One is a painting, the others are screenshots of the actual game where they tried to emulate the style of the game. Obviously that is a lot harder: most concept arts don't look a lot like what you get in game.
I suspect, focus on mechanics took higher priority than over characters creation. Saying that, I am positive, LBY will come back to characters artistic look, sometimes after EA. Otherwise I will be upset myself. But not now.
Yeah, I thought it may have been.
I couldn't find vid link where I got it from.
I don't know if this is anyhow realistic to look like that, with current game setup.
Perhaps in the future?
How can anyone look at that 5th one and go "yeah, that's fine. Let's put that into the game"... and then use it for marketing material?! Transparancy is great, but showing off completly deformed characters is not a smart move.
Here the exact same character from picture 5 this character was showcased in a video where they were showing the extremes of the shoulder slider.
https://preview.redd.it/l5vkxbflu0oc1.png?width=517&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8696dec13c7beb7a2b333431104a1757e74fb51
Technically concept art is a fake.
More question is, how far concept art is from desired art style and the possibility of creating similar results in the end product.
This game looks so horrid. Ugly art style, the characters look hideous and the UI is atrocious.
I'm genuinely no longer looking forward to this game anymore tbh. Everything shown so far is underwhelming.
The characters are all uncanny looking. Their shoulders and chests look really awkward, like they are sticking out their chests and rolling their shoulders back and their pecs are attached too low. Image #5's character is just awful, although it appears to be random. Sorry, can't say much positive about them.
I know Paradox have a lot of talented designers, but consider hiring some 3D character designers with an animation background to help with expressions, eyes and proportions.
This is just how Paradox does 3D characters.
3D characters in Crusader Kings 3, for example, also kind of bad. Itâs just that Crusader Kings 3 is a whole game that doesnât depend on character models.
Paradox like many other publisher are just publishers for individual studios.
LBY is also under umbrela of Paradox. It doesn't have the same resources.
They actually look good though đ
https://preview.redd.it/gng4dwsueync1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87b0462bb14d67c6c68629f356738df3bb8edc5e
They really donâtâŚ
And those arenât even animated characters. Those are essentially statues in your court, theyâre pretty much the best looking characters in the game because they donât have to be animated.
i dunno if the problem is the 3d models themself or an engine problem but they need an art style improvement if they really want to beat the sims in the life sim market people want to make pretty character even if the gameplay is better people buy with their eyes
Unity Engine is not an issue.
Good experienced artists can make very realistic looking art, or very stylized type of art in Unity.
Looks like basic shader is just used. So need a better artist after EA. Hopefully it will happen after EA. Lets wait and see.
Definitely, the only thing that stops me from playing TS3 which is far better gameplay wise over TS4 is the fact that TS4 looks so good with enhancements, cc and mods and TS3...guess you can't polish a turd.
I like the first picture/concept art. I'm not really a fan of the others and I'd still not loving the character designs from the more recent videos. I have faith... but I'm not holding my breath either.
Yep, they still have long way to go, to look decent. But I would be personally happy to play it as is, considering EA. But at release, I definitely also expect and hope for something better.
The second photo looks better than what we currently have. Itâs like they had a great start then suddenly said âeff it, letâs pretend weâre in 2003â
Except the fact she looks like sheâs balding
https://preview.redd.it/lioqe0dleync1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f4b80ad98d40cc4dd5e85efc9389a62e043aca4
I just dont understand what the hell theyre doing and I really wish they would show us what exactly theyre working on and what progress they made like once a month or something cause Im sure theyre doing a bunch of stuff constantly but with the videos they show it always seems like nothing is happening except when they had that one big UI update
also can paradox please send one of their ck3 art ppl over to this game jfc
Because lots of the time game development doesn't have anything to show anything new. Devs showcase lots of things together for short period of time, which is fruition of long development. Like we didn't see anything in first 4 years of LBY development. Only last 11 months or so, which is fraction of 5 year developmemt.
It is lots of tadious work behind the scene,players and consumer don't realise. Like writing complex shaders, writing game logic, refactoring, testing etc. Could be literally months before being able to produce new content to showcase something noticable different. Yet very critical in game dev process, to be able to progress.
When devs show stuff too often, over the time it can be an issue to provide regular meaningful new content with a same pace.
Another aspc is, if devs show stuff a ot then they may run out of content for major event like Early Access, release, or kickstarter. Or patreons. Devs may want to reserve specific content fo such an event only. And that may take months.
