Realism vs. Stylization Art In Games

Game art can be of stylized or realism styles. They both cover popular genres and big target audiences. Stylized is frequently used for casual experience and mobile genres and realistic tends to suit more ambitious projects with high budgets, oriented to mid-core and hardcore players.

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Unlike other things that can be changed halfway through the game development, the selected style will greatly affect your game’s vibe, aesthetic and tone. Choosing the right one is crucial from the get-go, otherwise, a lot of revisions and restarts are inevitable.

Let’s talk about the specifics of these techniques and discuss what kind of projects will be appropriate for each of them, along with potential hiccups to expect. Also, we will compare stylized and realism and see what technique you should choose for your project.

Stylized Art Style

Stylized art is drastically different from the realistic one: it’s not about depicting exactly what things are but making them more unique and memorable. Saturated, vibrant colors, unusual shapes and silhouettes of exaggerated proportions, creative, artistic feel all over it – these are some of the reasons why players and devs prefer stylized art. 

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Another very valuable aspect of stylized art is how “eternal” it feels. Games with stylized art tend to age gracefully, and looking at them can make you say: “no way this game is 20 years old!”

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Advantages of Stylized Art:

• Ages gracefully: Thanks to its overall timeless feel, stylized art can help your game feel as if it came out yesterday.
• Provides a distinct look: Games with stylized art look unique and attract attention, which is always good in a saturated video game market.
• Good for low-end systems: Simplified models and no focus on meticulous detail allow stylized art to run well even on weak PCs.
• Blends well with gameplay: If you’re making a shooter with stylized art, it’s much easier to work on easily recognizable enemy models, map readability and so on, making crucial gameplay elements distinguishable.

Disadvantages of Stylized Art: 

• It’s not for everybody: Some people prefer a more realistic approach and may overlook the stylized art game and consider it a product that is not made for them. 
• Strong artistic integrity is crucial: Since your game will have to rely fully on the distinctive look, you need to make sure it relies on a consistent, adjusted art style that compliments the stylized look. Otherwise, your game will feel lackluster, generic and uninspired.  

Realism Art Style

Realism art style could not be imagined twenty years ago, but now, thanks to great advancements in graphics, it’s a regularly chosen style in many modern video games. As its name suggests, realistic art recreates life-like visuals with strong precision. 

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Though a realism technique requires using high-quality texturing, it doesn’t have to be a total photorealistic recreation of real-life scenery. There are some constraints, related to optimization, technology and other aspects.

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Perfect for a great scope of genres (survival horrors, simulators and first-person shooters are all great realism games), the realistic art style requires a lot of effort on the modeling, artistic and animation sides of the art department. 

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Advantages of Realism Art Style:

• Realism is attractive by nature: Realism art style is preferable for many projects on the market that aim to create a great visual experience that should resonate with regular players. It does not try to create something out of left field but depicts our life as is, which is very easy for players to relate to.
• Great for a specific direction and genres: Realistic art style works well with first-person shooters, simulators, cinematic games and virtual reality titles. In addition, if your ambitions lie deep in storytelling, a realistic art style is a must: it will drastically increase the believability and emotional impact since people will relate to it more easily than to a stylized technique.
• It’s very immersive: Obviously, the realism art style helps players to emerge into the crafted world and feel its presence with better precision. Things, people and creatures look like they do in real life, so immersing in this art style should be effortless for your players. 

Disadvantages of Realism Art Style:

• Technically difficult to implement: The realism art style requires a lot of technical knowledge and has a lot of nuances in terms of optimizing the game, resulting in pretty challenging tech work. In addition to that, this demanding technique reduces the amount of accessibility: older consoles and mobile devices will likely not handle it well.
• It takes a lot of time and effort: Realistic art technique is a result of very meticulous work. Achieving a realistic look for your game requires meticulous texturing, lighting and the collaborative efforts of a talented art team, supported by substantial budgets and consistent financial backing. 
• It may look a bit generic: A lot of great qualities of stylized art, such as unique artistic touches and memorable aspects, tend to be lost in this technique. 

Choosing Between Stylized & Realism For Your Project

Which technique should you choose? It depends on several factors you should consider. Let’s look at some of them.

Which style suits your game best? 

Depending on your game’s feel, an art style may accompany it very well. Are you aiming at the adventurous, artistic, universal experience for all ages? Then stylized must be your choice: it will blend so well together. Or perhaps you’re producing a game set in modern times, about the complex human dilemmas? Then, the realistic technique is your choice. Even though it’s possible to use a stylized art for serious topics as well as realistic one, it will be pretty difficult to create a relatable game with serious intentions and tone if the perfect balance is not found. 

Not that it’s bad or impossible, of course! Games like Valiant Hearts and This War Of Mine show that you can actually use stylized art to tell dark and mature stories. And vice versa, sometimes, a realistic art can be used for something actually lighthearted (Uncharted 4 is, despite some mature themes, can be very fun and exciting with characters cracking jokes and feeling hopeful and determined)

What budget do you have? 

As we mentioned before, realism art style, in contrast to stylized, is a bit resources-heavy, and will require more dedication from technical artists and engineers for proper implementation and optimization. If you’re a small team, perhaps it’s better to go with the stylized art: it’s much better to invest in the artistic integrity of your game if you’re a bit low on budget. Going for a realistic technique can cost you, and it’s probably a better idea to focus on other things in this case. 

What audience do you target?

Your core audience matters a lot because they will judge the game by the way it looks. What age groups are they? What kind of games do they like? It’s important to know it to decide on a genre, but it is not essential: after all, experimenting is possible and who knows, maybe your dedicated fans will actually welcome the new direction your art is heading to.

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Luckily, you can always get help with this from art outsourcing studios

At RocketBrush Studio, our artists maintain your game’s art style, techniques and overall aesthetic, stylized or realism. We create distinct visual styles that align with your game’s themes and tone, ensuring they resonate with your core audience.

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We have been working since 2016, collaborating with great industry professionals such as Supercell, Romero Games, Paradox Interactive, Applovin and more. Read our testimonials here for more info. 

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We provide services not only in art direction but also in sound design, animations and even full-scale game production. We work with different styles and genres, from a pirate-themed game and a top-down zombie apocalypse survival game to a match-3 2D illustrations in realism style and 3D paint-over backgrounds for a solitaire game. Look at our portfolio here to see our scope. 

Conclusion

Choosing an appropriate technique for your game art is very important and must be decided upon from the very start. Stylized or realism art technique will define several things and will correlate with your project’s themes, appeal and goals. 

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We wish you the best of luck with your project whether it’s going to be a creative outburst of stylized art or an immersive and engaging realism art style!