Do you know instantly if a game is not for you as soon as you see the screenshots? Not talking gameplay here...just the look of it.

What draws you in or instantly turns you off.

Some things to consider are:

Comic book style

Anime

Retro - pixelated style

Realistic

Monochrome

Minimalist

Photorealistic

Hand drawn

Cartoon

Etc.......


As always, thank you to those participating in the Discussions. It's nice to know your thoughts!

Ana

The graphics in a game are just not the most vital component for me, BrownEyedTigre, but thank you anyway 😑

Realistic is my favorite but I enjoy a lot of the different styles.

I'm open to most graphics (even though I do put down the pixelated ones). I have seen some games that don't look appealing to me though. I don't know what the description would be but to me they remind me of playing with paper cut out dolls or something. Maybe I'll post a game name or two when I get to Steam later. I've seen some recently.

I too am open to most graphics including the pixelated ones, although I don't care for anime, which may be my loss. Games that model themselves after the graphics of 1990s adventure games always catch my eye - games like Thimbleweed Park, for instance.

Those are officially known as Papercraft/Paper-Art Games.

Well, I may not be describing it right or I'm not sure what a Papercraft/Paper-Art Game looks like. I think I've enjoyed games of some paper type. I didn't find what I was looking for on Steam. I'll look again. Picture a stage with cut out people pasted on top of it.

I do like realism, but I also very much enjoy handcrafted games, be they paper, plasticine or something similar.
I am also periodically impressed by how detailed a bunch of pixels can be.

Okay, so two games I found that are what I'm talking about (though I'm sure that I've seen others) are Duck Detective and Wax Heads. Maybe it is just the cartoon look of them I don't like but they remind me of paper dolls.

There are actual paper games that look good and I have such as Dark Train, Papetura, and Paper Trail.

My favored art styles are realistic, photo realistic, FMV and hand drawn.
Claymation art styles like Harold Halibut and Truberbrook are great; now that they can scan the clay models and not have to manipulate the clay models frame by frame, I'm hoping they will become more common.
I'm impressed by the paper art style as used in Lumino City.

At the other end of the spectrum are:
-overly pixelated images (though sometimes the closeups above the scene can redeem the game for me)
-anime style
-overly cartoonish
-jerky animation, like in cheap cartoons.

These are usually called Sticker Art style.

Ana

Thank you Ana! That sounds apt! I'd say that's my least favorite style. All other styles kind of depend on the game and many of them can catch my eye.

Most styles appeal to me, as long as it looks good. But I agree with errrgo that overly pixelated images, anime style (not my thing at all), and jerky animation is not inviting. Pixelation is the only hard limit for me though.