u/Givax97

Hello!

This is my first time doing a developer blog post for our first game, releasing later this year. I wanted to share our approach to the art style of our game. If you like this type of posts, we’ll make sure to post more over the next few weeks with other key elements of our game like the music, puzzle designs, and more :)

When we started the developing Puzzles of the World, we had a clear vision of the feeling we wanted our environments to communicate: Let's create places that feel dreamlike but familiar (nostalgic, even if you've never been there before); making use of VR to immerse players into a state of flow or meditation.

The first thing that came to mind were the lo-fi or ambience music videos that many people play in the background when working, studying, or enjoying a hobby. These videos often showcase gorgeous locations from around the world or scenes from games, movies, and anime. One of my favorite ways to unwind was to build a puzzle, while listening to soothing music accompanied by a beautiful background of rainy a Kyoto alleyway. Our first thought was to recreate these backgrounds, with a high degree of realism to make the player feel like they were really at the location. But somehow, that didn't feel quite right. Is it the place itself that makes you feel this sense of nostalgia? Or is it your expectations and memories of the place that do that? That's when we faced our initial crossroad: do we try for realistic graphics , or do we create something that feels more stylized?

In VR, specially on standalone devices like Quest, realistic graphics at a high frame rate require technical sacrifices that make worlds feel a bit lifeless; so instead, we decided to romanticize reality.

Building upon our personal gaming experiences and memories from games Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Pokémon, Hollow Knight, etc., we began defining the art-style philosophy for the game. Here are a few inspirations we took:

1. Starting Point: Hiroshi Yoshida Woodblock Paintings

Funny enough, our primary inspiration wasn’t a from specific game, but the 20th-century Japanese artist Hiroshi Yoshida, a master at blending traditional Japanese woodblock techniques with Western realism. We’ve attempted to capture his bold outlines and atmospheric color palettes into our environments to create locations that feel "painted" rather than just rendered.

https://preview.redd.it/rg09z2zzq31h1.png?width=1261&format=png&auto=webp&s=635bad941dd08abc5f3949a32a407451f7e2a618

2. Minimalistic Textures Inspired by Sifu

To complement Yoshida’s almost cel-shaded aesthetic, we used painted strokes for our materials and texture work. We took heavy inspiration from Sifu, specifically how they handle surfaces like wooden floors and stone walls with minimalistic patterns. It gives the world a bit more depth that looks and feels great in a headset.

https://preview.redd.it/auavjlw0r31h1.png?width=1433&format=png&auto=webp&s=02304fbb67430b80f4f0807c4404a480e85f32d4

3. “Nostalgic” PS2-Era Lighting

We made a conscious choice to divert from our woodblock inspiration for the skyboxes, opting for realistic sky domes. The contrast of using stylized assets and materials in contained environments, against realistic and detailed skyboxes contributes to giving our levels al almost "PS2-like" look. We also hand-placed lights to match famous real world photography, to further enhance the sense contrast the defines that generation of games. Our goal was to elicit that specific sense of nostalgia many of us have for that era of 3D gaming, while keeping performance optimized for standalone devices.

4. Ethereal Particles Effects

When you interact with the world, we want it to feel dream-like. Our particle effects—the sparkles and glitters that appear as you progress—are directly inspired by the ethereal aesthetic of games like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X.

https://preview.redd.it/o8oejko2r31h1.jpg?width=490&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe0bf940517c16622ce333622cb3196a1b01076c

https://i.redd.it/qu0kfko2r31h1.gif

5. Technical Limitations and Targets

To ensure a smooth experience on standalone VR, we target a maximum of 350,000 triangles per scene. This low-poly geometry actually works with our minimalistic textures to create a clean, non-obstructive view that lets the puzzles be the star of the show.

https://preview.redd.it/io9pd1j5r31h1.png?width=1496&format=png&auto=webp&s=86339dc356d8be81a15017ba6d314dc1ccf42a39

We’d love to hear your thoughts from others. When you're playing a VR (or even non-VR) game, do you prefer stylized worlds like these, or are you looking for the most "realistic" style possible? Are there any games that remind you of this art style?

https://preview.redd.it/1zxwpjsfi11h1.png?width=1496&format=png&auto=webp&s=c14ff3c15395863b75a9e9293ca2364e202c879d

Hello!

