FOUR Secrets To Gorgeous Game Art!

Summary

This video explores the unexpected success of 'Cult of the Lamb,' highlighting its visually stunning, dark, and beautiful art style that contributed to its acclaim as a top indie game. The creators, including Jimp and Blackthorn Prod, share insights on the game's development, emphasizing the importance of a cohesive visual identity, thematic contrast, and the intriguing blend of cute and dark elements. They also discuss their new program, Game Dev Hero, designed to master all aspects of game development. The video provides a deep dive into the art and marketing strategies that made 'Cult of the Lamb' stand out, offering valuable lessons for aspiring game developers.

Takeaways

• 😊 They struggled initially to find the right visual style and hook to resonate with players
• 👌 Finding the core idea of 'starting your own cult' brought their vision together
• 🎨 They consciously combined cute and dark visuals to create contrast
• 🌈 The art direction ties back to supporting the central idea of leading a cult
• 🎾 Creating visual rules and motifs early on helped maintain consistency
• 🎨 The color palette intentionally uses dark and light colors for contrast
• 🔥 Breaking their own art rules sometimes led to creative solutions
• 😎 Adding unexpected colors made some buildings stand out
• 💡 Experimenting to find what 'feels right' guided creative choices
• 💪 Having an artistic vision bible provided helpful reference

Q & A

What was the original game idea that the developers pitched at GDC?

The original idea was a game centered around a god on a floating whale. However, publishers were not very interested in this idea.

How did the developers come up with the idea of starting your own cult in the game?

After the floating whale idea was rejected, the developers went back to the drawing board. They realized they needed a clearer, more resonant concept that all aspects of the game could tie into. The idea of starting your own cult encompassed this.

Why did the developers intentionally add dark elements to the cute art style?

They wanted to expand beyond the perceived kid-friendly nature of their previous cute, cartoonish games. Adding darker elements helped them appeal to a more mature Steam audience.

How did the cult theme lend itself well to the contrasting art direction?

The positions of cute animal followers contrasted with an evil, satanic cult leader created an inherent juxtaposition that fit the themes of good vs evil and light vs dark.

What techniques did the developers use to maintain a consistent art style?

They created a visual bible early on that laid out core colors, fonts, symbols and visual motifs to adhere to throughout development and refer back to when bringing on other artists.

Why was sticking to a very limited color palette not viable?

While visually striking, limiting the palette too much felt creatively stifling and made it hard to differentiate areas and make everything vibrant.

How did the developers allow some flexibility with the color palette?

They designated certain core UI and marketing colors to maintain cohesive branding, while giving themselves room to experiment with bolder colors in certain in-game assets.

How did breaking their color rules lead to creative solutions?

When struggling to make a building distinct within their set palette, trying wildly different colors that broke the rules made the building pop uniquely.

What realizations did the Happy Tree Friends cartoons provide early on?

Seeing the huge contrast and appeal of mixing cute cartoon styles with ultra violence showed the power of blending seemingly disparate themes and aesthetics.

How does the notion of contrast tie everything in the game together?

From story and gameplay to visuals and audio, the contrast between dark and light themes, cute and gory elements, and more permeates all aspects to create symbolic cohesion.

Outlines

00:00

👹 Contrast and identity led to the style of Cult of the Lamb.

The creators of Cult of the Lamb originally had several game ideas that didn't resonate. The theme of starting your own cult gave a strong identity that informed the art style. They consciously combined cuteness and darkness for contrast that worked well. The visual rules and motifs created early on helped maintain consistency.

05:00

😈 Contrast attracted a broader Steam audience.

The creators found that their cute cartoon style limited their appeal. Seeing dark games succeed, they intentionally added darkness for contrast. This let them keep their style while also appealing to the Steam audience. The positioning as an evil cult leader commanding cute animals arose naturally.

10:01

🎨 Establishing and bending the color rules.

The creators focused on key cult colors early on to establish identity. This visual language informed the UI and marketing. Though limiting at first, vibrant colors were added back for each environment. Other colors have also been blended in successfully through experimenting with what works.

Keywords

💡Contrast

The principle of using stark differences or opposites together to create visual interest and intrigue. The game creators consciously chose to contrast cute, cartoonish animal characters with dark occult themes of cults and ritual sacrifice. This fusion of disparate elements helped make the game stand out and become viral.

