Art Styles in Video Games

Art Styles in Video Games

Computer Science

Irene Peleteiro Paniagua

2025

Alex Dixon

Aesthetics in video games, defined as “the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player” in the Mechanics Dynamics and Aesthetics (MDA) framework, can be key to a video game’s success. According to the MDA framework, aesthetics and user engagement are completely dependent on the mechanics of the game and cannot otherwise be influenced. However, if games are seen as an aesthetic artefact, a video game’s form and style should be entertaining on their own, and therefore its art style should influence aesthetics and user engagement. A small metroidvania-style game, Sandcat, was developed in three art styles – digital, pixel and pencil – to test this, and 15 participants played the game in all styles and completed a survey on their experiences. The results showed that while game mechanics had the most influence over aesthetics, art styles still had a significant effect on aesthetics and contributed to a game feeling more ‘usable’ for user engagement. Despite limitations with stretching and blurry assets with the pencil and pixel styles, pencil was the most preferred style (with descriptions of “whimsical” and even more “alive” than other art styles), closely followed by pixel (often described as “nostalgic”), and only one participant preferred digital. Beyond preferences, 80% of participants claimed they would spend more on a game which had their chosen art style, which may imply further commercial implications for developers. Overall, although not as strong as game mechanics, art styles still have a noteworthy influence on video game aesthetics.

art style, video game, aesthetic, user engagement