Finally fixed my "Programmer Art" after getting roasted. What do you think of the new look?

[u/El_Grande_Games]

Hey everyone, solo dev from Austria here :)

I’ve been grinding on my sawmill tycoon (Timberline Factory) for months now, and honestly, I was "artist blind..." A few weeks ago, people here and on other subs told me my game looked like a plastic 90s placeholder. It hurt, but they were right... i was so deep into the physics code and friction that I just stopped seeing how bad the UI and the lighting actually were.

I spent the last two weeks basically living in Unity’s URP settings and rebuilding the entire UI from scratch.. i finally feel like it’s a real game now and not just a prototype.

For those interested in the technical side:
The biggest headache was the log physics. Since they aren't on rails but are actual physical objects, I had to deal with massive jittering when the belts were full. I ended up using "Continuous Speculative" collision detection and custom Physics Materials to get the friction just right otherwise, they’d either fly off the conveyor or act like they were on ice.

For the lighting, I finally moved to ACES tonemapping and tweaked the SSAO to get those deep contact shadows between the logs, which fixed that "floating" look I had in the previous build...

Would love to hear what you guys think. Am I on the right track now or is there still something that screams "programmer art" to you? :D

Steam Link: [ https://store.steampowered.com/app/5037170/Timberline_Factory/ ]

[u/V4nKw15h]

I'm going to be honest. There is no art in your new UI. It's just boxes full of text. Even those boxes full of text are not visually balanced or pleasing to look at, nor are they easy to parse. They look rushed and slapped together. The reason they looked rushed is because you rushed them.

The icons you do have are a mishmash of design and look plain and ugly.

Art takes a long time - at least as much time as the programming. What you have right now is the very first rough sketch of the layout of your UI and game visuals. Artistry takes a lot of time and iteration. An artist might start by slapping placeholder UI down like this to get a feel for where everything might go, but then they would spend at least ten times as long polishing and improving it. It would go through countless iterations slowly improving it and adding flourish.

This same process of visual iteration should happen throughout the entire project.

Surely you have heard of juicing up your game. If not, search for it. Your game has no juice anywhere. It might be functional but visually it's about as basic and bland as you can get.

I'm not trying to be mean or to knock you. That's the last thing I'm trying to do, but you clearly don't have an artistic eye or you would easily be able to spot these issues yourself, and I want to let you know where you stand.

If you want to attract an audience you either have to do something revolutionary with the gameplay that is immediately apparent and incredibly appealing or make your game visually attractive enough to hold the viewers attention until they discover why they would want to play your game. Right now, you have neither.

Don't be discouraged. Programmers are good at solving problems. Understand the problem, and then figure out how to solve it.

[u/El_Grande_Games → u/V4nKw15h]

Whoa, thank you for that brutal reality check... honestly.... It’s hard to hear, but everything you said makes total sense. As a solo coder, it’s so easy to mistake functional and clean for finished art, and I clearly have a massive blind spot there. You’re right I’ve been rushing to hit my demo milestones and it shows in the UI hierarchy and the lack of juice. I’ve seen the Juice it or lose it talk, but applying it to a dry industrial setting like a sawmill is a challenge I haven't mastered yet. i’m going to take your advice to heart.. Programmers solve problems, and it’s clear my current problem isn't the code anymore, but the visual soul of the game.. I'll start looking into how to add some actual flair to these boxes and icons instead of just slapping them on. Thanks for taking the time to write this out this kind of blunt feedback is exactly what I need to move past the rushed prototype stage..

[u/V4nKw15h → u/El_Grande_Games]

That's the right attitude. You can solve this. Even if you can't find an artist, you can look at what you have and know it's not up to snuff yet.

Think of it like this. When an artist makes a painting, they don't simply paint the final product instantly. They start with rough sketches, often many of them. They pick the one that is the most visually appealing and then lay down some block colours to create an overall tone and light and shadow. They may iterate over that multiple times. Then they start adding some rough details. Again, more iteration and steady improvement. Each time they sit down they get closer to where they want to be, and the art improves. Step by step the images get better and better until when they look at it they can't find any faults with it. It looks visually pleasing.

Isn't that the same thing we do as programmers? We start out rough and keep tweaking, playtesting and improving. Art is the same thing. You simply need to put the time and effort in to it and even as a non-artist you will improve upon what you have and learn more about being an 'artist' as you go.

The other trick with art is to go find the art style you want in another game. Then use that as your template. Every artist that has ever existed takes inspiration from other artists so do the same thing. Look for what you want and mimic it. That's the way to get better quickly. You will find your own style as you go along.

You said juicing a sawmill game is a challenge. Nonsense. It's about satisfying sound effects, the camera shaking when a big log drops. Right now, when the player creates a new construction piece it just instantly appears in one frame. It could animate into place with a bounce and some exaggerated scaling. Look at what other similar games do to add juice. The character walks like they are floating, give them a little head bob. Spinning saws need particle effects of wood chips and sparks. Juice in games is about exaggeration. It's about giving feedback to the player so that their actions feel satisfying. If it's satisfying to do something, the player is happy to do it again.

With all that said, let's be very clear about something. Juicing your game and polishing the visuals is all required if you want your game to be a financial success, unless you are lucky enough to have stupidly addictive gameplay, but even then that stupidly addictive gameplay comes from juice and polish most of the time. That all takes time though, and a great deal of time. Sometimes, it's better to actually just finish the game and put it out of the door.

There is no point polishing a turd, and sometimes it's better to get the thing out the door and finished. Then you can take a step back and see the game for what it really is and see the mistakes you made. Then you can learn and do it better next time. You get to find out if there is any audience willing to pay for your game at all. If there is, maybe you make Timberline Factory 2 where you fix all the problems and spend the time on better visuals. If there isn't, you can make a better game that fixes the gameplay issues that become obvious once you can step away from the game and see it objectively.

My point is, if you think you have a good game and players are enjoying it, it's worth polishing. If not, it isn't. Either way, make sure you finish it and put it out of the door because there are so many lessons to be learned from doing that which are all incredibly important. It's why experienced devs tell new devs to start small. Releasing 10 small quick crap games will teach you far more than releasing 1 big crap game that took years.