Art in "small" games

I wonder if someone else noticed that "small" games, those that are cheaper and can be found in XBLA among others, are the ones that more often offer a more artistic design, more beautiful and original visuals, etc. Examples are outland, limbo and bastion. The only standing example of a big game with a more artistic approach may be okami.

Wait, why does art need to take risks to be art? If you look at heavily respected artists like da Vinci and Michelangelo, and then compare them to what everybody else was doing, you'll quickly see that they never really took any risks. "Another painting of Jesus? Fucking awesome. Lemme guess: baby, and he's with Madonna? Yea, I'll be done in a week or two."

" If you look at heavily respected artists like da Vinci and Michelangelo, and then compare them to what everybody else was doing, you'll quickly see that they never really took any risks.  "

" @Video_Game_King said:

" If you look at heavily respected artists like da Vinci and Michelangelo, and then compare them to what everybody else was doing, you'll quickly see that they never really took any risks.  "

No risk but high reward....similar to Call of Duty, am I right? "

I think it's more because the less realistic art styles are cheaper to make than realistic ones...with realistic ones you need to liscence out the expensive ass engines and generating assets take more time and money as well.

I think you need to re-evaluate what you take to be "art" and what makes something "more artistic" than something else. Just because something is unconventional or "takes more risks" doesn't make it more artistic, or has more artistic merit than something that is just as well-made and interesting but adheres in some ways to a type of form or genre. With that said, you should also keep in mind the limitations of a certain form of art, and also how analyzing something, like a game, or any piece of art, with a particular genre in mind affects the way we judge it.

Most games have to do what the corporate overlords tell them to do, and they think all games have to looks like Gears of War or they won't sell.

" Most games have to do what the corporate overlords tell them to do, and they think all games have to looks like Gears of War or they won't sell. "

1. Nothing wrong with milking a franchise as long as the milk pouring from the corporate teet does not curdle as soon as it hits the bucket. (Man, I really chased that to its ultimate conclusion, did I not?)
2. There's a reason why they continue to milk franchises: it fucking works. Sucks, and you can do something about it.
   

" @Unknown_Pleasures:

But you know for a fact that they're not gonna do it. They love money too much.

@crusader8463 said:

" Most games have to do what the corporate overlords tell them to do, and they think all games have to looks like Gears of War or they won't sell. "

Why do I feel like that's a gross oversimplification? What about the decent sales of Super Mario Galaxy? Or the recent Renaissance of adventure games? "

" @Unknown_Pleasures:

I have at least two responses to this. Choose which one will promote discussion:

1. Nothing wrong with milking a franchise as long as the milk pouring from the corporate teet does not curdle as soon as it hits the bucket. (Man, I really chased that to its ultimate conclusion, did I not?)
2. There's a reason why they continue to milk franchises: it fucking works. Sucks, and you can do something about it.
   

"

" When was the last time you saw a shooter go nuts with it's art style? "

" Wait, why does art need to take risks to be art? If you look at heavily respected artists like da Vinci and Michelangelo, and then compare them to what everybody else was doing, you'll quickly see that they never really took any risks. "Another painting of Jesus? Fucking awesome. Lemme guess: baby, and he's with Madonna? Yea, I'll be done in a week or two." "

" @PrivateIronTFU: Just a cursory glance of medieval art shows that it's pretty much just Jesus doing shit. Hell, I wouldn't at all be surprised if Jesus was the most common image in all of Western art. The only images that aren't of Jesus are either of other Bibley scenes or just portraits of rich people. "

I'm not sure that I agree with OP...but here's my experience.

I'm working on an indie game and the team is...two people, designer/writer and programmer. Neither of us has any visual arts skills. So, we thought, what can we produce a lot of (I won't get into why we need so much art) that anybody could do? Stick figures in paint.

The difficulty then becomes not creating the stick figures, but thinking about that style. We have to figure out how to best take advantage of the pros of stick figures (e.g. simple changes like a hat or glasses can be used to differentiate characters from each other) and downplay the cons (making small changes to a character over the course of the game could make them appear to be a different character). By doing this the style becomes our own and the thing that we did to cover a deficiency becomes a distinctive feature of the game.

On the other hand the game isn't done yet. So maybe I'm just insane.

I think this 'what is art? are video games art' bullsh*t is pretentious as hell. 

Art is defined by the one looking at the piece not by the creator, third parties to the one looking at the piece or anyone or anything else.  Anyone who attempts to determine clear cut, solidly defined and absolute criteria for art are full of sh*t. 

I think a lot of it has to do with team sizes, as well.  When you have over 50 people generating textures, models, and other assets for a game, it's probably very hard to come up with some sense of cohesive "stylistic" art initiative.  It would be much easier to stick to what your people know.  Although some bigger games do go with a unique artstyle, I think in that case it's less about trying to make the game appear artistic and more about making a game stand apart from the competitors.  Realistically, it seems like it would be too much trouble.  There are still plenty of games out there with amazing art that don't have to pigeonhole themselves into being fully stylized.

I wasn't expecting people would be so sensible about the "art" word.