💡Identity

The distinct personality and visual style that defines a game. The creators aimed to have all artistic elements reinforce the central identity of leading an unholy cult. This included the colors, fonts, symbols, character designs, etc.

💡Color Palette

The specific set of colors used throughout a game's visuals. The creators defined a core color palette early on that captured the game's dark yet vibrant style. This palette guided the art direction while allowing some flexibility to use other colors as accents.

💡Art Bible

A document that lays out the guiding principles, rules, styles, and motifs that define a game's visual identity. Having this art bible ensured consistency across different artists and parts of the game.

💡Permeating

Spreading throughout or infusing all aspects of something. The creators aimed to have their core visual language and motifs permeate or be woven through every part of the game.

💡Flamboyant

Stylish in a flashy, showy way. One example is the bright pink and purple colors used for the tailor building to match its flamboyant purpose of dressing up cult followers.

💡Verdant

Lush, green, and fertile looking. The grass and nature areas were colored vibrant green to feel alive and verdant.

💡Breaking rules

Veering outside established guidelines and principles. Though they followed their art bible, the creators weren't afraid to break their color rules when needed. This rule-breaking resulted in some visually distinct buildings.

💡Elevate

Raise up to a higher, more prominent level. The cute yet dark art style elevated the cult concept, transforming an initial pitch that publishers rejected into a breakout hit.

💡Resonate

Evoke a strong positive response that aligns with people's views or tastes. The creators realized their early ideas didn't resonate due to being convoluted. Their cult concept and art resonated powerfully once streamlined.

Highlights

The visuals in Cult of the Lamb are edgy, stunning, dark and beautiful all at the same time.

The creators felt the game was not that good, but they followed through on 4 key principles of gorgeous game art.

Having a core concept and tagline that resonates with people is important for both the game idea and art style.