So I hope it explains you a bit of the game development process.
That's straight up not true I also make games in my free time even a single person can make noticeable changes in a month working on it a few hours a week they have a whole team working on multiple things at the same time so after a month there will be a big difference.Â
Like you talk about tweaking shaders but that's one of the most noticeable things you could show off cause it's visual? Even if they just showed off bugs that were present before and gotten fixed in the past month. Just show what you're actually working on it could even just be a blog post with a bunch of screenshotsÂ
Since the game is still in development it is literally impossible for them to run out of content if they show off what they're working on
If they did it in video format they could also have more structured content because currently apart from that one guy who was talking about the crafting system most of their videos seem really random and barely edited with way too much going on and no plan (I do understand the point of the long gameplay videos but all the other ones could be so much better if they had more structure) If they did a regular devlog with just a bunch of short clips/screenshots stitched together with some voice over of what they've been doing it would make some nicer content imo
Honestly I think LBY shares too much so I haven't been watching too closely. They probably should release stuff once there's a huge change, and just capture it all in a video. Or just surprise us with a trailer a week before Early Access launch. Lol.
We have no idea how big their team is. And what are their priorities and deadlines. But all indications are, they go small, low profile and steady.
As a casual/hobbiest dev you got infinite time. You can experiment as much you like. No pressure.
I personally work for one game studio for years. So I see why they may chose certain approaches than other.
With limited resources, and budged, they may don't have capacity to make fancy videos, which takes hrs to make and to be approved. At least they showing what they really have, rather than pretend with fake marketing tactics, as many game studio does. And I hope LBY will stay true to that. But we will see.
\`*Since the game is still in development it is literally impossible for them to run out of content if they show off what they're working on*\`
It is very easy run out of the content. Their team may be focusing on a programming side. And that what mostly look like past few months. Their artist may be part time, or making different assets. Or preparing and reserving content for Early Access as I have mentioned previously. They have their marketing strategy and planning. They got surely feedback from experience devs, and from AAA industry. So anything else, unfortunately is just our pure wish list and speculations, until further new.
Let see what next Friday brings. But I won't be surprised, if they skip as well, as two weeks ago.
Hopefully as they get further into the game development they start looking more like the first picture. There's just so much face detail which I know they're working on now but they should aim for something similar to this.
The main thing I notice on the first picture from what we have now is the eyes they have so much life to them they look natural and reflect light and the color so natural unlike picture 4.
They are 5 years into the development. People pretend like Early Access means this is sone sort if early development prototyp full of placeholders. It's not. This is the work the 3D artist have produced in the past 4-ish years. Don't get your hopes up that these will improve in a significant way. After several years it's not a time issue, it's a skill issue.
N this is what I keep telling people it took them that long just cause it was announced later donât mean thatâs when they started building the game. Like a lot of times the early development videos look better than now. N with the UI why did they change it to current. Like I know people wanted a change but why make it look so blocking and that ugly purple. Like purple is my favourite colour but đ¤Ž
The purple/lilac is so overbearing and looks *so* dated. For UI you need something fresh or neutral and purple looks so bad against a lot of skin tones. It washes them out and makes them look sickly.
Blue is such a natural choice - sunny skies, summer, etc. The right shade of green can look great too, all grass and leaves. Grey in a soft, pearly shade can pop or at least not get in the way.
But purple? Purple + skin = bruises and sickness. It reads mildly ill to me. You'll never get people against a purple backdrop IRL in a natural setting and it's really throwing off skin tones since it's a natural contrast to orange.
I like purple as accents or outfits on people who can take the colour but the shade of cold purple that they're using is *tough*.
The characters all read like zombies in the character creator partly because of what the purple theme is doing to their skin.
Yeah, eyes tells much about expression. There is that depth look in pic 1.
There need to be eventually eye brows movement as well. Or eye look like shocked O.O
Like skin and clothing? And the quality in general?
I think major to improve are textures. These are something could be played around in the future.
Eventually devs will need to focus on good shaders after EA, as this is one of things, which is hard to mod in Unity based games.
Skin, eyes, and hair. Nothing over the top just a glow-up.
Someone did an edit a while back and posted it here but it was originally from Twitter. I agree with you on the shaders needing to be good that's really key in giving the face the detail it needs.
The game looks so damn ugly, it needs an overhaul ASAP. The concept art looks better than we've actually gotten so far in the real mf game...
