Media Diary: A couple of my favorite scifi game aesthetics
I've been noticing for a while now that there's a few things that I really enjoy in a scifi game design style. It's this mix of organic and inorganic elements. And not only straight up mixing it in this H.R. Giger Xenomorph-like style, but also actually having pure organic materials mixed in with science-y things.
Here's a few examples.
WARFRAME, made by Digital Extremes, which is one of my dearest games. This is the one I go absolutely insane for for about a month at a time until I have a break. It's free to play, full of relaxing grinding and farming (I'm not even being sarcastic, those things in this game are really enjoyable for me). In short, there is this huge collection of these Warframe "suits" of armor that you can utilize to do different kinds of missions together with 3 other players. They all have a different theme and abilities like elements, animals, stealth, time, death, conviction based, etc.
For me it contains a lot of character designs that are very, very pleasing and pretty unique in style. This is the more xenomorph-y style I first mentioned. I would even go as far to say that a lot of the designs feel almost perfect to me, not least because you can customize the colours almost completely and add all kinds of different accessories. Really make them your own (as edgy as possible seems to be a popular choice).
Very few of the frame designs contain these more stereotypical gendered body models and some of them feel very gender neutral too. And even those that are more clearly, let's say female, are not sexualized in my opinion. They really come in very different shapes and sizes.And I really like how they are humanoid in shape, but also very alien at the same time.
Also the designs tell a story about the frame's theme without often underlining it too much in their design.
A great example of mixing the materials is HORIZON: ZERO DAWN, by Guerilla Games, which I have unfortunately played only for a little while because I don't own a console to play it on. It's an action RPG.
The society is living in this post-apocalyptic world with these dangerous machines that resemble animals. It's a society that has gone back to a lot of basic necessities, like hunting, traveling by foot, having villages and tribes and believing in bigger uncontrollable forces. The aesthetic is based on very natural resources, mixing furs, leather, other organic materials with bits and pieces of machinery and tech.
I don't generally visually enjoy games that go for the realistic look, but this game is purposefully designed to be very saturated with this "magic hour" light which for me makes the huge difference to the overall visual enjoyment.
I just realized that I just like games that have shiny things, I guess. I'm a magpie.
Here's a few examples.
WARFRAME, made by Digital Extremes, which is one of my dearest games. This is the one I go absolutely insane for for about a month at a time until I have a break. It's free to play, full of relaxing grinding and farming (I'm not even being sarcastic, those things in this game are really enjoyable for me). In short, there is this huge collection of these Warframe "suits" of armor that you can utilize to do different kinds of missions together with 3 other players. They all have a different theme and abilities like elements, animals, stealth, time, death, conviction based, etc.
For me it contains a lot of character designs that are very, very pleasing and pretty unique in style. This is the more xenomorph-y style I first mentioned. I would even go as far to say that a lot of the designs feel almost perfect to me, not least because you can customize the colours almost completely and add all kinds of different accessories. Really make them your own (as edgy as possible seems to be a popular choice).
Very few of the frame designs contain these more stereotypical gendered body models and some of them feel very gender neutral too. And even those that are more clearly, let's say female, are not sexualized in my opinion. They really come in very different shapes and sizes.And I really like how they are humanoid in shape, but also very alien at the same time.
Also the designs tell a story about the frame's theme without often underlining it too much in their design.
A great example of mixing the materials is HORIZON: ZERO DAWN, by Guerilla Games, which I have unfortunately played only for a little while because I don't own a console to play it on. It's an action RPG.
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/horizon-zero-dawn-ps4/
The society is living in this post-apocalyptic world with these dangerous machines that resemble animals. It's a society that has gone back to a lot of basic necessities, like hunting, traveling by foot, having villages and tribes and believing in bigger uncontrollable forces. The aesthetic is based on very natural resources, mixing furs, leather, other organic materials with bits and pieces of machinery and tech.
https://www.gamesradar.com/how-to-get-horizon-zero-dawns-secret-armor-that-makes-aloy-almost-invincible/
I don't generally visually enjoy games that go for the realistic look, but this game is purposefully designed to be very saturated with this "magic hour" light which for me makes the huge difference to the overall visual enjoyment.
I just realized that I just like games that have shiny things, I guess. I'm a magpie.
Comments
Post a Comment