Transcripts

there's something about Cult of a lamb

that sticks out like a sore thumb in all

the right ways the visuals are edgy

stunning dark beautiful all at the same

time and it's no surprise this game

completely blew up and frankly became

one of the most successful Indie titles

of all time what's even stranger is the

creators including my buddy jimp they

never really felt like the game was that

good but even still they followed

through even though they felt insecure

on four key principles of gorgeous game

art and I think we're insanely lucky to

get them right now straight from the

Lamb's mouth and by the way guys

blackborn prod and I have teamed up to

create the ultimate game development

program it's called Game Dev hero and

that's exactly what you're going to

become with this program it's the

ultimate training for you to master the

technical artistic Financial social

media and business side of game

development it's only open for 30 more

days and there's just 200 seats

available after that it's going to close

for at least 6 months and for those of

you who enroll in the first 24 hours

well you're going to get four private

Mastermind meetings with me and

Blackthorn prod so click below to check

it out all right let's go so what are

some things that you slowly learned

after you know I guess it was a decade

of making games what are some things

that you learned from the art side that

make a game eye-catching that make

people stop and stare at the game what

are some things that you feel game

developers need to to apply and that you

applied to Cult of the Lamb so with the

the kind of the the God on a floating

whale idea and we had like lots of

different ideas and we actually kind of

got far enough with that idea that we

were pitching it to Publishers at GDC

and we kind of they weren't quite as

interested as we had hoped and we kind

of went back to the juring board and we

were like well why is that and we kind

of realized that the idea was quite

convoluted and we there was a lot of

different ideas going on and we really

needed to find that Gem and that kind of

concept and idea and tagline that that

people would resonate with and that kind

of goes through from the the idea of

what the actual game is all the way

through to the art style as well and

they kind of all have to be connected so

I think for us it was from like a an art

point of view it was once we had the

idea like how do we attach a style and

imagery that kind of helps Elevate that

and and everything kind of needs to all

be working together towards the same

goal the idea of of of start your own

cult once we had that idea and that

theme there was so much like visual

identity that we could take from that

all the the religious imagery and and

making sure that that uh goes through

every single thing from the the

character designs to the colors you're

using to the imagery throughout the

world um it all kind of works together

to to support that idea of starting your

own cult I I think that was really a

light bulb moment and we were kind of I

don't know if you've ever been in this

position where you're kind of you got

all these little nuggets of ideas and

you're trying to piece them together you

kind of got these characters in mind but

they don't quite work for you and you

got you know what the game is but it's

like I don't know and then you for us

anyway you kind of we had the the idea

of starting your own cult and then

everything else kind of came real

naturally after that I know the feeling

yeah yeah yeah I get I get it because um

we're in that same exact situation with

our game Twisted Tower stylistically we

were kind of all over the place we knew

we liked Bioshock right but that wasn't

that wasn't enough and so for for 2

years well it was probably about a year

a year and a half it felt like we were

sort of floundering and trying just

trying to keep our head above water and

not get drowned in too many ideas too

many visual flavors and visual Styles

and it wasn't until we realized that

it's a firstperson shooter fairy tale

nice that's when we go got it that's the

style and so you're so you are so

spot-on when you say that the hook

dictated the visual style yes was it

luck the reason I say that is because

your strength your yours and Julian's

strength is cute hyper cute characters

and that was like I I think all the way

back to the Happy Tree Friends do you

remember Happy Tree Friends yeah of

course and I'm sure that was an

inspiration for you guys because happy

the reason why Happy Tree Friends and

for those those of you listening who

don't know it's just basically bunch of

forest creatures super cute kind of like

Warner Brothers Vibes or even even like

a kid like a Nick Jr show but all of

them are getting like slaughtered right

that was from like early 2000s I

remember watching those videos and

feeling really cool when I was in Middle

School but the reason why those did so

well is because there was contrast right

you have super cute and then super dark

and you slam them together and you get

something that's viral when it comes to

Cult of the Lamb was that an intentional

thought process of we're going to create

contrast how do we create contrast okay

let's put Cults next to cute creatures

it was definitely a conscious decision

to I mean I think it came in two parts

the the first part was a lot of our

previous games um and like Adventure

powers for example which is like really

quite cute and kind of silly um and I

think we saw a lot of comments of people

thinking it was like a kid game game and

kind of and I think as soon as you have

that cartoon style particularly the our

specific style which is quite like

Saturday morning cartoon I I think it

instantly puts quite a lot of people off

and then we were sort of seeing games

like Don't Starve and Binding of Isaac

had a real element of Darkness to them

and and had huge success I think it it

was so it was definitely a conscious

decision to that we wanted to keep the

the kind of cute cartoony stuff but we

also really wanted to um to add the

darkness and and make it bit messed up I

I think coming from flash games for me

at least I think the the super cute

cartoon stuff went really well and was

really popular and and that I kind of

fell into a little bit of a trap doing

that but then going to sort of Steam

games I I think the audience is quite

different there so it was it was

definitely like quite early on um

something that we wanted to do before we

had the the cult idea and then I think

when we had that the idea start your own

cult it just it all fell into place

because we're like right well you're

this kind of you know satanic uh cult

leader but then the animals are really

cute and that kind of juer position felt

really natural and it came very

naturally and it was a theme that we

wanted to explore as well was the sort

of the good and evil the light and dark

the the cute and the horrific um and and

