MATTHEWAC95'S PROFILE

I don't know if you guys play League of Legends, but recently the company who makes the game have been taking huge leaps forward in the game's aesthetics. Basically, the game is mostly played in 20-60 minute-long segments on the same big map, and that map has changed very little over the last 3 or so years; until now, which is a pretty big deal. In my opinion the change has been a huge improvement on the original style, and is quite refreshing to see after playing the game for about 2 years.

Anyway, some of the visual developers who worked on this project have made a blog post about the work they did to define a new visual style for League of Legends. Though most of us aren't working on a game that's going to be anything like League, it's still interesting to see them talk about the kinds of decisions they made when they were working on the new map, and a lot of it is still relatable to any kind of game.

It's a cool read, and I suggest you guys check it out. Here's a link.

http://promo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/summoners-rift/

For me it's more of a question of where the gam makr put the most design emphasis. If they designed unique tilesets for every area of the game, made animated grass, drew pictures for cutscenes, etc., but it all looks really bad, then there's a good chance I'll be more overwhelmed with the ugly than I am appreciative of their other design values. If the graphics are simple but effectively represent what they're supposed to, and more work was put towards other aspects of the game's design, then I'm likely to overlook and maybe even come to love whatever that game has to offer graphics-wise.

Another thing to remember is that imagination can go a long way in making up for substandard visuals, and sometimes invoking the right mental picture is better than showing any actual picture at all. That's why books are so popular.