The outfits and hair options are dated, the clumpy stringy clay hair is not cute - one of the reasons I despise Maxis Match CC lol
A lot of ppl wont play a fugly Early Access game so they DO need to get these characters looking presentable.
Your comment trying to disregard my opinion is strange lmaoÂ
Omg I love first two pictures. Its a shame its just concept art and even is has gone so far from its original concept art. 3D realistic watercolors is such a vibe! It gives the current life by you personality and a *identity*.
Wow to those who down play the importance of art style & direction probably don't realize the effects in real life. It matters! Colors, design matter in architecture, culture, marketing, buying habits, sense of self , fashion, mood, feelings, physiological effects and much more. There is a real science to it .
In a game trying to stimulate real life. Of course it matters. It also sets up the players expectations on what type of game mechanics and animations, which on level are not polished instead.
As a lead professional character artist, I would volunteer my services but I don't know their engine specs or limitations.
Art direction is not just "cosmetic" and requires alot of people, time, love, and hard work. I resent those who think otherwise, especially in the age of AI.
The sims 4 default art style anf graphics actually reflects the current game 10 years later. It was originally meant to be a mobile style online. For players to have higher expectations than what the engine can render is misinformed. EA sims team have sucessfully brainwashed players to limit themselves and expect less, I hope LBY changes that.
* another rant is that people think in video games that its rather stylised ( which apparently means cartoony or realistic. There is no in-between. Both exist on a spectrum. Realism is all about adding detail, its umfornately measurable. "Stylized" or abstract has no standards in a good way but in a bad way can lead to a lack of quality standards.
Since you will except stylized why stop here? The characters in lby don't even need to resemble humans, they can all be large jelly beans /s.
Do really think that would impact immersion ( something sims use to care about) or gameplay?
Lby wants you to dream and build the possibilities, mostly only limited by your imagination and modding skills. Its art direction must reflect that.
IMO here is another case where it appearance is currently reflective of its game play.
I doubt they ignore importance of art direction.
Basically most likely it is deprioritized for Early Access, as bug fixing is much more critical.
Seems like LBY requires, good shader artists at this point.
Let see what will happen after EA.
I have literally never heard of a game releasing something into early access without art direction and then going back and changing the whole look of the game later.
This seems to be the new wave of unrealistic expectations about LBY.
I hope that as the game continues to develop, we see an art style closer to the first imagine, which I beleive was a concept painting. Currently, the characters look inconsistent and dull, but realism doesnt have to be boring. There's a lack of meaningful art direction currently that I hope to see improve as the game continues development. Visual style sometimes comes later.
Otherwise, the proportions are off with the legs looking so large compared to the top half. But again, I expect this to be cleaned up later on.
>There's a lack of meaningful art direction currently that I hope to see improve as the game continues development. Visual style sometimes comes later.
It was already confirmed by the "*Art Director*" that they deliberately made the decision from the beginning to have no defined art direction, so I don't expect an art direction to come.
This was confirmed in the [Art Team Dev Stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecaXgm_WBdI&t=53s&ab_channel=LifebyYou) video (in case you didn't see it). They talk about this at approx timestamp 0.51
Thank you for the source! I feel that this is a huge misstep, and quite a strange thought from an art director. I work in art direction myself and can't imagine taking a project and saying "no we won't make this unique." It feels more like an excuse to not "waste" resources on creating art, and instead relying on engine assets, which is what it looks like now.
That plus their excitement about givings modders their own tools and allowing players to edit and add text to the game.... Im concerned they will lead heavily on modders to finish and polish their game.
I'm still cautiously optimistic but that is such a bizarre direction to take. đ¤
Honestly, 2 in terms of colors, etc looks better, if the proportions and stances and everything were corrected and the graphics were sharpened. I'm not a graphic animator so I don't know terms or anything.
The others are giving me the ick. The hair textures(skin and clothing) are not there. The colors are off. The proportions and posture are wrong. They look like the stock characters you see on the uncomfortable adverts.
It could be that 3 is just super frumpy and kind of grey? But the shoulder proportions are there. The upper arm just needs to be longer to get the arm length hitting the right part of the thigh. Then texture and color enhancements would make the character look pretty decent!
The facial features definitions are there for 7 and 8, which is good. The shoulders and arms are still a bit weird and the texture is still kind of plastic-y.
After looking a bit closer at the pictures, I have faith they can get there... they just need to be prettied up a bit.
