December 10, 2020

GGGB vs ORS: Art

Visual Novels combine two main aspects, as the name implies: the writing and the visuals. Art has always been very important for me, and I don’t know what I am first: a writer or an artist. In any case, writing and gameplay has to be good and engaging to make the player invested in the game, and even though I think it’s the writing what will make the player stay, it’s the art that pulls you in in the first place. So the art has to be sexy to look at!

I’ve said before that I’m a bit ashamed of GGGB’s production values, but at the time it was the best I could conjure up. I’ve talked about the process I followed to come up with this visual style before, but in short, I wanted naturalistic art with a semblance of elegance that went along the tone of the writing and the overall experience. But most important of all I needed a style that was easy and fast to produce and that would allow me to pump out dozens of illustrations per month while writing and coding the game all at the same time. It was far from perfect, but... It was good enough. And you know what they say, “better done than perfect”.

ORS follows the same principles, but it’s a big improvement: after GGGB’s success I was able to invest in my own game and I didn’t need to do everything myself anymore. Hiring someone to color the illustrations has been awesome: it allows me to spend more time on the art itself, making more polished and sexy illustrations, and drawing more pictures per scene too. And now the illustrations have shadows and volumes, they’re no longer flat colored. I can say ORS looks like GGGB should’ve looked in the first place, or how I would’ve liked it to look.

Truth be told, when I started looking for someone to help me with the coloring I wasn’t envisioning this result. All I wanted was a more polished look than GGGB, but when I found Lenadai and she sent the test back... I knew I had to hire her! Now I can say the game looks even better than my original projection, and that, to a creator, is a great joy. And the backgrounds... well, I don’t need to point out the obvious, do I?

All I want now is to grow my patron base to be able to invest even more money on the project and make it better: more original music, more backgrounds, more art. Do you think ORS looks better than GGGB, or you have a soft spot for the older, simpler art style? Do you prefer 2D or 3D art in adult VNs? And would you be hyped for a future Evas Kiss game with even better art, commissioned entirely to a better artist than I am?

Other posts on GGGB vs ORS series:

Gameplay

Main Characters

Themes

Structure

Themes (2) 

Comments (16)

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Pites · December 10, 2020

I totally agree with other patreons about the preference of 2D art over 3D. It makes the game something unique and special. And it is truly impressive how far and better the art has gone from GGGB.

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Kris Pavey · December 10, 2020

I like the 2D art and the unique style was what first attracted me to GGGB. Things like Daz3d at least let people who are not skilled artists have a go at making their own VN. But does lead to a lot of 3D novels seeming kind of the same.

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TommyTheDude · December 11, 2020

Verrrrrry samey. I’ve played games where the faces are just straight up in other games

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Burak · December 10, 2020

do you think Good Girl Gone Bad remasted/remake ?

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Alfred · December 10, 2020

Sometimes I feal like there is alittle bit too much text between the Options to choose. I can see the Problem, if you want to make almost every decision to matter, wich is good and the text. Maybe sometimes being able to have a clicl collecting things in the picture or something like that would make the game a bit more entertaining. I think the new charckters feel a bit deeper, they seem to stay a bit more in charackter. Lena which is working in the cafe and doing nude photo shots for money and fun is a bit more believable than the old one (forgot her name). Why that boy leaving to somalia? Why did the girl become a Gangster/whore/slut/whatever? The answears were clickable, but seemd to be a bit random. The new guys seem to stay mire in charackter. Don't get me wrong, GGGB is one the the top games around here, but the charackter building is better I think. Allison is an old friend of the guy and becomes friends with benefits. Lena is having fun with a guy from work (and one from the club, wich is just a sex thing). I really liked that's why I send you these line. Storyline and Charckterbuild are important I thing. Love both games. Keep on the good work

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Breadloaf · December 10, 2020

GGGB has really good art and it feels like you're underselling it, but ORS look better, without a doubt. The art is what lured me into your games while the story and choice mechanics kept me interested. So no need to be ashamed of the art in GGGB! Regarding 2D vs 3D, I don't think that any is superior to the other. But most adult game creators just use the same stock 3D models and even though they might do some tweaking they all look more or less the same (because the models are the same...). If you had the funds available and found an artist with the same style who exceeded you, I'd be all for it. But I think that's hard to do. In the near future I'd say that the best option would be for you to more or less only provide with a sketch, and someone else do the digital inking, and colouring and tweaking instead of you still doing several of the tasks.

