Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is one of those games that I've played ever since it was a pixilated side-scroller during my early childhood. While the more recent 3D versions of the game aren't all that interesting in terms of story-line or gameplay, I think the visual/art/design style for this particular game is absolutely breathtaking and very unique.

The entire game has been done with a very painterly aesthetic - the characters look like they have been painted - they are not intended to look super-realistic.

The worlds also have that painterly aesthetic - they are still incredibly detailed, but each environment, each screenshot looks like it could be a painting in itself.

I love how light has been used in this image to really just highlight the blades in amongst the darkness. This creates a very good atmosphere and puts the player on edge.

The game's world has a rich history, so this really has a large impact on the design - from environments to buildings to the finer details, as is shown in this image. Although a painterly style has been used, the artists and designers have still taken a lot of time with detail and and other aspects such as textures.

I love how artists can draw inspiration from all corners of the world - this tower/building reminds me of the Bible's "Tower of Babel" - I'm not sure that this is what it's meant to be, you can certainly see it if you use your imagination.

A lot of the Prince of persia concept art pieces, like this one and many of the other "environment concept" pieces are proper and complete artworks in their own right - many of them look like they could be oil paintings made by the old masters. I really love the aesthetic of the game - it's really refreshing to bring in more "traditional" art styles into such a digital world.

The character design is equally amazing - there has been so much attention paid to detail. I like how the backgrounds to all the character-based pieces have been kept simple but still create a suitable environment for the character while still allowing the character to be the center of attention.

I also notice that a lot of these pieces have a very constant colour scheme - sandy yellows, golds, oranges - this effectively links all the pieces together - you could easily extinguish these designs from other game's concept art.

I always love looking at concept drawings/paintings of characters who are in the same pose but repeated many times with different clothing - it really helps you grasp the different 'states' of a character and allows for easy comparison.

I like how the main character is still easily recognisable as the "Prince of Persia" from the old games - there is nothing worse than when a company takes something you grew up with and have a bond with and they change it completely. They have obviously changed the character a lot to suit a less pixelated, 2D world, but one can look at him and still believe that he is the same character.

I really like the rough and sketchy nature of this image and the one below it - they have a very painterly aesthetic which is really beautiful and works really well in concept art.