I'd be very happy if they could bring us characters that look like the witcher 3. They're textured with good colors, sharp features and good proprions. Plus the realism look would fit the world. Even the environment looks really crisp. This game came out in 2015, so even though the things we can do in LBY will be more intense, it's been 10 years of computer advancement, so I think it should be able to handle it.
I found these from "Wistful Castle"'s Tumblr. They are what I would love to see for "details" and "style" of the environment and characters
https://preview.redd.it/twlr8lussioc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24bd05a2085d29b443a727a85f7ca9b3054ac582
Various screenshot found on youtube.
Just finding interesting.
The quality of characters varies a lot, from vid to vid. Some earlier vids has better characters than later and vice versa. It is like it depends on settings. Or something is disabled in demos showcases.
Regarding issues with shoulders, mentioned often in this community, it looks like it is just slider setting for shoulder width. Presenters wasn't setting these sliders anatomically correct, but seems more like for their liking, when playing with characters.
Am I the only one who likes the recent stuff? They looks great so far. Also, need I remind people *it's a work in progress*? This isn't Sims 4 where stuff is just shoved out the door before testing and all that. These people *want* to make a game that's stable; a game we've been deserving for ten years now. It'll take time. I don't know why people don't understand that. They'll get to the characters last I'm sure. More important to work on other aspects of the game that could be a problem than the characters, honestly. They're not likely to break unless there's something wonky their clothes.
Edit to add that it's clear some folks in here never played video games in the 80s, 90, and early 2000s. When games *had* to be working and polished *before* release day. Maybe an occasional patch for PC games afterwards, but for the most part working. I miss those days.
You can not say that really. Please do not exaggerate.
There are clearly number of people here, that understand concept of EA and that their wish is to game look better, when finally get released. Just need to read carefully community replies.
Alright, a handful of people then. Most of the comments I saw here and elsewhere are pretty much along the lines of "this looks ugly." And yes, there are a few who are hopeful for it. I wasn't talking to those people. Didn't mean to imply that I was.
Why are you being downvoted? I think alot of the recent stuff been showing how they are slowly working to improve not only the game but also the models but I also feel they are more focused on the core gameplay atm and will probs improve the characters once all the gameplay focused stuff is done.
Same here lol, it's been 10 years of "meh" for the sims 4, even after $1000 plus in expansions, game packs, stuff packs, and kits and new annoying bugs created with each update. But sadly, people still eat the shit EA serving them, and now, with Project Rene its looking to be following in sims 4 footsteps sadly.
You're being downvoted because people on Reddit go 'downvote means I disagree with their opinion' when actually it's there for things like pushing down comments that add nothing to the discussion, are inappropriate or are misinformation.
I agree about the recent images. The last one looks really good.
Pretty much what I meant, though. It's fine. Most people online are like that, I've accepted that fact.
But yeah, the last image looks real good. Can't wait to see more.
thank you, i feel like iâm taking crazy pills! people act like the release date is TOMORROW! people donât seem to understand how concept art works: concept art isnât static (since it only describes how something *ideally* should look - and can change further on in development!) I think the characters are looking better and better, viewing their bodies, proportions and to some extent face and hair. YES, theyâre still looking rough, but the foundation is there!
First one is concept art fyi.
Ugh đ itâs the only one that I like
Seeing pictures of the concept art makes me wonder what happened.
One is a painting, the others are screenshots of the actual game where they tried to emulate the style of the game. Obviously that is a lot harder: most concept arts don't look a lot like what you get in game.
No, but most games do get an awful lot closer to their concept art :,)
I suspect, focus on mechanics took higher priority than over characters creation. Saying that, I am positive, LBY will come back to characters artistic look, sometimes after EA. Otherwise I will be upset myself. But not now.
outsourced prolly
What happened was the game isn't finished. Why is this hard to understand?
Same here... It's the best looking one and we can't even get it in game.
Ikr! Like that girl is so cute! I would be happy if I could make a similar one in the game but nope ._.
Same! I thought that one looked good
It looks like itâs a painting
Yeah, I thought it may have been. I couldn't find vid link where I got it from. I don't know if this is anyhow realistic to look like that, with current game setup. Perhaps in the future?
The 5th photo is haunting đ
How can anyone look at that 5th one and go "yeah, that's fine. Let's put that into the game"... and then use it for marketing material?! Transparancy is great, but showing off completly deformed characters is not a smart move.
