nub wrote:I kind of agree though. Valve shouldn't make it look anything like Warcraft.
Yes, because realistic is better. Just look at TF Tw--- oh... Uh, Just look at starcraft tw-- oh wait... hmmm...
Seriously, I fuckin' love this fantasy style. And to make it clear, it isn't "warcrafty" but is instead pretty typical fantasy art-style. The only thing that makes warcraft games look the way they look is the inspiration they take from other fantasy artists (Shoulder-pads / various other character portraits are similar to that of the Warhammer art, coloring and particle effects / sprites are very reminiscent of things present in Disney movies and animation.) Also, this has a far different look than most warcraft modern drawings / art, the world of warcraft designs have actually taken a lot from anime, especially if you look at the loading screen images / comic book series. I mean have you guys SEEN blood elves? They look straight out of final fantasy VII, at any moment, I'm worried some blood elf with white hair will cast super nova on me and bring me down to critical hp!
(Sephiroth reference, not like anyone here would care for such a reference)
Why is it a bad idea to copy warcraft when, besides tf2, it's a really brilliant example of art clashing with video games? As far as I know, warcraft (and even starcraft) are both very good pre-tf2 examples of what hand-painted fantasy game art should look like. I mean come on guys, have you seen dalaran in World of Warcraft? It's so immersive and wonderful, I feel like I'm in a freakin' disney movie. Honest to god, I kind of wish more japanese games did this with their game art too. I'd love to see a final fantasy game with those styles of visuals, yet again I never played the kingdom hearts series. That and, well, final fantasy is not really as great as it used to be, art changes are the last thing it needs to worry about.
In the end of the day, you'll never be able to tell the art-style by a single drawing or illustration. A lot of the a game's visual flare comes from the shaders and the environment conditions. For example, it would be interesting to see very strong and deep shadows to emulate the look of, say, the l4d comic. If they did do that, however, it would be most reliant on the shader over than the texture. Street fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom have a similar approach when it comes to designing the game, but because of individual assets / particle effects and the shaders apply, they look like very very different games. I only really started learning how important shaders are when I started messing around with my materials in my scene to get a more cartoony effect, it was beyond me how important they are to make a game feel the way it feels.
Anyway, that was a bit of a rant, but I will say the illustrations are nice. There's no way I could hate on the way these characters look! I'm relieved they didn't try to pull a hollywood on us (you know, where they call the game "Defense of the Ancients" instead of "DotA 2", I hate that shit in American films) but I am still rather disappointed in the attempt to trademark the name dota. It seems rather intrusive, and feels like they are just throwing the name on for a cash grab. DotA to me has evolved more into it's own gametype than a true game. Not only that, but there's hundreds of people who put work into dota, but now, in essence, valve is buying the DotA name even though they only have 1 developer who basically just refined a few things? Granted, Icefrog is a very important person to DotA, but the concept of games should be more focused on the group or studio that developed a game, rather than the individual. If the DotA2 staff was built of many previous DotA developers, it would feel far less intrusive.
by MáØ on Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:01 pm 
