I need an art critic.

I'm one of those dorks that's into art and design and when it comes to critiquing the style and art direction of games, games journalists aren't doing it for me anymore. I found myself constantly cringing during last year's "best style" category. There has been an increasing amount of game developers getting out there and sharing their perspective.

Just wondered if you guys could point me to a great bunch of artists that podcast/ write abouts games etc from that perspective.

Do you mean "art" like visual arts? Sorry, it's a bit ambiguous.

That Picasso etching is a fake I am sorry to say. It is a Lithograph done from old plates. You can tell from the indentations around the border. It being acid free paper dates it as no more than a decade or so old. $100 retail value.

The first one that springs to mind is Robert Yang: Robert Yang's blog

There are a few other people I can think of who have written about art, furniture, costuming and/or architecture in games, but mostly one-off articles. I'd think your best bet would be to check out Gamasutra - they seem to devote the most space of any online gaming publication to articles about art & design.

This is the best answer, you can close this thread.

Just kidding. Anyway, I know a few guys on YouTube who do some stuff about movies (one of them about art in general), I can suggest you those if you're into it, @sirazalot, but I haven't found anyone for games except a few random articles here and there that I have forgotten by now, but I would like to find something like what you're looking for as well.

Like solely from a visual perspective? I think it's a bit tough to find something like that because unlike the other visual arts, games aren't solely comprised of their visuals; it's just a component.

But I do agree that I'd like hear more from game critics that are better versed in the history or development of art, so I'm also curious.

I can't really help you but if you feel this particular take is missing, perhaps it's a void that you could fill?

I'm sure you could reach out to some artists working in the industry that can answer a couple of questions, like Jen Zee from supergiant, or Nathan Stapley from double fine, etc...

Only if he was looking for an appraiser.

Sorry but just cause someone's an art critic doesn't mean they're gonna know what it means to have styyyyyyyyyle

@eladren: That would be something I'd love to take part in one day. But. Like everything, it's hard to find the time. Also I'm pretty terrible at writing.

Would be fun to try video content tho.

@ringedwithtile: yeah it's a single component. But so is writing, gameplay etc. Naturally people with journalism backgrounds are going to zero in on a games dialogue and narrative. And anyone writing about games is probably going to have insightful things to say about gameplay mechanics. But time and time again I hear the most reductive language used when describing art direction of games. This game is too brown is a big one that gets thrown around. It bums me out for the artists that work on these games. I feel they don't get their dues when they do good work like writing staff or game designers do. It's important they do.

@sirazalot: I don't have an answer to your question I'm afriad, but I was thinking about this a little while ago. Dark Souls has a lot of cool architecture and uses statues to make some lore points. I would love to see some discussion of that. I know they have released art books for those games which are probably the best place to start.

Anyway this is all interesting. Are there any games you've checked out recently where the art stood out to you?