Say you had three indie games which were otherwise identical in terms of gameplay but one was pixel art, one was hand drawn and one was 3D. Which would you be most inclined to buy? Also, suppose the price started going up for each. Would you feel like any of them would start to feel like a better or worse value at certain price points?

Let's assume that the art styles are competently done for each and for the sake of simplicity, generally appealing to you. Any other thoughts you might have about this would be interesting to hear too.

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[–] Justdaveisfine@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

These are all a little broad. Hand drawn like darkest dungeon, Hades, or like Cuphead? 3D as in realistic or low poly?

Art style should go hand in hand with game thematics. Celeste's precise platforming goes well with it's pixel art style, and if they made another version with very high fidelity 3D graphics it would likely hinder gameplay. Likewise, Hollow Knight would lose much of its charm if it went 8 bit pixel art.

All that being said, low poly art can look really good but can also feel really cheap. The same for low bit pixel art. Those aren't deal breakers for me, but if I was judging purely based on art direction, I would (probably) vote those out.

Edit: Almost forgot, I'd probably lean towards hand drawn for most desirable as it can look very, very good and is usually highly unique.