[MUD-Dev] The importance of graphics

[Kwon Ekstrom]

From: "Damion Schubert" <damion at ninjaneering.com>

> One of the things I've noticed is that a strong, directed art
> style can make lower quality art look better, simply because the
> total cohesive picture is better.

Having spent alot of time studying up on web development, the major
concern is UI.  One of the columns on Webreference deals
specifically with graphics and emphasizes this point.  Talking
mostly what makes a good UI, and how to draw the users eyes to where
you want them to go.  How to portray information without being
obtrusive, and allowing details to fade into the background when not
in use.  A game has several advantages over a web page, but those
factors are necessary whenever you're attempting to portray
information to an audience.  Layout, consistency, and a little bit
of psychology are very necessary skills.

The link to that column is www.webreference.com/graphics/ but the
majority of it talks about how to generate graphics in photoshop,
corel draw, psp, etc... mixed in with alot of analysis of various
web pages, and how the graphics work to improve the UI (or how
they're overdone and detract from the experience)

Personally I prefer minimalistic graphics with a strong game engine.
If the graphics get the information across that I need, it's good
enough for me, and although I appreciate and recognise good
graphics, I rarely even consider them when I form an opinion of a
game... My biggest graphics concern as a user is slowdown.

I like Blizzard games, and from what I've noticed they tend to use a
sprite system which is extremely fast with acceptable graphics level
(one of my favorite games is Starcraft, which runs just as well on
my dad's pentium 133 as it does on my athlon 1.4ghz)

-- Kwon J. Ekstrom

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