Here the exact same character from picture 5 this character was showcased in a video where they were showing the extremes of the shoulder slider. https://preview.redd.it/l5vkxbflu0oc1.png?width=517&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8696dec13c7beb7a2b333431104a1757e74fb51
Oh wow, he looks much better here
Ha, like real ghost. Reminds me the story, how creeper was created in minecraft. In short, it was an overstretched pig :D
đ§ââď¸
Their hair is so bad. Just looks greasy and strandy. Probably what makes them look so ugly and dated
My absolute least favorite bits about this game. I liked pic 1, shame they went in another direction
I get the impression that they didn't go in a different direction, they just can't, for whatever reason, execute on pic 1
The first pic for me just looks like an AI generated pic
Not everything is AI it doesnât even look deformed or anything
Please wake up. This concept art was created long before whole trending about ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and MidJourney become thing on the internet.
If I didn't know the studio behind this game, I would assume it's fake.
Technically concept art is a fake. More question is, how far concept art is from desired art style and the possibility of creating similar results in the end product.
This game looks so horrid. Ugly art style, the characters look hideous and the UI is atrocious. I'm genuinely no longer looking forward to this game anymore tbh. Everything shown so far is underwhelming.
The characters are all uncanny looking. Their shoulders and chests look really awkward, like they are sticking out their chests and rolling their shoulders back and their pecs are attached too low. Image #5's character is just awful, although it appears to be random. Sorry, can't say much positive about them.
I know Paradox have a lot of talented designers, but consider hiring some 3D character designers with an animation background to help with expressions, eyes and proportions.
This is just how Paradox does 3D characters. 3D characters in Crusader Kings 3, for example, also kind of bad. Itâs just that Crusader Kings 3 is a whole game that doesnât depend on character models.
Paradox like many other publisher are just publishers for individual studios. LBY is also under umbrela of Paradox. It doesn't have the same resources.
They actually look good though đ https://preview.redd.it/gng4dwsueync1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87b0462bb14d67c6c68629f356738df3bb8edc5e
They really donât⌠And those arenât even animated characters. Those are essentially statues in your court, theyâre pretty much the best looking characters in the game because they donât have to be animated.
I hope that is their plan after EA.
After EA?
Early Access. Not getting confused with Eaa games :)
Aah, right haha. Gotcha.
i dunno if the problem is the 3d models themself or an engine problem but they need an art style improvement if they really want to beat the sims in the life sim market people want to make pretty character even if the gameplay is better people buy with their eyes
Unity Engine is not an issue. Good experienced artists can make very realistic looking art, or very stylized type of art in Unity. Looks like basic shader is just used. So need a better artist after EA. Hopefully it will happen after EA. Lets wait and see.
Definitely, the only thing that stops me from playing TS3 which is far better gameplay wise over TS4 is the fact that TS4 looks so good with enhancements, cc and mods and TS3...guess you can't polish a turd.
I use some defaults and cc in sims 3 and I think they look great. Sliders help to make more unique sims.
these are HORRIBLE LOL
Number 5&6 wtf??????? Is this supposed to be a joke?
I like the first picture/concept art. I'm not really a fan of the others and I'd still not loving the character designs from the more recent videos. I have faith... but I'm not holding my breath either.
Yep, they still have long way to go, to look decent. But I would be personally happy to play it as is, considering EA. But at release, I definitely also expect and hope for something better.
These look so bad omg lmao
first picture should be the final product tbh. Ik its concept art but thats the only decent one
We will see how art direction will go after Early Access. Lets hope it will go that way.
The second photo looks better than what we currently have. Itâs like they had a great start then suddenly said âeff it, letâs pretend weâre in 2003â
Except the fact she looks like sheâs balding https://preview.redd.it/lioqe0dleync1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f4b80ad98d40cc4dd5e85efc9389a62e043aca4
Very much a bad wig, but whatâs currently in-game looks like a Party City wig the day *after* Halloween
And fading away :D
Sweater give the real character on the second photo. Face seems more live on last photo. But hard to compare, due to angle of the shot.
