I’m currently developing a game that is somewhat like Euro Truck Simulator. The issue that I’m having is deciding what art style to use. Currently I started developing the game in a cartoonish style and making everything simple. But I was thinking, should I maybe make the game realistic? Make it look as real as I possibly can. I couldn’t decide myself so I’m here to ask you. I’m also going to list a few positives and negatives about the two art styles.
Cartoonish
Pros:
Less lag and higher frames.
Child friendly design.
Low end PC and laptop friendly.
Cons:
Unrealistic to trucking fans.
Less detail.
Realistic
Pros:
More detailed and complex.
Real locations.
Enjoyed by simmers.
Cons:
Won’t handle well on low end PCs and laptops.
Significantly longer time to develop. (just me making this game at the moment )
Too complex for children.
This is what the first version of what the cartoonish trucks look like, 6 variants, showing 3.
Seeing that ROBLOX is now dominated by younger audiences, I am leaning towards the side of cartoonish style development, but still I would absolutely love your thoughts about the game. Also it is mostly going to be CSG.
I personally think the cartoon looks cool, but it honestly depends on what game your creating. If you’re going to have larger servers and more scripts I’d recommend the cartoonish one (less lag).
Hope this helps!
Lolaphobia
I personally think you should choose a cartoony style, you might end up with a wider audience, and you could try and spend more time on coding the game (Since you’re the only one working on it at the moment).
If you were to make the game with less detail, you could also attempt making the world more expansive, with more locations to visit (assuming the game will be sort of open world), compared to a more detailed game. I don’t think there would be anything stopping you from adding real locations in the more cartoony style.
I mean, if you love making more detailed vehicles in this case trucks you can still make them but just not for the game you’re planning right now, but maybe for a interactive showcase game. Or a small version of the current game you’re making but with detailed trucks.
But for the big audience i would say cartoony style too. But yet again you have to do what you feel right to do, after all it’s your game. But it’s also important to listen at your fans.
If you plan on having players drive trucks as much as they wish, you will need large maps regardless of how many places you decide to divide things up into. For this reason I recommend a “cartoony”/low-poly style so that the game can run better/on more devices.
I think a cartoon style is better for something that is gameplay based. If you want to do something impressive from a development standpoint, pushing the limits of how “real” you can get is always a fun endevaour.
But what you have built is very nice and I’d support a game based around those vechicles 100%
It all comes down to developer preference and time management. If you can work on more realistic models then go for realistic but cartoonish is faster, more efficient, and I have noticed that many people in Roblox are enjoying the low-poly look.
My answer to this is to go towards the cartoon style. The styles becoming more relevant than before, and can be played on both low-end and high-end computers.
I play euro truck simulator. I think cartoonish is the way to go. Not only does it separate you a bit from that game (if fans of the game wanted realism surely they’d just play ETS2, not try to get that from Roblox) but it also opens it up to younger audiences and gives you a lot more scope when it comes to the scale of the game.
It’s also easier to achieve cartoon style because even the slightest discrepancy or shortcut will upset people if it’s supposed to be realistic - but if you develop your own style, nobody can really say that you did it wrong!
Here’s the thing… Cartoons aren’t only for kids - I’m 21 and I still enjoy cartoon-style games! Thing about audiences is you can guide it as much as you want, the audience chooses the game in the end.
I’d also advise being careful when you begin development on the map. This isn’t me talking about style or possibility of lag, this is talking about psychology of kids today because you seem to want to cater to the larger population of Roblox. Roblox has changed drastically over the years, going from lengthy, in-depth-preferred visits to shorter, more spontaneous, visits to just move on from the game you were previously playing. This is not me being mean or unfair, it’s me being honest and trying to help with understanding how children think. Most of the spontaneous, short-livedness come from growing up essentially attached to a screen where you can just swipe away what you were doing five seconds ago. But it also comes from the fact that their brains are less developed and capable of holding a high attention span. Both of those things combined lead to shorter playing times on games. So if they have a route that takes 30 - 45m, they’re gonna leave probably 15m into the route, especially if they aren’t doing too much. I remember playing 18WoS back in the day, and those would take about that long, and even when I was in 8th grade that stuff felt like a lifetime! The instant gratification is why most of the Bloxy’s in breakout games went to simulator games - because it’s easy to pick up and put down a few minutes later, making replayability skyrocket. You’re likely going to look at a niche, very dynamic audience if you don’t do get map and route scaling right. As @BanTech, if they wanted to play a realistic game, they’d go to ETS, not Roblox.
TL;DR: I would just be careful when it comes to the size of the map and length of time it takes to complete routes rather than worrying about the style of the trucks. For more detail behind the psychology, just read the whole thing.
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