as a cult leader like you're given this

power do you do good or do you do bad it

was almost a happy accident um in the

the kind of theme eventually came

together so well with with the art

Direction well you know I see the game

and I when I when I look at everything

the from the game play to the story to

the hook to the themes and and even to

the visuals everything leans on one

primary principle and this is just my

theory it's all about contrast it's like

there's contrast in everything mhm can

we talk about that when it comes to

color and and and even like marketing

material like when when I look at Colt

of the Lamb your color palette is so

bizarre but it it's I can I can almost

taste it it's so flavorful how does it

taste it tastes kind of like a a a

really sugary cupcake with like

Jalapenos in it oh it's like so I know

right it's but you wouldn't think it

works but there's actually desserts that

do that where they it's like you've got

contrast of two two seemingly different

flavors that wouldn't work together but

they work and so I'm curious if you

could speak to just some tips and tricks

and your thought process behind color

theory when it comes to Cult of the Liam

yeah totally I mean I think very early

on the project originally we wanted to

make the whole game in this very limited

color palette and I think we were like

you know let's we got pick five colors

and everything in the game has got to

use just those colors and there's no

other colors allowed and and and I think

um some games do that really well and

keep things really striking for us that

idea kind of fell away a little bit

because I think we wanted all these

different color animals and we wanted

the the biomes to feel quite different

color-wise but that that idea um still

kind of persisted through a lot of the

marketing images and and the characters

picking a a palette to that kind of

defines your game early on can be really

powerful even if you don't like

exclusively use it for the artwork I

think it can really help form the

identity of the game so I think with

colon the lamb you got the the black and

the red which are kind of quite evil and

dark but then is had the uh the kind of

light white white cream color to kind of

represent the lightness and also there's

like a kind of bright neony greeny blue

that we use as well um which is quite a

light sort of holy holy color yeah and I

think that really helped particularly

with like the UI and the the kind of the

marketing stuff to just keep things

consistent and kind of keep like an a

visual identity for the game that kind

of goes through everything we went

through a lot of pre-production and we

we kind of came up with this color

scheme and the the fonts and some

symbols was basically a set of rules and

visual motifs that we wanted to use and

kind of created a bit of a Bible and

that was really useful just as we kind

of went through the the full production

of the game to to have that to refer

back to and make sure everything kind of

uses some of these ideas and I think

especially when you're kind of bring in

on other artists as well like later in

the process it's really useful to have

those those rules you set out for the

the world and the the imagery and the

the identity of the game um to have that

to refer back to um and make sure that

you're kind of yeah just it's that's

permeating through every every aspect of

it did you guys ever stretch your legs

outside of those rules was there ever a

moment where you go you know what we

need to do a little bit of pink here or

we need to do a little bit of yellow

here yeah definitely and I think that's

kind of why yeah originally as I say we

were trying to use this very limited

palette but it kind of felt a little bit

too limiting in the in to Ed for

everything yeah we we wanted the game to

feel really vibrant as well and I think

all our games always have been been and

yeah super colorful in like a Saturday

morning cartoon so I think there's

definitely areas that you can can stray

stray from it but sometimes it does just

look out of place so I think it's for me

it's just been a bit of trial and error

um and making certain things pop that

you want to kind of draw attention to I

think with all the all the kind of core

things and the main visual language in

the game we we do try and stick to it uh

to those kind of core colors that we use

for the identity but yeah I I do find

myself just putting in other stuff here

and there just to kind of make it feel

unique in the world kind of thing like

for like for example we we got all these

buildings in the cult right and and a

lot of it is kind of it's all like of

natural materials and a lot of it is uh

wood and stone and you know wood painted

red and using that kind of uh that

palette that we've used for a lot of

stuff um and and green as well for like

the grass cuz you wanted it to feel

verdant and and you know luscious um but

I have found with like more the more

recent buildings I kind of want to mix

up a little bit so we've added like a

tailor building and I just didn't feel

right in all these different colors and

I tried all the different colors and

then I kind of just tried it like a a

pink and purple and it just just worked

and it it it gave it's quite a

flamboyant kind of color scheme um which

kind of fits with the idea of uh

tailoring clothes and dressing up your

followers and it just made it kind of

gave that building its own identity and

there wasn't really much of a like

mindset or reasoning behind it other

than that I was just trying all these

different colors and that worked it

looked it looked good and it just it

just felt right so um I think a lot of

it is just kind of

what feels right and what um

experimenting I think and don't be too

afraid to break your own rules as well

cuz um you know that's that's sometimes

where the magic comes from if it's not

working and you're following all these

rules that you set and then sometimes

when the uh when you break your own

rules that's when the kind of real magic

happens all right guys thanks for

watching and just remember Blackthorn

pra and I have teamed up to create the

ultimate game development program it's

called Game Dev hero and that's exactly

what you're going to become with this

program it's the ultim training for you

to master the technical artistic

Financial social media and business side

of game development it's huge it's

taught by veteran game developers who

actually make significant full-time

income doing exactly what you've always

dreamed of and we're going to hold your

hand while you work to achieve your

indie game dreams it's only open for 30

more days and there's just 200 seats

available after that it's going to close

for at least 6 months and for those of

you who enroll in the first 24 hours

well you're going to get four private

Mastermind meetings with me and

blackborne PR so click below to check

check it out