This post, I want to look into the game series Dishonored and it’s artists Cedric Peyravernay and Viktor Antonov.
The artists of Dishonored did a fantastic job merging the art style Baroque with steampunk. The exaggerated features gives a storybook style to the entire game, and the use of oil painting techniques give a dreamlike world for the player. The art style gives the player the feeling that everything in this world is in a state of decay, yet it is still alive. This decomposing world is viewed and shaped by the character’s choices.
The story is of a man who is wrongfully accused of a death and exiled by their own people. The tones throughout the game are muted and dule. The only sense of color you get in the game is when something out of worldly is present. In this example, we see it in the mark of the Outsider that is on the protangonist’s hand. This technique is used in a lot of genres for artists, designers, and developers. The black, white, and one color rule. You get access to all of the grays, and you give one color to use for emphasis.
In this example, you can see that the only color is that belongs to danger. This technique allows for users to pay attention to what is important in the scene. When we apply this to our own canvas, we apply it to things like buttons, text, photos, etc.
The art director Viktor Antonov used architecture as a storytelling device. The spires, muddy waters, and bleak skies tell the player that they are in a world that is sick and suffering. All of the architecture’s style is borrowed from the Victorian era and the industrial revolution. This creates a world that is dying, while at the same time emerging as something new. The choices the player makes throughout the game will cause the architecture to appear even worse. When we apply this to our canvas, we must always take into account that the player, viewer, or user will absorb the world that we build for them. It is up to us to create their experience.
Here we have the Outsider, the character that bestows the powers onto the protagonist. The artist exaggerates the portrait features with sunken eyes and cheeks. The lighting of the portrait displays that this entity is out of place in the world, and shrouded in secrets.