Chapter 1
Basic Game Art Concepts
Some people don’t want to take games seriously. This isn’t a lament against parents lashing out over gore or people who think that games are a waste of time. It is instead a statement about a popular assumption that making video games doesn’t involve a lot of work. This assumption is a problem in many game schools, whether they focus on the art, programming, or overall design of games.
In many ways, the art produced for a video game is not “art” in the traditional sense of “fine art”—content created solely for enjoyment by the senses or for aesthetic value. The art created for video games is, rather, part of the process of design or “applied art.” But there are two important reasons why video game art is different ...
