An Art conundrum…

Developing a game such as colony, that is seeking a customer, begs the question on the art “skin.” Unfortunately, most potential customers see the artwork and quality of animation and content as the sum of the game, despite the innovations “under the hood.” Most developers and engineers can quickly shed their bias based on art and see the fundamentals that are exciting, innovative or just broken and give a more objective qualification… so the conundrum is creating a demonstration that meets enough of the art needs (without hiring a full team of artists) to sell a conceptual product.

The first questions that come to mind are the intended targets for players. Are they kids, young enough to need super simple and stylized graphics? or hard core simulation space fanatics that want the n-th detail and very complex and realistic simulations? Art plays a key role here…

Additionally, it is untenable to create a “real” mining experience, as an example. Most MMOs simplify resource gathering into single tools to harvest single nodes of resources. While a dwarf with a pick-axe can do a lot of damage, a man in a pressurized suit would have difficulty with a manual tool… not to mention the risks and limitations on strength. Do you take an analog, such as a moisture harvester and make it really simple to operate? How does the player interact with the object… and does it FEEL genuine enough to be a simulation?

Flight simulators have set a very high bar for “simulation.” Players can even fly only by controls and the models and interactivity have been worked out over the last 12 years. So what is the paradigm for a futuristic simulator statement? We know that the sum of activities to survive on a colony in space are highly complex and require many specialized engineers to implement. What can a single person do, what are the baseline parameters, mechanics and so forth… and if you solve that, what should it look like?

We have been doing a lot of close analysis of the results of the Mars missions from JPL and NASA. Certainly that is a good start, but is the complexity and “alien’-ish imagely too difficult for a 8 year old to grasp? Should the simulator have strong mechanics underneath, but feel more like a video game? How does the art reinforce the complexity and dependency of the systems?

I have two pictures in my head… one of a grimy space pioneer with very realistic and complex models and animations that even simulate gravity and environmental effects… and another of a cartoon space man that bebobs around the colony doing his thing…

<Insert the proverbial “?” popup over my head>