By: Emma Rose van der Hoek, Game Artist
As a Game Artist, my job is to make our products beautiful, but there’s a lot more to that than just “beautiful.” Namely, it is important that the beauty also fits within the game design, fits the target group, can be used functionally, etc. A good example of this is Table Ball. In this case, the game was already made and I was asked to make it more beautiful. So for TafelBal a design, mechanics and objects already existed.
The first goal in this was to create more cohesion between objects such as a cage, curling puck and block. This cohesion was created through one overarching theme; toys. However, in order not to make it too childish, the focus is more on old-fashioned, quality toys, especially made of wood. This way, older players can also relate to the theme. Another goal was to help convey the expected interaction as much as possible. Ideally, the player sees an object and immediately understands how to use that object. The goal is actually to require as little explanation as possible. To achieve this, the recognizability and readability of objects are key.
Recognizability
Recognizability can help tremendously in making a game feel intuitive and clear. For example, the hole where the objects have to go in has become a mini-golf hole. A mini-golf hole will evoke recognition in most people, to manage to get objects (mainly balls), into the hole. Because this association is evoked in the player, the gameplay feels logical and intuitive. In doing so, shape can also help trigger certain movements.
With the curling puck, the idea is for the player to grasp the handle with the whole hand. The handle of this puck has indentations for the fingers to visually convey this. These types of inlets are more common in objects where grip is expected, such as a door handle or a bicycle handle, for example. The idea is that the player recognizes these inlets and understands what to do.
Readability
Object legibility helps with player clarity and overview. This is about how easily visible elements are, but also about conveying interaction and movement. For example, in 3D, it can sometimes be difficult to see with the block whether it actually turns after a movement and not just moves forward. To make this easier to read, I gave each side of the block a different symbol. This way you can see the symbol change as the block turns and the movement becomes clearer.
Another form of legibility is drawing attention to certain elements of an object. Here it is important to consider where to draw attention and why. In the case of the frog, the interaction is on the wind-up key, which must be turned. So it is important that the player sees not only a frog, but the key.
To help with this, there is a flashing effect on the frog’s key.
This helps the player see that this is the key element.
This flashing is also on other elements, it is important to stay consistent in this.
Blinking is only applied to objects that require a grip or pinch rather than pushing or tapping.
The expectation here is to create a recognition between blinking and grasping/ pinching that makes clear what is expected of the player.
Of course, there is much more involved in making the objects intuitive.
For example, I have also been working a lot on colors, feedback, animations, scale, etc.
This is an example of some of the principles I am constantly working on as a game artist at HoloMoves.
