It may seem like the monsters I've been making are pretty undetailed, even old fashioned
compared to more modern games, but I'm going for a certain look with the
game, and the smaller characters allow me to get more on screen at
once.
Even a big creature like the stone troll will be pretty small on screen, so the low poly and small texture sheet approach is just right for the game. Here's a picture of a couple of trolls at around real screen size:
You can zoom in a bit in game, and when they are animated you can see more of the details, but generally it's not that important to see every single tooth, or individual eyeballs, even with a character like this. I'm trying to create a look which is reminiscent of the old 2d RPGs, kind of like 3d pixel art. (similar to this)
Why? Because I'm working on my own, and I need to choose a simplified art style just to make sure I can make the required amount of assets in a reasonable amount of time.
A game like Skyrim has a team of 100 developers working full time for 3 years. For my project there's only me for a couple of hours each night, so I have to choose an art style which is achievable. 10 years ago it would have taken me weeks to make a monster like the one above, but these days there are so many handy tools that I can increase my workflow ten fold. It takes me a single evening to make a monster from start to finish.
EDIT:
For monsters which already have a mesh and armature it takes just an hour or two to bash together a reskinned version of the monster for use on other levels. I made a plant ogre for the vegetation level, or perhaps a sea troll:
It has an alternative walk cycle and attack animations so the fact that it reuses the base troll armature won't really be noticeable in game.
Even a big creature like the stone troll will be pretty small on screen, so the low poly and small texture sheet approach is just right for the game. Here's a picture of a couple of trolls at around real screen size:
You can zoom in a bit in game, and when they are animated you can see more of the details, but generally it's not that important to see every single tooth, or individual eyeballs, even with a character like this. I'm trying to create a look which is reminiscent of the old 2d RPGs, kind of like 3d pixel art. (similar to this)
Why? Because I'm working on my own, and I need to choose a simplified art style just to make sure I can make the required amount of assets in a reasonable amount of time.
A game like Skyrim has a team of 100 developers working full time for 3 years. For my project there's only me for a couple of hours each night, so I have to choose an art style which is achievable. 10 years ago it would have taken me weeks to make a monster like the one above, but these days there are so many handy tools that I can increase my workflow ten fold. It takes me a single evening to make a monster from start to finish.
EDIT:
For monsters which already have a mesh and armature it takes just an hour or two to bash together a reskinned version of the monster for use on other levels. I made a plant ogre for the vegetation level, or perhaps a sea troll:
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