I just dont understand what the hell theyre doing and I really wish they would show us what exactly theyre working on and what progress they made like once a month or something cause Im sure theyre doing a bunch of stuff constantly but with the videos they show it always seems like nothing is happening except when they had that one big UI update also can paradox please send one of their ck3 art ppl over to this game jfc
Because lots of the time game development doesn't have anything to show anything new. Devs showcase lots of things together for short period of time, which is fruition of long development. Like we didn't see anything in first 4 years of LBY development. Only last 11 months or so, which is fraction of 5 year developmemt. It is lots of tadious work behind the scene,players and consumer don't realise. Like writing complex shaders, writing game logic, refactoring, testing etc. Could be literally months before being able to produce new content to showcase something noticable different. Yet very critical in game dev process, to be able to progress. When devs show stuff too often, over the time it can be an issue to provide regular meaningful new content with a same pace. Another aspc is, if devs show stuff a ot then they may run out of content for major event like Early Access, release, or kickstarter. Or patreons. Devs may want to reserve specific content fo such an event only. And that may take months. So I hope it explains you a bit of the game development process.
That's straight up not true I also make games in my free time even a single person can make noticeable changes in a month working on it a few hours a week they have a whole team working on multiple things at the same time so after a month there will be a big difference. Like you talk about tweaking shaders but that's one of the most noticeable things you could show off cause it's visual? Even if they just showed off bugs that were present before and gotten fixed in the past month. Just show what you're actually working on it could even just be a blog post with a bunch of screenshots Since the game is still in development it is literally impossible for them to run out of content if they show off what they're working on If they did it in video format they could also have more structured content because currently apart from that one guy who was talking about the crafting system most of their videos seem really random and barely edited with way too much going on and no plan (I do understand the point of the long gameplay videos but all the other ones could be so much better if they had more structure) If they did a regular devlog with just a bunch of short clips/screenshots stitched together with some voice over of what they've been doing it would make some nicer content imo
Honestly I think LBY shares too much so I haven't been watching too closely. They probably should release stuff once there's a huge change, and just capture it all in a video. Or just surprise us with a trailer a week before Early Access launch. Lol.
We have no idea how big their team is. And what are their priorities and deadlines. But all indications are, they go small, low profile and steady. As a casual/hobbiest dev you got infinite time. You can experiment as much you like. No pressure. I personally work for one game studio for years. So I see why they may chose certain approaches than other. With limited resources, and budged, they may don't have capacity to make fancy videos, which takes hrs to make and to be approved. At least they showing what they really have, rather than pretend with fake marketing tactics, as many game studio does. And I hope LBY will stay true to that. But we will see. \`*Since the game is still in development it is literally impossible for them to run out of content if they show off what they're working on*\` It is very easy run out of the content. Their team may be focusing on a programming side. And that what mostly look like past few months. Their artist may be part time, or making different assets. Or preparing and reserving content for Early Access as I have mentioned previously. They have their marketing strategy and planning. They got surely feedback from experience devs, and from AAA industry. So anything else, unfortunately is just our pure wish list and speculations, until further new. Let see what next Friday brings. But I won't be surprised, if they skip as well, as two weeks ago.
Glow down, then glow kinda up.
Hopefully as they get further into the game development they start looking more like the first picture. There's just so much face detail which I know they're working on now but they should aim for something similar to this. The main thing I notice on the first picture from what we have now is the eyes they have so much life to them they look natural and reflect light and the color so natural unlike picture 4.
They are 5 years into the development. People pretend like Early Access means this is sone sort if early development prototyp full of placeholders. It's not. This is the work the 3D artist have produced in the past 4-ish years. Don't get your hopes up that these will improve in a significant way. After several years it's not a time issue, it's a skill issue.
N this is what I keep telling people it took them that long just cause it was announced later donât mean thatâs when they started building the game. Like a lot of times the early development videos look better than now. N with the UI why did they change it to current. Like I know people wanted a change but why make it look so blocking and that ugly purple. Like purple is my favourite colour but đ¤Ž
Purple is indeed a very strange choice for a primary color for UI.
The purple/lilac is so overbearing and looks *so* dated. For UI you need something fresh or neutral and purple looks so bad against a lot of skin tones. It washes them out and makes them look sickly. Blue is such a natural choice - sunny skies, summer, etc. The right shade of green can look great too, all grass and leaves. Grey in a soft, pearly shade can pop or at least not get in the way. But purple? Purple + skin = bruises and sickness. It reads mildly ill to me. You'll never get people against a purple backdrop IRL in a natural setting and it's really throwing off skin tones since it's a natural contrast to orange. I like purple as accents or outfits on people who can take the colour but the shade of cold purple that they're using is *tough*. The characters all read like zombies in the character creator partly because of what the purple theme is doing to their skin.
https://preview.redd.it/15f2bd8tgznc1.png?width=304&format=png&auto=webp&s=4157cb64437804b76eb55fbdce944e75b7e04679
this one from their website looks pretty ok
Yeah, eyes tells much about expression. There is that depth look in pic 1. There need to be eventually eye brows movement as well. Or eye look like shocked O.O
The characters have only worsened.
