Sudol 1

Tabatha Sudol
Ms. Taylor
First-Year Writing 1106
02/20/2020
Research Question: “How does art style truly affect the popularity of the game in the eyes
of the player?”
Annotated Bibliography

Cho, Hyerim. “Art in an Algorithm: A Taxonomy for Describing Video Game Visual Styles”
Cho, Hyerim, et al. “Art in an Algorithm: A Taxonomy for Describing Video Game Visual
Styles.” Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 69, no. 5,
May 2018, pp. 633–646. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/asi.23988.

The visual appearances are chosen, and the artistic features are directed for video games.
Style is the aesthetics of all parts in the game. There are many types of styles such as abstract,
photorealism, handicraft, and illustrative. All the styles are described and accompanied with
visual examples. Abstract tends to be symmetrical and geometric. Photorealism is a photographic
quality that is like the real world. Stylized is a style the refers to characteristic creations of
characters and objects. Handicraft is when work is made solely by hand or by simple tools.
Illustrative style expresses hand-drawn designs. Engraving represents prints made by etchings,
carvings, and woodcuts. Watercolor shows a style where everything seems to be painted with
watercolor. Minimalism focuses on simple forms. Silhouette is when characters and
environments are represented as solid shape or color. Many rendering methods are mentioned
with examples like the styles above. Some examples of the rendering methods include cel-
shaded, cutout, full motion video, low-poly, pixel art, rasterized, ray traced, rotoscoped, and
wireframe. The dimension facet is used to describe the dimension of all parts in the game. This
does not include perspective. The three examples of this facet are 2D, 3D, and multiple which is
a combination of 2D and 3D.
 Keywords/tags: Artistic Dimension Facet, Artistic Style Facet, Artistic Technique Facet,
Photorealism, Illustrative, Abstract, Style
 Citations:
Arsenault, D., C^ ote, P. M., & Larochelle, A. (2015). The Game FAVR: A Framework for the
Analysis of Visual Representation in Video Games. The Journal of the Canadian Game
Studies Association, 9(14).
Clarke, A. & Mitchell, G. 2007. Video Games and Art. Intellect Books, Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press.
Entertainment Software Association (ESA). (2015). Essential facts about the computer and video
game industry. Retrieved from http://www. theesa.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/04/ESA-Essential-Facts-2015.pdf
 Quotations:
“Entertainment Software Association (ESA), 155 million Americans play video games, 4 of 5
US households own a device used to play video games, and 42% of Americans play video games
for more than three hours each week (ESA, 2015)” (42)
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“Style describes the overall aesthetic organization of the entities in the game, and provides a
distinctive category shared by similarly designed games.” (1)
 Questions:
1. What style would retro video games fall under and what techniques are involved in the
creation of them in comparison to other styles?
2. Does animated style fall under the umbrella of illustration or another style?
Jina Ha Lee, Understanding Appeals of Video Games for Readers’ Advisory and
Recommendation
Jin Ha Lee, et al. “Understanding Appeals of Video Games for Readers’ Advisory and
Recommendation.” Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 2, Winter 2017,
pp. 127–139. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5860/rusq.57.2.6529.

Video games are popular all over the world. This article describes why people find video
games appealing. A group of people were asked why certain genres appealed to them. There
were sixteen appeals that people stated on why a specific game was their favorite. The sixteen
appeals are narrative, challenge, sensation, fellowship, mood and nostalgia, fantasy,
exploration/depth, expression and creativity/innovation, accomplishment/learning/mastery, and
submission. Examples of specific video games are given for each of the appeals. It shows that
social aspects were important for games that are shooter, sports, driving, and racing related. The
most important appeal for fighting games is mastery and challenge is a strong appeal for strategy
and action games. Puzzle and simulation games have submission as their largest appear. In this
study, gamers were attracted to games mostly because of content and user experience. These
appeals can be used when advertising new games in the industry.
 Keywords/tags: Appeals, Creativity/Innovation, User Experience, Customization, Media,
Crowdsourcing
 Citations:
“Preferred Media Activities of U.S. Consumers in 2012, by Generation,” Statista, 2017,
http://www.statista.com/statis tics/281828/favorite-media-activities-in-the-us-by-age/.
Selnow, “Playing Videogames,” 148–56; Nick Yee, “The Demographics, Motivations, and
Derived Experiences of Users of Massively Multi-User Online Graphical Environments,”
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 15, no. 3 (2006): 309–29.
Dongseong Choi and Jonwoo Kim, “Why People Continue to Play Online Games: In Search of
Critical Design Factors to Increase Customer Loyalty to Online Contents,”
Cyberpsychology & Behavior: The Impact of the Internet, Multimedia and Virtual
Reality on Behavior and Society 7, no. 1 (2004): 11–24.
 Quotations:
“One easy way for players to express themselves is through customization options: the ability to
change or modify aspects of a game such as characters. Customization is not limited to visual
similarities” (7)
“Such opportunities appeal so strongly that many enjoy the creative aspects more than actually
playing the game: “I can do without the warring aspects, I just like to create” (R140).” (7)
 Questions:
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1. How would this information affect how businesses market video games in the future?
2. Could the research be opened beyond those sixteen appeals to see more reasons why
people chose a particular game as their favorite?
Solarski Chris, The Aesthetics of Game Art and Game Design
“Gamasutra - The Aesthetics of Game Art and Game Design.” Gamasutra.Com, 2012,
www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/185676/the_aesthetics_of_game_art_and_.php?print=
1. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.

Different shapes convey different meanings in art. Circles represent innocence, youth,
energy, and femininity. Squares convey maturity, stability, balance, and stubbornness. Triangles
convey aggression, masculinity, force. The different shapes are used in different media to invoke
those feelings. Emotional messages through art can be conveyed by whether the piece is delicate
or angular. An emotional change within the narrative would also be showed in a visible way.
Showing emotion allows for the characters to become more realistic and relatable. Physical
posture is one of the most important ways to convey emotion to the audience. Movements in
characters also convey emotion. Environment shapes affect the overall feel of the game. There
are many other things that affect the emotion of a game such as pathways. Player gestures allows
the player to get involved in the creativity of the game. The dynamic composition and primary
shapes of a game should be used creatively to make various unique games.

 Keywords/tags: Dynamic composition, Emotion, Movements, Environmental shapes,

Physical posture, Player gestures, Pathways, Primary Shapes
 Citations:
There were no citations in this article; however, the author referenced a book called “Drawing
Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting Edge Art Techniques for Winning Video Game
Design”
Solarski, Chris, and Tristan Donovan. Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting-
Edge Art Techniques for Winning Video Game Design. Watson-Gruptil, 2012.
 Quotations:
“The psychological basis of these shapes means that they are a timeless feature of art, allowing
us to find relationships between seemingly disparate artworks, and better understand the
aesthetics of video games.” (1)
“To create realistic and emotionally richer narratives we must begin treating video game
characters as real people with a breadth of emotions.” (3)
 Questions:
1. Is the reason why most people like video games have to do with emotion and narrative?
2. Are people aware that the art style has a large part of how they feel about a particular
game?
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