Five? reasons to make your game pretty ASAP! (Number 3 will make you say “what?”)

There is a common theory of game design that suggest you should leave art until you’ve found the core proof-of-concept gameplay.

I think that’s pretty reasonable, to an extent, you don’t want to waste too much time creating art before you’ve found out if the game is even fun.

But I do think we can go too far with this idea!

I believe that it’s worth investing some time developing an aesthetic early in prototyping, and here are 5? (6? [4?]) reasons why!

Reason Number 1 – Aesthetics is Half the Experience

Games are really just Interaction + Aesthetics.

It’s really easy (for designers especially) to undervalue the impact of aesthetics in the player experience of a game.

But Aesthetics is Half the Experience.

I would struggle to overcome the frustrating puzzles of Snakebird if the game wasn’t so adorable.

When you are playtesting a prototype, players can overlook the lack of art design, but they are getting a fundamentally incomplete experience.

At least, from my experience, playtesters in grey-boxed levels struggle to suspend disbelief.

And so the feedback that you gain may not track to the finished game, because they are stress-testing a piece of software, not experiencing a game.

Reason Numero 2 – It Gives You Something Early!

Fail Fast, and Follow the Fun.

That’s all well and good. You should prototype mechanics quick and rough, and be willing to bail.

But, like, do you bail? Do you, personally, scrap prototypes quickly?

What I have found, for me at least, is that I want to gain something out of a prototype.

But that something doesn’t have to be a full commercial game!

You can get a jam-scale micro-game out of it!

A five minute experimental vibe!

Something to take to a meetup, or show to your friends!

Or literally just some interesting gifs or images!

This is an art-test for a hot-air-ballooning game that I never ended up making.

That is enough for me, I did some work, and here is the gif to prove it!

I never feel like I’m wasting work!

Reason #2.5 – Portfolios!

A note as well:

If your experiments, jam games and tech demos look pretty, they work better on portfolios!

Game Jams teach this process really well, forcing devs to consider small projects as whole experiences.

I can show people videos or images of what I’m working on, and they can get the vibe (without having to play an unpolished mess of test code and hope).

It’s just harder to showcase a portfolio filled with grey-boxes and programmer art.

Reason Three?

Hey, you know, we’re just makin’ games here. There doesn’t have to be deep reasons behind everything! Sometimes you just want pretty pictures on your 4k monitor.

Reason 4.0 – Production:

The counter argument, as I said at the beginning, is that you can end up making work that you will throw away.

And that is true!

But that’s also true of prototype mechanics, right?

In the prototype phase, nothing is final!

But, as with mechanics, prototyping aesthetics saves you time in the long run.

It lets you discern how long different visual/audio elements will take to produce.

And it allows you to assess the actual impact each element is having.

This, in turn, lets you better estimate the scope of the full project.

It lets you make major changes to your aesthetic designs or art-pipeline early!

And it can give you the opportunity to bail from a project that’s too big, before you’ve invested much time into it!

I worked on this project for a couple of weeks, but ended up benching it because it didn’t feel interesting or intuitive. But a year or so later I came back, completely reworked the overall aesthetic and gameplay elements, and released it.

Reason V – it’s good for your mind!

I, at least, am not a machine.

We’re all just animals, with monkey brains, that need motivation to work effectively.

I’m sure some people can work just fine in the grey void of tech experimentation.

But I find it motivating, late at night, when I can’t for the life of me solve this bug, to hit play on my ramshackle mess of systems, and have it look like a game.

Note 1:

It’s safe to assume that the target audience of everything I say is my abandoned former self. I started as a mechanics-focused-designer, and had to learn to give aesthetics the value they deserve.

I’m sure some people will already have known these things I say, and to you I say, good!

Note 2:

When I say pretty I mean unique! I am not talking about graphical realism, high detail pixel art, or any specific art-style. I’m just saying it’s worth putting a little bit of time in, to make it look somewhat nice or interesting while you are prototyping.

I’ve specifically tried to show examples where the aesthetics is simpler, or faster to develop. Look at the simplicity of Baba is You, right? The game is crunchy and minimal, but uses a wiggly effect to give a hand-drawn sense of playfulness and charm.

Note 3:

There is obviously a limit to the value of this approach, right?

If you make a screen-space shader, or spend some time setting up nice lighting, it will continue to add to the visual flavour forever more. But I’m not proposing you make an 8-directional pixel-art character animation before you’ve settled on a core mechanic. (Maybe just make enough art to produce a proof-of-concept screenshot?)

Note 3.5:

Actually, I’m specifically arguing for a greater focus on rapid-prototyping-aesthetic-design.

That often means, especially in the context of a public-facing demo or portfolio piece, removing or simplifying elements that actively detract from the appearance.

(Yes, I know you are planning a full GUI, but using stock assets when the rest of the game is, say, pixel-art makes your demo or screenshot look worse!)

Sometimes you need to include work-in-progress elements, but you should be thoughtful about how important those elements are to the specific context you are showcasing the game (and for the game in general).

Maybe I’ll write another post about rapid aesthetic development, idk.

Note 4:

Most of the attached gifs are from my games! That’s mostly just because I have a lot of gifs showing the prototype phase of those projects!

Note 5:

I hope you have a nice day!