I don’t see why I should have lower expectations for indie games.
An Indie game has a vastly smaller art budget. That means you’re going to get less art, lower quality art, or simpler art (i.e. old school 2D sprites instead of complex 3D models). For most Indie games, I see a mix of less and simpler, but I also very rarely see any sort of truly stunning high-quality artwork in Indie games.
Well obviously there’s less money, but that doesn’t mean they have to look worse. Limbo, Bit Trip Beat, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Bastion, Cave Story, Minecraft, Recettear, Terraria are all example of good-looking indie games. Most indie games I know look good. Good graphics means picking something and doing it well, and if you’re on a lower budget you pick something that takes less time to look good. Less is more.
Interesting choice of examples. I consider the graphics in Minecraft awful; it’s on par with Mario 64, which is 15 years old! (I actually consider Mario 64 to be significantly better, but that’s because Minecraft is heavily based on a block structure instead of more free form objects). I suppose it just illustrates that different people have different tastes :)
I argue that it does look good. Yes, the graphics aren’t modern, but it can look very scenic and create a sense of wonder. It could look bad if the grass was just bright green and flat-looking and everything else looked that bad too. I have a hard time imagining people even bothering to play it. Minecraft’s art does exactly what it’s supposed to do. Here’s an example of something very atmospheric created with minecraft blocks. Some might dislike the style anyhow but that’s a more arbitrary (though not invalid) preference not related to how well-done the minecraft graphics are.
An Indie game has a vastly smaller art budget. That means you’re going to get less art, lower quality art, or simpler art (i.e. old school 2D sprites instead of complex 3D models). For most Indie games, I see a mix of less and simpler, but I also very rarely see any sort of truly stunning high-quality artwork in Indie games.
Well obviously there’s less money, but that doesn’t mean they have to look worse. Limbo, Bit Trip Beat, Amnesia, Audiosurf, Bastion, Cave Story, Minecraft, Recettear, Terraria are all example of good-looking indie games. Most indie games I know look good. Good graphics means picking something and doing it well, and if you’re on a lower budget you pick something that takes less time to look good. Less is more.
Interesting choice of examples. I consider the graphics in Minecraft awful; it’s on par with Mario 64, which is 15 years old! (I actually consider Mario 64 to be significantly better, but that’s because Minecraft is heavily based on a block structure instead of more free form objects). I suppose it just illustrates that different people have different tastes :)
I argue that it does look good. Yes, the graphics aren’t modern, but it can look very scenic and create a sense of wonder. It could look bad if the grass was just bright green and flat-looking and everything else looked that bad too. I have a hard time imagining people even bothering to play it. Minecraft’s art does exactly what it’s supposed to do. Here’s an example of something very atmospheric created with minecraft blocks. Some might dislike the style anyhow but that’s a more arbitrary (though not invalid) preference not related to how well-done the minecraft graphics are.