This is my first time doing a developer blog post for our first game, releasing later this year. I wanted to share our approach to the art style of our game. If you like this type of posts, we’ll make sure to post more over the next few weeks with other key elements of our game like the music, puzzle designs, and more :)

When we started the developing Puzzles of the World, we had a clear vision of the feeling we wanted our environments to communicate: Let's create places that feel dreamlike but familiar (nostalgic, even if you've never been there before); making use of VR to immerse players into a state of flow or meditation.

The first thing that came to mind were the lo-fi or ambience music videos that many people play in the background when working, studying, or enjoying a hobby. These videos often showcase gorgeous locations from around the world or scenes from games, movies, and anime. One of my favorite ways to unwind was to build a puzzle, while listening to soothing music accompanied by a beautiful background of rainy a Kyoto alleyway. Our first thought was to recreate these backgrounds, with a high degree of realism to make the player feel like they were really at the location. But somehow, that didn't feel quite right. Is it the place itself that makes you feel this sense of nostalgia? Or is it your expectations and memories of the place that do that? That's when we faced our initial crossroad: do we try for realistic graphics , or do we create something that feels more stylized?

In VR, specially on standalone devices like Quest, realistic graphics at a high frame rate require technical sacrifices that make worlds feel a bit lifeless; so instead, we decided to romanticize reality.

Building upon our personal gaming experiences and memories from games Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Pokémon, Hollow Knight, etc., we began defining the art-style philosophy for the game. Here are a few inspirations we took:

1. Starting Point: Hiroshi Yoshida Woodblock Paintings

Funny enough, our primary inspiration wasn’t a from specific game, but the 20th-century Japanese artist Hiroshi Yoshida, a master at blending traditional Japanese woodblock techniques with Western realism. We’ve attempted to capture his bold outlines and atmospheric color palettes into our environments to create locations that feel "painted" rather than just rendered.

https://preview.redd.it/53h8p1wo611h1.png?width=1261&format=png&auto=webp&s=3add234a2f1ebfbe9104e955a5d7e703d2ca2058

2. Minimalistic Textures Inspired by Sifu

To complement Yoshida’s almost cel-shaded aesthetic, we used painted strokes for our materials and texture work. We took heavy inspiration from Sifu, specifically how they handle surfaces like wooden floors and stone walls with minimalistic patterns. It gives the world a bit more depth that looks and feels great in a headset.

https://preview.redd.it/bxjiayqr611h1.png?width=1433&format=png&auto=webp&s=8de3a9226921cce2770ab931e2e8149fcada39b9

3. “Nostalgic” PS2-Era Lighting

We made a conscious choice to divert from our woodblock inspiration for the skyboxes, opting for realistic sky domes. The contrast of using stylized assets and materials in contained environments, against realistic and detailed skyboxes contributes to giving our levels al almost "PS2-like" look. We also hand-placed lights to match famous real world photography, to further enhance the sense contrast the defines that generation of games. Our goal was to elicit that specific sense of nostalgia many of us have for that era of 3D gaming, while keeping performance optimized for standalone devices.

4. Ethereal Particles Effects

When you interact with the world, we want it to feel dream-like. Our particle effects—the sparkles and glitters that appear as you progress—are directly inspired by the ethereal aesthetic of games like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X.

https://preview.redd.it/wghfwm4t611h1.jpg?width=490&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9242708da04fc6cdb287f80c8c30dbafbebe159b

https://i.redd.it/9diiql4t611h1.gif

5. Technical Limitations and Targets

To ensure a smooth experience on standalone VR, we target a maximum of 350,000 triangles per scene. This low-poly geometry actually works with our minimalistic textures to create a clean, non-obstructive view that lets the puzzles be the star of the show.

We’d love to hear your thoughts from others. When you're playing a VR (or even non-VR) game, do you prefer stylized worlds like these, or are you looking for the most "realistic" style possible? Are there any games that remind you of this art style?