Graphical Styles

Every game is created with different graphical style which makes that game unique in its own way. The most common graphical styles used are Photo-realistic, Abstraction, Cel-shading and Exaggeration. Most genres use the same visual style because they work better in that certain genre like most FPS games are photo-realistic but there are some exceptions like borderlands.

Photo-realistic

Photo-realistic is when a game or rather something in the game is made from a picture from real life. Games that use this style are a lot of first person shooters like battlefield and Call of duty.

These games use this style to make the player feel like they are on a battlefield and at war and the players think they are this person in the middle of a battlefield giving orders or being ordered to save or kill somebody.

The colours used are very realistic like real life and make the viewer feel like it is something that could happen in real life or in the past.

 This graphical style is made so that the player feels like he is in the shoes of the avatar and everything done in the game is something that you do in real life (most times) but we wouldn’t do it (like shoot somebody).

Abstraction

Abstract art style often employs a lot of lines and geometric shapes that don't resemble any real-life objects. To abstract something is to simplify it, reducing it to a few essentials and basic forms instead of trying to reproduce it. Indie game developers use this style a lot because it is easy to create and doesn't require a lot of time or money to create. Plus the thing you create can be anything from your imagination and doesn't need to be compared to real life meaning it can't criticised for its graphics or art style. Games that use this style are Fez and Super Hexagon.

 

Cel-Shading

Cel-shading is a type of rendering which makes a 3D model look hand drawn.Games that use this style are borderlands and Catherine.

This style usually has the drawings outlined to give off a hand drawn effect and usually got a lot of bright colours and is a style between photorealistic and cartoon. The colours used make the viewer like they are watching drawings move.

Exaggeration

This style is a very non-realistic style where everything is created with everything being too big/powerful/impossible to exist in the real world like swords twice the size they should be or characters that body mass is bigger that it should be. Games that are exaggeration are most anime games like Naruto or games like Gear of War (Chest is really big).

The colours are usually bright and make the viewer feel like they have powers or magical items exist.

These are the most used graphical styles used in games and each style makes that game into hours of entertainment for the user, if the graphical style doesn't work then people won't buy the game.  Each graphical style gives a game a different feel to it which makes the game unique.