Graphics style

Very likely yes. Toonish looks don't require plenty of hi-res textures. Engine is very simple too (I guess probably few MB). "Campaign" can be randomly generated. No need to store cutscenes etc.

What is your basis for this? This is so bad and wrong, this isn't some browser game we're talking about here, PA is a full fledged PC game.

Mike

Then what is the correct term? It's toon-ish, minimalist, and I love it. It's accurate enough to describe the art style.

What is your basis for denying this? Planetary Annihilation will be almost completely procedurally generated in terms of all memory intensive things, and that actually indicates that it will be a small size. Many games (such as Frontier) have had billions of planets, and the game size is many many times smaller than most browser games today!

It's very probable the actual game size could be a lot smaller than you suspect; code doesn't take too much memory.

The size of an engine in disk space is somewhat irrelevant. Infinity Blade on the IPhone looks quite impressive and realistic, but the mobile version of the Unreal Engine itself tiny. It all comes down to content creation time and usage.

Kind of a tangent, but check out .kkrieger
http://www.farb-rausch.de/prod.py?which=114


It's a 96k shooter. That's 96 kilobytes total for the engine and all of the content. The content is created using procedural generation methods, though it's the same every time as the seeds for generation aren't random.

I think the program file size should be in a different topic, but with the graphics at hand I am concerned that if the swirls are actually terrain on the planet that it will make building placement difficult which would inhibit fun. As long as the swirls don't inhibit gameplay I don't care, they were also kind of pretty and contrasted well with the straight edged player units.

I agree and hope so too.

I don't want 'gritty realism', and I don't want 'cartoony'. I want the explosions to look real, and the units to look stylized.

impressive.

You say, you didn't like the explosions, fire and smoke effects in the trailer? :shock:
I actually liked them quite much, and they can't be considered very realistic.

I have said this several times throughout this forum. I am very fond of the art style that Uber is pursuing for PA. The art style reminds me of Worms (any of the 3D versions); especially the explosions. If you can step out of the "must look 100% realistic" mindset before looking at the graphics you can see they look very nice. The added bonus that it make it easier for slower computers to render is icing on the cake.

Well first off, "Planetary Annihilation will be almost completely procedurally generated in terms of all memory intensive things" is only part true, only the maps will be procedurally generated, all the simulated physics, pathfinding and such won't be procedurally generated.

Obviously Content will take up more space than the engine, but saying that the entire engine will only take up "probably few MB" is in the realm of ridiculous.

Mike

...

Someone. Please. Explain to me how this:


looks more plastic than than this:

The developers want this style, the budget only allows it and most players want it. This day and age everyone needs their gritty hardcore "realistic" fps and games.

Lets cater to everyone. We can make everything gray and add some nice shaders and lights to pull off gears of war and its "realism". Maybe we can take inspiration from cod and bf3 and make a wallpaper of the commander walking at us with flames around him against a gray background because if it isnt realistic then its not worth playing imo.


I like the current style and if everyone wants realistic im sure a modder will be more than willing to try it.

I'd like to see a mud brown and concrete grey camo for all the units. Brown is real. Real is Awesome! Also the robots should have gritty backstories and PTSD.

Are you for real!?
You advance a conspiracy theory rather than the far more obvious conclusion that you are in the minority.
Not to mention the broad-based rejection of pretty much all of the ideas you've spammed in umpteen threads.
Do you not see the pattern here or are you too busy coming up with another poll!?

I watched the KS video, loved what I saw, and put down my pledge.
So despite the weasel word 'toonish' I selected that option.

RCIX, SupCom2's aesthetics are (to me) just really weird, you have these mostly gritty textures wrapped around some of the silliest unit designs I've ever seen.

I mean lets look at the proportions on the UEF ACU shall we?


Right is the original, Left is my tweaked version

Note how awkward the proportions are when you look at the legs? The large Torso and arms I can handle on their own but when you add the tiny tiny legs that would STILL be awkward with normal sized Torso and Arms. So I made a version with better proportions, just by enlarging the legs, not touching anything else, which do you honestly think is better proportioned?

And lets not forget about the humble Rockhead, which I already went over back in early 2011.

The Proportions on the KK are also ridiculous, This is how you design a Giant Mech;


Mike

Did you make that model OrangeKnight? Because it is pretty awesome.

Yup, It's the Goliath Tier 4 Armored Assault Bot from the BlackOps:Unleashed Unit Pack

Mike

you can tell because the silhouette is in his sig.

The post i was replying to claimed SupCom 2 was more "plastic" looking than PA. That's all.

I personally liked SC2's designs (except the aeon engineer, that was distinctly meh). Made you feel like good looking units don't have to be CoD ultra boring realistic graybrown m52 ripoffs (not saying that original supcom was like that, but i felt it was... inferior).

Another advantage to a stylized look is the fact that as the years go by, the game will not look as "dated" as one shooting for realistic looks would.