@beardalaxy @Kyonko802 @berkberkman to add to that on the indie sphere and with "creative autists" who get blank checks; there are many failed kickstarters from people who were great artists and idea guys, but could never make a game or would have mental breakdowns making one.

Back in the day on Discord when I still met fascinating characters before the rise of nerd crack and Twitter turning into Tumblr 2, and Discord servers with massive jannying, I could meet interesting people in VCs. One such dude was a literal autist who wanted to be a gamedev.

There's just one problem: he was mentally ill as fuck. He wanted to make his own engine and all, he was ambitious. Yet he was both not cut out to do this, and also as I said mental. He would have breakdowns all the time and got nowhere. He clearly needed a wrangler, but also friends IRL or trustworthy online friends who might have been able to help him make his game.

Another guy I know has a brother who has been developing a game for years. He tends to spend his time playing games with his brother and crying about AI on Twitter instead of making the damn game.

It's why I worry that I stagnate at times, because I've been juggling work and it's very hard to get online friends to also help with your game when they're either juggling college/wagie shit, I'm juggling wagie shit and other hobbies, and if you have no direction IRL or online you end up doing nothing, passively consuming products or posting online.

Half a decade ago I had friends who were passively interested in making game ideas, but I was never able to just sit down and write shit or study and neither were they. One was stuck in college and would succumb to online drama in his Discord group, the other ended up dating crazy people online. When I talk about ideas for my game I only get passive responses. I'm convinced it's hard to find online friends for this kinda thing. I still have slight hope that maybe if I devote endless time slabs to just that if I get laid off after saving up money that I might be able to attract people who are worth something (though I am also worried I might get hanger ons or leeches).

Now imagine you give one of those developers a blank check and lots of resources. At best you end up like Ken Levine, who hasn't made a game since Bioshock Infinite, notorious for scope creep and constantly changing the focus. At worst, you end up like Denis Dyack who has proven himself incapable of managing his own game studios multiple times. He has not made a single game since the X-Men game got rushed out because the studio told him to work on it, and he's still trying to make an Eternal Darkness sequel after having his reputation burnt hard from how hard he fell off.

@PurpCat @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 I think the devs' intent on the art style (and animation) is overlooked but crucial, which is why I loved Hi-Fi Rush's colorful and cel-shaded look while I hated the odd and flat cartoonish look of that Battletoads reboot. A "realistic" artstyle could work well, but it's difficult to get it right (or at least engage in a good way). The only game that I can easily recall with that sort of style was inFAMOUS, and that seemed like it was going for a gritty superhero/villain comic look via those bright effects (then again, it still looked like most of those brown and dull PS3/X360 games).
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@berkberkman @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 the trick is with realistic stuff is you have to have an art style that's unique outside of just the normal stuff.

Everyone remembers BioShock because of it's art deco environments even though it's on the UE2, which was an old engine at that point.

@berkberkman @Kyonko802 @beardalaxy also Mass Effect 1 and Singularity are memorable because while being UE3 games with the normal UE3 look at times, the environments and art direction were entirely different.

Or Prey on the ID Tech 4 engine shedding the look Doom 3/Quake 4 had in a lot of ways. More examples of realistic games that did it right.

You won't see something like this from shit like TLoU2. I'm just a fan of unique art styles.

@PurpCat @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 Was there even a notable art style within the original Last of Us on the PS3? I never had any interest in that franchise from the beginning.
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@berkberkman @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 TLoU1, the Killzone series in general, and some others seem to have been made to wow people at E3 as they see the graphics.

Visually it's bland as shit, but the idea of "wow these graphics on the PS3" after that E3 demo made people buy it. It's also notably the "test game" that PS3 repairers and frankenstein swap modders use to test the console afterwards.

@PurpCat @berkberkman @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 It's amazing what shamelessly ripping the aesthetic of 70s/80s futurism will do for you
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@PurpCat @berkberkman @Kyonko802 tlou killed my PS3 back then lol. Killzone 3 also looks very pretty imo. Last of us was kind of the start of this trend and it still does it the best imo. Even better than its own remake.

@PurpCat @berkberkman @Kyonko802 characters still looked sharp and characterized although realistic and they butchered that going forward.

@berkberkman @PurpCat @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 I consider the bloom that you would see in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion to kinda create an art style within its own. It was an 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 choice. Later PS3 games did it too, but to a lesser extent. But you can still see it on the man's face in the PS3 screenshot.

@PurpCat @berkberkman @Kyonko802 prey looks pretty cool actually, I wanna get around to playing it some day.

A game I think is VERY stylistically bold is the system shock remake. It uses these awesome low resolution textures to great effect.

@berkberkman @PurpCat @Kyonko802 infamous second son looks a lot better. Fucking love that game. Sucker Punch has their finger on the pulse of making realistic looking games that still have a lot of style.

Sunset Overdrive looked pretty sick too. Didn't enjoy the game a whole lot but I like the graffics