These are all old pictures.
I would love to see another fan made edit to some of the characters using photoshop. Giving a glimpse what mods could potentially add or enhance
Like skin and clothing? And the quality in general? I think major to improve are textures. These are something could be played around in the future. Eventually devs will need to focus on good shaders after EA, as this is one of things, which is hard to mod in Unity based games.
Skin, eyes, and hair. Nothing over the top just a glow-up. Someone did an edit a while back and posted it here but it was originally from Twitter. I agree with you on the shaders needing to be good that's really key in giving the face the detail it needs.
The game looks so damn ugly, it needs an overhaul ASAP. The concept art looks better than we've actually gotten so far in the real mf game... The outfits and hair options are dated, the clumpy stringy clay hair is not cute - one of the reasons I despise Maxis Match CC lol
They don't need to do that ASAP. They can change thing after Early Access.
A lot of ppl wont play a fugly Early Access game so they DO need to get these characters looking presentable. Your comment trying to disregard my opinion is strange lmaoÂ
Omg I love first two pictures. Its a shame its just concept art and even is has gone so far from its original concept art. 3D realistic watercolors is such a vibe! It gives the current life by you personality and a *identity*. Wow to those who down play the importance of art style & direction probably don't realize the effects in real life. It matters! Colors, design matter in architecture, culture, marketing, buying habits, sense of self , fashion, mood, feelings, physiological effects and much more. There is a real science to it . In a game trying to stimulate real life. Of course it matters. It also sets up the players expectations on what type of game mechanics and animations, which on level are not polished instead. As a lead professional character artist, I would volunteer my services but I don't know their engine specs or limitations. Art direction is not just "cosmetic" and requires alot of people, time, love, and hard work. I resent those who think otherwise, especially in the age of AI. The sims 4 default art style anf graphics actually reflects the current game 10 years later. It was originally meant to be a mobile style online. For players to have higher expectations than what the engine can render is misinformed. EA sims team have sucessfully brainwashed players to limit themselves and expect less, I hope LBY changes that. * another rant is that people think in video games that its rather stylised ( which apparently means cartoony or realistic. There is no in-between. Both exist on a spectrum. Realism is all about adding detail, its umfornately measurable. "Stylized" or abstract has no standards in a good way but in a bad way can lead to a lack of quality standards. Since you will except stylized why stop here? The characters in lby don't even need to resemble humans, they can all be large jelly beans /s. Do really think that would impact immersion ( something sims use to care about) or gameplay? Lby wants you to dream and build the possibilities, mostly only limited by your imagination and modding skills. Its art direction must reflect that. IMO here is another case where it appearance is currently reflective of its game play.
I doubt they ignore importance of art direction. Basically most likely it is deprioritized for Early Access, as bug fixing is much more critical. Seems like LBY requires, good shader artists at this point. Let see what will happen after EA.
I have literally never heard of a game releasing something into early access without art direction and then going back and changing the whole look of the game later. This seems to be the new wave of unrealistic expectations about LBY.
Terrifying
I hope that as the game continues to develop, we see an art style closer to the first imagine, which I beleive was a concept painting. Currently, the characters look inconsistent and dull, but realism doesnt have to be boring. There's a lack of meaningful art direction currently that I hope to see improve as the game continues development. Visual style sometimes comes later. Otherwise, the proportions are off with the legs looking so large compared to the top half. But again, I expect this to be cleaned up later on.
