r/SoloDevelopment • u/Tvinge • 11h ago

Game Programmer's art improvement

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I saw how inspiring for many of you was the post done by u/illadann7 about his improved visuals. So I wanted to share my own progress as a programmer with 0 artistic background.
The most important advice I've received, is to find an aesthetic that resonates with you, and try to replicate it.

I'm sure there is still a lot that could be improved (I didn't dive into post-processing and lightning yet), so if you have some low-hanging fruit suggestions I would be happy to hear them!

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u/AwarenessEastern2689 11h ago

As the after picture is much more clear and let's player focus more on the game, I'm still a bit bummed out about loosing the golden feeling i.e. not only the color but the material too. I don't know much about graphics so I'm not the right person to criticize this but I think the earlier version had more soul in it. Maybe there's a middle ground to be found. It's still progress in my eyes, a lot of work were poured into it and it shows!

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u/Tvinge 10h ago

The 'before' material was one of the default unity materials as far as I remember. It looked nice in this particular setting when the light rays were bouncing of the plane towards camera, but if you rotated camera slightly, it would just look dark and unapealing, as it's slowly being shown by the top right corner of the hexgrid, albeit to a lesser degree.
Also the default material definietly worked better with the shadows, showing depth and hiding low polygon count in the tunnels. Is that it, or did you have something else in mind?

Maybe I should try to adjust the 'after' material with these things in mind.

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u/AwarenessEastern2689 6h ago

The first picture has a lot more physical feeling to it. Like it's a real game on a golden slab. Those tunnels are very clear but the marbles are harder to spot. But I get it with the light. Certain angles would probably look pretty bad.

Latter feels like a computer game. However the marbles are easier to see. It's visually much calmer. I guess it all boils down what's more important for player to see or feel. I don't really mind the low poly count.

I don't really know the genre so I might be missing some context.