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Michael F · December 10, 2020

I like the art on both games, tbh. 99% of games (that get more than basic attention) seem to be, (or at least base their style on) anime/manga. Personally, I really REALLY don't like that look, so your art has been a breath of fresh air.

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Christian · December 10, 2020

I love both games, spent manymany hours of GGGB the only thing that i dont enterily like abot the ORS style is the colors for the hair of lena alison and mabey minerva. but thats very nitpicky and just a personal preference. Keep up the good work!

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Soulandshadow · December 10, 2020

ORS is a much better looking style to GGGB. You are able to put ore detail into the character, as well as make them seem more realistic. GGGB screams of an older style which was good there are better now and I think ORS capitalizes on that. Now all that being said if the artist or artists change and you have a new game I’m still honing to be intrigue because I know you are talented

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Brother Bethor · December 10, 2020

It was precisely the Art of GGGB that caught my attention. Until then, all VNs I've seen had just run-of-the-mill, standard, boring 3d graphics, that I've zero interest to delve in. I'm not a connoisseur of adult VNs but basing on my limited knowledge I can say that your games are very unique. I love both your games. Both have their own distinct style. Possibly the only thing I could think of to change in GGGB would be the background art. And that’s because the ones we have in ORS are absolutely gorgeous. Does ORS looks better than GGGB? Of course it does, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not playing it anymore from time to time. Would I be hyped about a new game drawn by different artist? Honestly, I don’t know. But if that would mean that we get a game with more art and you, focused entirely on writng and coding, then I could live with that. ;)

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Dominique · December 10, 2020

Any feature / change / improvement is a function of effort vs. result, isn't it? I really love the art of ORS vs GGGB. If you can afford the change, it's absolutely worthwhile. Hypothetically, would I prefer more, elaborate storylines (or more art per scene) at the cost of going back to a GGGB style? Probably, if that was the price to pay. But you get to make that choice, it's your game and the art in ORS is certainly at a sweet spot right now. It really is beautiful. I just hope you continue to take the steps you feel are in the spirit of the game you want to create. So many games are delayed or shortened or just shallow because animations are suddenly mandatory for every other scene, which add so little value in story telling in the end.

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JamesonMonkey · December 10, 2020

I am actually pretty sick of the 3d art in other visual novels. I feel like it looks generic. Half the time they never get the hairline right, you could probably interchange a few characters from different games and no one would notice, and they always give characters enormous breasts. Your art is unique, realistic and appealing

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Julian Harper · December 10, 2020

I do love your art, and think ORS is a huge step up from GGGB. As for the future, who knows, just continue doing what you’re doing and keep pushing yourself

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Rodokmontau · December 10, 2020

2D vs 3D: The 2D in ORS is the best I ever has seen, i love it at it is super sexy. I do love 3D art too, but it has to be to level 3Dart and not a lot are abel to do it, and a lot of it become generic in difrent games. So if you want to do 3D you would have to make your own models and not just use stuf right out of the box like alot of games do, and do cool backgrunds too. All in all i would say what evere way you can make more art for us the better. So if you can make more 2D than 3D the I want the 2D art :)

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Valukun · December 10, 2020

GGGB has good art, but ORS is far superior on every level. I would still be interested in an Eva Kiss game if you didn't do the art but I think your art style is great enough already

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PBR Games · December 10, 2020

When I started playing GGGB I thought that the art was a bit minimalist, but then, ehile continuing playing, I also thought that the poses and drawings were really hot. But when I saw the arts from ORS, I just loved it since the first time I saw Lena. So yes, for me, ORS is the best, but I love GGGB just as much.