Why Your 2D Game Art looks Flat

This was quite a tricky video to make. In part because the distortions and parallax in games are fairly understated (which they should be), but this makes it difficult to showcase in a video like this. Hopefully it all made sense. I also made a few simplifications and skipped details here and there, but I largely did this in order to explain one concept at a time (a lot of the games in question use all of these tricks almost all of the time) As usual I don't use examples in order to bash on specific games, I really like Laika and Gris and their art styles, and having a game that looks flat isn't necessarily a problem, A game like Tails of iron almost makes that paper-like feel a feature of the game :) Ohh, and we could argue that a developer might be blurring foreground assets in order to mimic depth of field of a camera, but why a game does something doesn't really matter, the fact is that blurry silhouettes often look significantly less flat compared to sharp assets with a lot of contrast.

Half visual art, half psychology, and a sprinkle of design thrown in there. Nice.

just want to say thanks very much for the concise and helpful video, your content is expertly filling a sorely-needed niche for game devs (especially non-artists). I look forward to your future content and game

Besides parallax -Use normal maps to create 3D looking lighting in 2D. -Utilizing blurring to something far away or really close to the camera, is also useful.

Your meticulous analysis is amazing, and I've learned so much from your videos! In my book, you are one of the top gamedev YouTubers out there and I am incredibly grateful you take the time to make these videos!!

One of the challenges of getting depth is getting consistent and believeable lighting when drawing 3d shaped sprites. Especially when flipping and rotating assets

These videos are really great for absolute non-artists like me. Invaluable knowledge in a short and concise manner. Thank you!

Great video from a great channel. Thanks for all the wonderful art analysis.

Really awesome video. This is a gold-mine of practical techniques, and I love when you break down the techniques used by other games and then implement them in your own game to show the effects of said technique. Just seeing side-by-sides of some of these things is so eye-opening. When I make scenes in games, I'll often feel like something is off but I can't tell what it is. Seeing everything laid out like this makes me realize how much I fail to notice when just playing these games.

Your channel is bringing new knowledge to us or atleast me and I really like it. You explain things clearly and focus on 2D art which is great. I really enjoy your videos, thank you <3

Man, your videos are super useful. Petfect timing too

This is explained really well! Thanks for being clear and concise.

So many cool effects that I have not been thinking about!

Great analysis in the little details that makes a game great!

Great video! I’ve come to the same conclusions over the last years of studying 2d games and working in my indie metroidvania project! The path we took to get uniqueness is inspired by anime gouache bg art style and composition in Unity taking some ideas from games like rayman and hollow knight, adding my take in how to solve it according blur and painting less detailed art for bg and fg

Great video! Thanks nerdy Ryan Gosling!

Most consistent rant devlogger🙏🙏🙏

thanks, always valuable information

My fav. Awesome. Thanks!

love how this video was just content. didn't start with a three minute "hey guys, video games have come a long way from tetris--"