[Project] Investment Game - Visual Art Feedback Wanted
Hi Everyone
We're working on a client game at the moment which is meant to teach skills about saving and investing to South Africans. The target audience is people who have recently graduated, are in their first jobs and are in their 20s, basically. We've been working with a company called Flow to do user testing which has been super interesting - we've had a lot of feedback and made changes accordingly. Of course, sometimes it's difficult to understand exactly why the testers say what they do etc. We're looking for a little more feedback now from the community before we go to our second last user testing session because we'll only have a week after that session to make any changes.
We're not looking for feedback on the game design itself - generally this has been something the testers have found interesting/enjoyable/stimulating enough that they want to try and "win". There's also a few things that we may have done differently but were based on the initial brief for the project.
What we have had feedback on is that the game "looks like it's for children" even though the content is clearly for our audience; and that they found the art not bright enough, too dull etc. All the testers (barring one white dude) have been people who play mobile games and have at least at some point played candy crush on their phone. What we're trying to figure out now is whether changing the art style has made the game feel more appropriate for the age group.
So, here are a few screens of our Street Vendor game's initial art;
And here is our most recent iteration:
We're working on a client game at the moment which is meant to teach skills about saving and investing to South Africans. The target audience is people who have recently graduated, are in their first jobs and are in their 20s, basically. We've been working with a company called Flow to do user testing which has been super interesting - we've had a lot of feedback and made changes accordingly. Of course, sometimes it's difficult to understand exactly why the testers say what they do etc. We're looking for a little more feedback now from the community before we go to our second last user testing session because we'll only have a week after that session to make any changes.
We're not looking for feedback on the game design itself - generally this has been something the testers have found interesting/enjoyable/stimulating enough that they want to try and "win". There's also a few things that we may have done differently but were based on the initial brief for the project.
What we have had feedback on is that the game "looks like it's for children" even though the content is clearly for our audience; and that they found the art not bright enough, too dull etc. All the testers (barring one white dude) have been people who play mobile games and have at least at some point played candy crush on their phone. What we're trying to figure out now is whether changing the art style has made the game feel more appropriate for the age group.
So, here are a few screens of our Street Vendor game's initial art;
And here is our most recent iteration:
Comments
I don't think adults want to be cast as a child, especially when there's character customisation - it doesn't appeal. But that's bigger than graphic design.
There's every chance of hand-drawn style looking more adult - but that again has to do with theme.
I think simply changing the visual style won't make the game seem less like it's for kids :/
Like if you made the shopkeeper a monster, or a dog/cat, or something else. Maybe if the gameplay were a little more irreverent and ridiculous. Have you seen Cart Life? That's adult with this theme.
Sorry if what I'm saying doesn't help because the game has been locked down already, but that's how I'd deal with it if I didn't want the game to seem like it were "for kids".
I'm not sure if what I'm talking about can fit into your client's needs. I know how corporates get.
Also, there's very little foreground/background indication in the current art. It feels like the saturation is all the same across the entire image. Buttons also don't really stand out, I was wondering why she was selling shopping cart pictures until I realised those must be some sort of re-stock button... Some subtle shading or crosshatching to add gradients to the scene might help direct the player's eyes around the interface more. And the slight blurring of the table and stall elements needs to go.
Edit: As a note, the entire store upgrades so you're eventually a shop owner essentially kinda - but we've decided to push up the starting point to be more "expensive" rather than as "cheap" as it looks now. Hopefully this will help too.
I tried to make the colour pallet more "adult". But honestly I there's a bigger issue of composition. The building and umbrellas pull to much weight visually and the value structure is confusing as to where the most important information is.
Some elements have perspective and others not which makes for an uncomfortable read. The composition is very flat and symmetrical. Symmetry isn't a "bad" thing, but I don't think it's the right for this. Your clickables take up very little screen real-estate which makes them harder to click. If it's important make them bigger, from what I can tell they the main interaction. I don't know how the game plays or anything but if they items are placed then maybe it's okay for them to be flat and graphical verses the environment that could have depth, hopefully separating them. I know my quick paintover has a totally different style but I think it still illustrates an alternative to your composition, colour and element weighting.