The pursuit of graphical fidelity, render quality, and advanced graphics engine features is often very appealing and difficult to resist, but it can also be a siren’s call. It is often a complete waste of valuable time and resources past a certain point. What the best level of graphical fidelity is depends on each specific game of course, but many game developers fall into the trap of thinking they need far more graphical fidelity than they actually do.
Obsession with raw technical graphical fidelity also has a tendency to distract many game artists from what actually matters the most: the quality and stylistic personality of the art itself. A game with a great art style but a relatively weak graphics engine will almost always be better than a game with a great graphics engine but a terrible art style. Art style and thematic personality are almost always more important than raw graphics tech is.
Continue reading Game Dev Tip #2: Good art means so much more than just graphical fidelity