"appealing visually"
Has different types. Appeal is the catchword.
In design and art, appeal is the sole purpose to achieve. However, appeal can't be just one style, and appeal isn't just good and bad art. Appeal is something catch in the eye, where people keep looking for hours or even years. Appeal is something that distinguishes one product from another.
The game is big and complex. The game you wrote, the main focus isn't about art or even being visually appealing. But to make the game enjoyable with gameplay and immersion. The downside is that the character isn't memorable or recognizable at first glance. Far Cry 2 and Max Payne 3 were built for gameplay and realism. It made people remember the gameplay, not the art. So it's generic, Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, etc. Those games aren't focusing on appealing visually, but Fidelity graphic, so a lot of game studios tried to avoid it. Why?
This will be a little bit long, and I am a little bit nerdy about design, but this is the breakdown from me...
For example, Limbo, Inside, and Little Nightmare.
Those games shared the same gameplay and the same type. The thing that people love and remember isn't the gameplay, but the art style and the metaphor of it. Those games are built not focusing on the gameplay but on the narrative with support of the art.
However, the biggest achievement is instantly recognizable.
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People will immediately recognize the game, oh, it's a Little Nightmare, what is the most obvious thing? The yellow raincoat. That's the appeal of the game, the yellow raincoat in the Bleach world. Same as Inside, the red shirt in the black and white world.
What about this
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What game is it? It's not instantly recognizable as it used realism style. As I played Skyrim with a lot of mods, that makes me think, it's Skyrim. But it's Red Dead Redemption 2.
Graphical Fidelity like GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Call of Duty, Max Payne 3, etc., are mainly focused on narrative and gameplay, and immersion. It's not built to look. And these games will look poor in 10 years as graphic keeps getting better and better.
However, stylized art will stay relevant.
For example, Overwatch.
The game was released in 2016, but the style is still relevant; people still recognize the character, the map, etc, even some people love Overwatch without even playing it (Rule 34). Imagine, some people recognize the characters without knowing the game; that's a big achievement.
Overwatch is a big example of stylized, and a lot of games are trying to copy it. They want the game to be recognized at a glance.
The game has the best character design and silhouette in game history.
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Mario will keep being recognized in a hundred years.
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A big example is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The game was released in 2002, and now become the main reference for game developers about art style, not just game developers, but also artists too. The game has been becoming a case study about design for years, especially about colors.
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Bad example.
High Guard is failing because it can't achieve their own appeal, and the gameplay is generic.
Same as Concord 2, their designs aren't appealing, and the gameplay is generic.
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I used Gemini to edit their characters to silhouette because I don't want to waste my time editing those dogshit character designs into silhouette.
So with Concord characters Silhouette, you can compare it with the Overwatch characters' silhouette. Overwatch plays with shape design and great negative space; we know the personality of the character just with the silhouette. Yet in Concord, I don't know anything about that character with that silhouette, all the characters are used rectangle and triangles a lot, who is the bad guy? who is the good guy? Which one has a carefree personality? Which one has a confident personality? Concord silhouette can't answer those questions. If the silhouette can't give a first glance to people who are the characters, it means the design has failed.
Those two games want to be in the middle between stylized and High Fidelity. However, failed.
Still, there are some games who in the middle and succeeded, Elder Ring, Expedition 33, etc. Yet those games aren't live service games. I think Warframe is the best example for live service game and its success from 2013 until now.
So the safe way for the game industry isn't realism, but stylized, if the gameplay remains the same.
If the main focus is Graphical Fidelity, the game must have a new gameplay/mechanic or a new immersive experience.
Just Cause the grappling hook.
Far Cry the open world FPS.
GTA the life immersive experience.
The logic is that the game is about the real world, so making the players feel part of the game isn't about the feeling of looking like colors or art, but the feeling of immersion. Players play Death Stranding, Far Cry, Battlefield, etc., because they want to enjoy the immersive experience. They look at the plant the same as they look at the plant in the real world, look at the sky the same as from the real world, but they want to enjoy the immersion, how to become a soldier, how to shoot people, how to drive, how to become a courier baby, etc. That's High Fidelity Game.
Back in 1997, Goldeneye was a high-fidelity game at that time, a spy simulator, and the player felt like James Bond just playing that game. I played Death Stranding and felt like a package courier; I needed to calculate the weight. I played Skyrim and spent hours modding without playing the game. However, I could be anything with those mods, from roleplaying as miners to RP something from other mods.
If they don't have a new gameplay or a new immersive experience, the game must have an appeal that is recognized at a glance, to distinguish it.
A lot of indie developer want their game to be recognizable and memorable, so they play with color, character silhouette, etc even if the gameplay is simple. Repo, Schedule 1, etc. These types of games are basically hacking people's minds with just simple gameplay, but they have the visual hooks. Color contrasts are a unique and great silhouette character.
AAA is focusing on gameplay and immersion, so they must play with breakthroughs, maybe mechanics, gameplay, graphics, etc.
GTA VI has some trademarks about its mechanics, even though the game isn't out yet. People are waiting for GTA VI, not about their art, but their graphics, mechanics, gameplay, and immersion.
So... Game will chase brown and gray because those colors are focusing in realism and High Fidelity.
In conclusion, the Graphical Fidelity game will not focus on art, so a lot of people won't see the art, but the gameplay and immersion.
On the other hand, a stylized game will focus on art and appeal.
Celeste, Ori, Hollow Knight, Rayman, Inside, Limbo, Castle Crashers, Hades, etc. Players play those games and don't have any freedom of gameplay like GTA, The Witcher, Far Cry, etc. However, players love to play that game even though it's linear and generic gameplay, because of its appeal. It's psychological in design.
Stardew Valley: How do I make a game that doesn't look like Harvest Moon, with 90% same mechanics?
Omori : How do I make a game that doesn't look like Yume Nikki or Undertale, with the same inspired RPG about depression?
Appeal answers those questions.
Last thing is, the Graphical Fidelity game is running against time because the technology is rapidly evolving and getting better. The game needs to be developed in 5-7 years, yet the graphics technology jumps in like every 2-3 years. So the game studio needs to push the game fast before its graphics become obsolete.
This is why a lot of AAA games feels souless, messy, and half-baked.
A big example, Cyberpunk 2077, the release of the game is because they want to make the game for PlayStation 4. As 2020 was a transition generation. Basically, the game was trapped between generations. They needed the massive install base of the PS4/Xbox One to make a profit, but their "Fidelity Ambition" was built for next-gen PCs and the newly released next-gen consoles at that time PS5.
I think that's it, my breakdown for games.
Realism (GTA, Max Payne, Far Cry, RDR, COD, Battlefield, etc) is technical, but Style (Overwatch, Mario, Little Nightmare, Sonic, Ori, Hades, etc) is artistic.
