This Is How You Design Fantasy Worlds

[Moon Rabbit]

One thing that bothers me about art direction in fantasy games, is a profound lack of really fantastic environments.

I really, really enjoy Clair Obscur's aesthetic and art direction and here's a little bit of why that is.

If you have the opportunity to create an entire world, free of grounded constraints, why end up with a place that just looks like Earth? I get that there's comfort in familiarity but from a creative standpoint it has to be boring and unfulfilling. I can't imagine begin satisfied with copying our real planet. And the opportunity is rare enough, that the forgoing of simple comfort should be more appealing than it seems to be.

You are in position where you can design an entire world however you want, and share it with everyone. But the end result of 90% of games seems to be: "Here's a desert, here's a swamp, and here's a forest." Like some of those places we don't even care for all that much in real life. Not a lot of headlining swamp-based vacation plans.

And yes, those biomes can be interesting depending on how you fill them with individual set pieces but let's face it, many times they don't bother.

Lord of the Rings really set the bar for fantasy worlds being somewhat grounded in Earthen imagery. But it took place on Earth for a reason. Tolkien wanted to create a historical myth to rival Arthurian legend, which he did not care for.
So a lot of fantasy follows that template, even though it was more mundane or based on reality due largely to the intention of how the work was intended to insert itself into the zeitgeist. That is to say a modern legend for England that wasn't based on King Arthur.

Clair Obscur is a fantastic looking game. That is to say fantastic as in "of fantasy". It doesn't even have the advantage of taking place on another planet. It *is* Earth. But a very surreal rendering of it. It really is alien, while also having some familiar features (marine flora, etc.). Even though it's Earth, it's a crazy distorted, surreal version of it and I really appreciate it.

[Jester]

The game also has reasoning for the environment looking the way it is like...it's a painting.
Love it.

[Spawn of Apathy]

The reason the world design is like it is is at the core of the game's story. The world doesn't look fantastical just because they could. Not all fantasy settings need to be in a place so wondrously torn apart. Some benefit from mostly looking like Earth so that when they have locations that are far more surreal they stand out even more and feel even more special.

Other fantasy properties having a mostly grounded looking setting also allows games like clair Obscur to stand out even more. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Moon Rabbit]

Originally posted by Spawn of Apathy:

The reason the world design is like it is is at the core of the game's story. The world doesn't look fantastical just because they could. Not all fantasy settings need to be in a place so wondrously torn apart. Some benefit from mostly looking like Earth so that when they have locations that are far more surreal they stand out even more and feel even more special.

Other fantasy properties having a mostly grounded looking setting also allows games like clair Obscur to stand out even more. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

You're arguing a point neither of us can prove. A chicken and egg scenario. What came first, the narrative that fuels the aesthetic or the idea of the aesthetic inspiring the narrative to allow the aesthetic.

Either way, the larger point is that they made the decision to present a world that is more fantastic than most. Whether or not the plot requires it. They still made the decision to present that plot that lends itself to the art direction when it doesn't necessarily require a world this distorted. They made the choice to go large with it. It could have gotten away with more mundane environments.

Sure it can be a good thing, but more often than not I can't think of any reason why it would. It's a wasted opportunity in my opinion to make a completely original world and just end up with Earth in the end.

[Spawn of Apathy]

It's doesn't have to be either or. The narrative and the aesthetic could have come about simultaneously.

My other point too was that the more fantastical can stand out more in a mundane world. Take Hogwarts for example: The fantastical setting of the school and all the things the teachers and kids see and do stand out even more because it IS on earth with our same mundane cities. Some things even look normal, but then aren't. That is one reason you might not want to just have a 100% fantastical, non-earth setting. There's no one way to make a fantasy world, which includes how surreal it should be and alien to our own.

[Tenshu]

I'm in the anger part of Visages and am quite amused at this fantastical "You came to the wrong neighborhood, mf" vibe, lmao

[Havok]

This is more of a "This is how you make and release a game" to me. $50. Banger OST. Supportable underdog dev story. Fantastic writing. Beautiful areas and designs. Performance is great(ish). No super premium uber deluxe edition for $100. No battlepass. No microtransaction slop. No forced narrative. No treating the consumer like they are stupid.

E33 is a beacon of hope in the dark and sloppy waters that is the video game industry currently.

[Nazkai]

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