When a game is created, professionals must fill two distinct roles. These roles are game design and game art. While both involve creating games, each role has its unique purpose and responsibilities. In this blog, we will discuss the differences between game design and game art so you can better understand how they contribute to game development.
With this knowledge, you will better understand how these two roles make up one cohesive team that produces an enjoyable gaming experience for players worldwide. So, let’s get started.
What is Game Design?
Game Design is the concept and structure of a game, including rules, objectives, player interactions, story, mechanics, and more. It is the foundation of any game experience – from casual mobile games to complex RPGs. Game Designers are responsible for creating a fun and challenging game that engages players.
They may design the game world’s level, characters, weapons, and other assets. It is best to choose a game art outsourcing studio specializing in game design, as they will have the experience and tools to create something that resonates with players.
Types of Game Designers
Video game designers come from various backgrounds and bring different skill sets to the table. Generally, they can be divided into two main categories:
- System Designers are responsible for designing the game universe’s rules, structure, mechanics, and architecture.
- Level Designers design individual levels of games within a larger narrative context or overarching theme provided by system designers.
What is a Game Art?
Game Art involves visually representing a game’s assets, such as characters, items, or environments. This includes concept art, modeling, and animation to bring these assets to life. Artists strive to create realistic visuals while also maintaining an artistic vision that helps define the overall look of a game. By combining their creativity with their technical know-how they can help create unique and stunning visuals for players to enjoy.
Moreover, they are also responsible for creating artwork to be used in marketing materials such as trailers and websites. Game Art is integral to game development, providing the visuals needed to bring a game world to life.
Types of Game Artists
Game artists can be divided into three main categories: concept artists, 3D modelers, and animators.
- Concept artists are responsible for creating the visual building blocks of a game – coming up with characters, creatures, environments, objects, and props that appear in the game.
- 3D Modelers translate the concept artist’s 2D drawings into 3D models. They use software such as Maya and Zbrush to create characters, textures, and environments that appear in the game.
- Animators bring life to a game by breathing life into each character and object. They take the static 3D models created by modelers and animate them to make them look realistic when they move or interact with other objects.
Game Art Vs. Game Design
Mentioned below are the major differences between game art and game design:
- Game Art is all about creating the visuals for a game, such as character and environment designs, textures, animations, etc. It involves understanding color psychology, lighting and shading techniques, animation concepts, and style consistency. On the other hand, Game Design focuses on building out the game mechanics, such as how elements interact with each other within the context of a game or virtual world. It requires knowledge of scripting languages (such as Lua), programming logic, and algorithms.
- The main objective of Game Art is to create beautiful graphics that will attract players. It also ensures that everything looks aesthetically pleasing according to industry standards while meeting deadlines. Meanwhile, Game Design is mainly concerned with balancing the difficulty and complexity of the game. This involves testing various game mechanics to see which will feel intuitive and rewarding for players.
- The tools used by Game Art professionals are primarily focused on digital drawing, painting, sculpting, and animation software (such as Maya or ZBrush). In contrast, Game Designers need to be comfortable using coding languages like JavaScript or C++ to program the game mechanics.
- Furthermore, Game Artists must be creative and have an eye for detail to ensure all the artwork looks cohesive. On the other hand, Game Designers need analytical skills to troubleshoot problems with their game’s programming logic.
- Finally, the two disciplines are interdependent to some extent. Game Art is responsible for creating a game’s visuals, while Game Design brings those visuals to life by making them interactive and engaging.
Overall, it can be said that there are many differences between game art and game design, but both are important in bringing games to life. While one focuses on visual aspects, the other focuses on gameplay mechanics. Together they create an immersive experience for players. So, choosing a game development company experienced in both these disciplines is essential for creating an engaging and entertaining game.
The Bottom Line
Game design and game art are distinct yet interconnected roles in the gaming industry. While both involve creating content for video games, they take different approaches to doing so; designing gameplay mechanics and levels requires a strong knowledge of mathematics, programming, and systems design, while game artists focus on developing the visuals and sounds that will eventually be featured in-game.
A mobile game development company must have a strong understanding of both disciplines to create successful and engaging titles. So, when choosing a team for your next project, you must always consider the differences between game design and game art.
