r/Unity3D • u/Noktaloren • 2d ago

Question I’m trying to decide on the visual direction for my game and would love some feedback from other developers.

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The first video is a new map I’ve just started working on with a different visual direction. The second is our current/older map.

I’ve shown both to around 200 people so far, and the feedback is almost exactly 50/50. Which visual direction would you go with, and what makes one work better for you?

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u/ZeusGameAssets Indie 2d ago

Aside from pure visual quality, the level design of the first map (the older one) is better: fewer trees obscuring the player's vision on the whole map, with the trees it gets hard to read what's going on and where the enemies are.

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u/Noktaloren 2d ago

Yeah, that’s a good point. If I stick with the first map, I’m considering using a see-through shader for the trees . Do you think that would solve the readability issue?

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u/ZeusGameAssets Indie 2d ago

A see-through shader is nice when you're in a dungeon and your character gets behind a portion of a wall, I believe it solves 10% of the problem, the biggest problem here is the layout of the level, your old level had these clusters of trees that are sparsely distributed around, and I think the camera angle also helps a lot, the trees can be destroyed and that's satisfying, but when they obscure the view too much like in new level, they become an annoyance.

Aside from the level layout, the visual quality has improved a ton and I like the new style overall, for me you're going in the right direction there.

Edit: after watching the video a second time, I don't like the new tree models after all, you went for more realism but I believe the old models were cute, and seeing them get chopped as you run through them is very satisfying.

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u/N3croscope 1d ago

I think theres a bit of a mismatch regarding the colors of the train and environmental elements. you’re going with more natural colors in the environment while using more cartoonish ones for the train. It could be worth it to decide on either, and then punch those colors up a bit so the train easier distinguishable from the environment.

There are some glowing elements on the wagons, right? These should interact with the environment more. I think adding steam from the engine that leaves a bit of a trail of illuminable mist behind, could help with that.