this video. It's an alright game though.
It's a shame you didn't mention Outrun 2, that's my personal favorite example and my favorite racing game ever.
I encountered the term "Sega Blue Skies", and of course, immediately searched it to confirm what it meant, and of course it was that hyper-vibrant Sega Arcade look I had in my head. I never had a name for it, but I can't think of a better one, especially because it indirectly references one of the great examples of it. Sky High, the music for Daytona USA's "Expert" course, has lyrics about "blue, blue skies" (which is the reason I was pretty sure I knew what "Sega Blue Skies" were).
the blue skies made me feel calm in a way
I don't know if it would fully count but Ristar's first level has a great Sega Blue Sky. Ristar has an overall amazingly colorful art direction, legit one of if not the best looking Genesis game IMO.
Cool video. I wish more developers would go back to the old Sega Blue Skies aesthetic and make some 90's style arcade racers. Probably the best modern examples of this are Hotshot Racing and 80's overdrive, but having said that though, they're still aesthetically not quite what I'm after. I want something that looks like Outrun 2, Scud Race or Daytona USA 2. not a pseudo 3D sprite scaler impersonation with polygons or something that's trying to look like Virtua Racing.
Absolutely brilliant video, I think a key comparison is that I've always found certain Sega Game Skyboxes to be similar to Mario 64 Skyboxes, specifically in Sega Rally Championship 1995 and Virtua Fighter 1, I've always thought Wolf's stage in VF1 resembled Lethal Lava Land, and Lau's Stage resembles Shifting Sand Land, I'm not surprised as I've seen a behind the scenes video of VF1 where it is revealed to us they used Silicon Graphics Workstations to make the game, the exact same workstation used to make N64 Games.
As for Sega Rally, the Skyboxes can be seen when selecting the track on the practice mode in the arcade version, and it shows. I absolutely love Sega games and skyboxes and they are always interesting to look at.
Great timing for me stumbling upon this video. I recently decided I wanted to make a lowpoly arcadey racing game in the spirit of Sonic R and i want to put in as much SEGA dna into it as i possibly can
One of the stage songs in the original Daytona was called "Sky high" in which the chorus of it goes "Blue, blue skies...blue, blue skies I see...." Coincident? Great tune.
Blue blue Skies of Arcadia. When your entire world takes place on floating islands in the sky, you'd be remiss to make them anything but that most brilliant of blues. (Unless it's around Valua or the Great Rift or something)
I've never played Skies of Arcadia. It's been on an eternal backlog. I'll definitely get around to it soon as I have the port on GameCube.
Honestly, the Sega Blue Skies can be kinda vague since all the games shown have different hues of blue for the sky. The Virtua Racing one looks like the closest (or maybe precise) example of it.
surely its just a matter of playing with the tone mapping and post processing of Overjump to match the original Sega Rally aesthetic? like, increasing the saturation and contrast, and disabling the dynamic colour shifting seems like it would do the job
You missed a oppotunity to talk about Virtual-On,where its most iconic OST is literlly named "In the blue sky"
Well, thank you for the new vernacular!
The original Kingdom Hearts nailed this vibe with Destiny Islands.
Neodori Forever feels like a sega game (maybe check out the switch version, supposedly the pc port has possible issues)
maaaaan.... look at all that POP IN in the unreal engine! WOWOWOW
also, this is something that should be iterated on by devs. Try just tuning the saturation higher first, and see if it does capture the same vibe. Then, maybe try to warp the terrain geometry so that it's 100% focused on "fun" rather than realism.
hey, i'd like to add that unreal engine's color dimming is very hard to disable when using pre-built assets like this! you need to make all of your materials around rgb instead of the strange unreal srgb colormapping, and then you need to change actual engine files. much better option for this sorta thing is to get a good-looking set of color grading parameters
Really good video!
Does the Millennial Square are of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk counts cuz thats the first thing I can think of recently of a Sega Blue Sky situation
Loved this
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Are you ever going to do the part 2 you announced to the dmc iceberg? It's been like a year since the last one
Do you guys think all these sega games just happen to have that distinct blue sky unintentionally or do you think there was a guy/mandate/company spirit that SPECIFICALLY made it so this was sega’s thing , because to me it’s just WAY TOO DELIBERATE !😂 almost every sega game I can think of had this acidic blue sky and I love em for it😂 I just want to know how it came to be!
that old school optimistic vibe is gone too mabye its just how people are feeling nowadays
"Sega Blue Skies" isn't a popular term? I'm pretty sure there used to be a Sega fan site with just "Blue Skies" or "blue-skies" in the name though I can't find it now. Maybe it was "Planet Blue Skies" and died with the rest of the Planet sites.
I wouldn't be too surprised if the term passed me by quite a few years ago. I don't remember ever hearing about that fansite, however.
No virtua racing? :(
You should check out Mcskewl's channel, he did a video recently on retro video game skyboxes and used the same examples as you.
If you look at initial d zero they have extreme blue skies
Hey just wanted to let you know. A few months ago, I saw a video about the "Sega Blue Skies". Today, I saw a post on IG about Sonic aesthetics and I wanted to reference the video. I found this one in the process.
I mention this because you said you wanted to spread awareness of the term at the end of the video. You uploaded this in 2022.
The video I initially referenced was uploaded in 2024. Called "Why "Bad Graphics" Make You Feel Good..." by a channel called Dansplaining. That video has 200k views.
All this is to say that you were an earlier pioneer of this aesthetic, and you should feel proud of yourself that you were aware of it before it got more recognition.
To quote @TheAxelWorld1, "This is something I've always had in the back of my mind but never thought anyone else did lol." Same. Absolutely same. My first introduction to it was Sonic Heroes, which I played when I was 4. Ever since then, I've been chasing the high I got when I first saw the Ocean Palace level.
#0194FF