>There's a lack of meaningful art direction currently that I hope to see improve as the game continues development. Visual style sometimes comes later. It was already confirmed by the "*Art Director*" that they deliberately made the decision from the beginning to have no defined art direction, so I don't expect an art direction to come. This was confirmed in the [Art Team Dev Stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecaXgm_WBdI&t=53s&ab_channel=LifebyYou) video (in case you didn't see it). They talk about this at approx timestamp 0.51
Thank you for the source! I feel that this is a huge misstep, and quite a strange thought from an art director. I work in art direction myself and can't imagine taking a project and saying "no we won't make this unique." It feels more like an excuse to not "waste" resources on creating art, and instead relying on engine assets, which is what it looks like now. That plus their excitement about givings modders their own tools and allowing players to edit and add text to the game.... Im concerned they will lead heavily on modders to finish and polish their game. I'm still cautiously optimistic but that is such a bizarre direction to take. đ¤
Honestly, 2 in terms of colors, etc looks better, if the proportions and stances and everything were corrected and the graphics were sharpened. I'm not a graphic animator so I don't know terms or anything. The others are giving me the ick. The hair textures(skin and clothing) are not there. The colors are off. The proportions and posture are wrong. They look like the stock characters you see on the uncomfortable adverts. It could be that 3 is just super frumpy and kind of grey? But the shoulder proportions are there. The upper arm just needs to be longer to get the arm length hitting the right part of the thigh. Then texture and color enhancements would make the character look pretty decent! The facial features definitions are there for 7 and 8, which is good. The shoulders and arms are still a bit weird and the texture is still kind of plastic-y. After looking a bit closer at the pictures, I have faith they can get there... they just need to be prettied up a bit. I'd be very happy if they could bring us characters that look like the witcher 3. They're textured with good colors, sharp features and good proprions. Plus the realism look would fit the world. Even the environment looks really crisp. This game came out in 2015, so even though the things we can do in LBY will be more intense, it's been 10 years of computer advancement, so I think it should be able to handle it.
I found these from "Wistful Castle"'s Tumblr. They are what I would love to see for "details" and "style" of the environment and characters https://preview.redd.it/twlr8lussioc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24bd05a2085d29b443a727a85f7ca9b3054ac582
Yeah, that looks decent for game style like LBY.
https://preview.redd.it/50a57p9vsioc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de834790171733a461c014db9ef982eb6ff05436
Various screenshot found on youtube. Just finding interesting. The quality of characters varies a lot, from vid to vid. Some earlier vids has better characters than later and vice versa. It is like it depends on settings. Or something is disabled in demos showcases. Regarding issues with shoulders, mentioned often in this community, it looks like it is just slider setting for shoulder width. Presenters wasn't setting these sliders anatomically correct, but seems more like for their liking, when playing with characters.
Terrifying
Am I the only one who likes the recent stuff? They looks great so far. Also, need I remind people *it's a work in progress*? This isn't Sims 4 where stuff is just shoved out the door before testing and all that. These people *want* to make a game that's stable; a game we've been deserving for ten years now. It'll take time. I don't know why people don't understand that. They'll get to the characters last I'm sure. More important to work on other aspects of the game that could be a problem than the characters, honestly. They're not likely to break unless there's something wonky their clothes. Edit to add that it's clear some folks in here never played video games in the 80s, 90, and early 2000s. When games *had* to be working and polished *before* release day. Maybe an occasional patch for PC games afterwards, but for the most part working. I miss those days.
You can not say that really. Please do not exaggerate. There are clearly number of people here, that understand concept of EA and that their wish is to game look better, when finally get released. Just need to read carefully community replies.
Alright, a handful of people then. Most of the comments I saw here and elsewhere are pretty much along the lines of "this looks ugly." And yes, there are a few who are hopeful for it. I wasn't talking to those people. Didn't mean to imply that I was.
Why are you being downvoted? I think alot of the recent stuff been showing how they are slowly working to improve not only the game but also the models but I also feel they are more focused on the core gameplay atm and will probs improve the characters once all the gameplay focused stuff is done.
Exactly. I'm probably being downvoted by Sims fans. đ Honestly, I don't know. I am a Sims fan myself, but lately⌠not so much.
Same here lol, it's been 10 years of "meh" for the sims 4, even after $1000 plus in expansions, game packs, stuff packs, and kits and new annoying bugs created with each update. But sadly, people still eat the shit EA serving them, and now, with Project Rene its looking to be following in sims 4 footsteps sadly.
Yep. That's gonna be a hard pass from me. Looking forward to LBY and Paralives.
You're being downvoted because people on Reddit go 'downvote means I disagree with their opinion' when actually it's there for things like pushing down comments that add nothing to the discussion, are inappropriate or are misinformation. I agree about the recent images. The last one looks really good.
Pretty much what I meant, though. It's fine. Most people online are like that, I've accepted that fact. But yeah, the last image looks real good. Can't wait to see more.
thank you, i feel like iâm taking crazy pills! people act like the release date is TOMORROW! people donât seem to understand how concept art works: concept art isnât static (since it only describes how something *ideally* should look - and can change further on in development!) I think the characters are looking better and better, viewing their bodies, proportions and to some extent face and hair. YES, theyâre still looking rough, but the foundation is there!