I'm building a videogame. How do I give my game's world a unique fantasy aesthetic?

Cover art for the "Lumina Rift" game

Look at the Final Fantasy series and the work of Yoshitaka Amano or Akihiko Yoshida. Amano's dreamy art style established Final Fantasy's early atmosphere and Yoshida dominates the game's more recent installments.

Akira Toriyama, the mangaka famous for creating Dragon Ball was also the character designer for Dragon Quest! Unique game aesthetic can only be made possible because an artist with a distinct art style is part of the team.

If you don't have an artist yet, build your game's framework with placeholder graphics first. Find a flavor for your fantasy game by researching world cultures, historical epochs, ancient mythology, and other video games. I took what I liked from all of it and used it to steer the art direction of a team project.

Not long ago I worked on a demo for a fantasy PC game along with some colleagues. The game's working title was Lumina Rift and some of the concept art from that project can still be found in my art gallery. My team had specific instructions for me to keep in mind as the game artist. Final Fantasy as well as Dragon Quest wwere big influences on the art direction, which is why I mentioned them before. "Combat should be turn-based and menu-driven, like old school Final Fantasy!" requested my teammate, which resulted in this rough battlefield sample below.

This sexy digital masterpiece was the original rough draft for our combat system.

Art costs money, so make sure you have $$$ in your wallet. Someone with a dedicated budget who is willing to network a bit should look into the names listed in the credits of other fantasy games. Many of them are independent artists with Art Station accounts and social media. These are the pros that publishers work with to make commercial games happen.

Another option is to post ads like "seeking fantasy artist for game design" on websites like Reddit. There are several subreddits specifically made to connect with artists for hire. R/gameDevClassifieds should be one of the first places you look to hire a game artist.Reddit also has r/bookcovers for authors hiring story illustrators. Comic writers can collaborate with artists on r/comicbookcollabs.  If you're lucky, you might be able to score some free art on r/ArtRequest. There are probably more, but these are the ones I frequently use.

Costume alternatives for Naomi.

A game's art style is extremely important for making a project memorable or completely forgettable, so check every artist's portfolio. There should be examples of fantasy art to prove that they are capable of doing the work. If you still aren't sure if an artist is the right fit for the game, ask yourself if you would you buy a game with their artwork on the case.

Promo art for Naomi and Herlwin.

If you find someone for the job, send them all the relevant information about your project so that they can get to work! Be upfront with your budget because every artist has a different commission rate.

Artists need to know what you expect them to contribute. Since you probably aren't affiliated with a big name publisher who has enough funding to back the project, overly-ambitious games might scare off potential artists. Your game-making roles gotta be clear and manageable or else its gonna get messy.

Lumina Rift had three project roles: the game dev, the audio designer and the game artist (me). We started with a simple concept: find the "sulphuric star". Volf, the main protagonist, leads his comrades, Kiki, Herlwin and Naomi, to a location where they witnessed a falling star crash land on earth. Along the way, the team faces a variety of obstacles and low-level enemies. Once Volf and his friends get from point A to point B, the objective is complete.

Lumina Rift's playable characters were basic pixel sprites created by the game dev, so my job was mostly environments, character design, and promotional artwork. I was given the majority of creative control, so my art style had to solve aesthetic problems that the game dev and audio designer couldn't. The placeholder graphics were replaced by my hand-drawn assets, so players could see my art in action! The assets could be recolored and recycled for other levels as needed.

"Blue is the most beautiful color in the world, so lets use a lot of it," You got it boss.

A game's unique fantasy aesthetics depend on the game artist's individual art style. One of my regular clients is a writer that I found thru a Reddit post. She hired me specifically because my art style suited the vision she had of her fantasy world. Her characters are a mix of endangered animals and traditional fantasy races like elves or fairies.

To make Lumina Rift look unique, I drew from the team's collective love for Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. My art style in particular is best suited for fantasy games and comics, so if you have a project you would like to discuss, you can commission me directly thru Kofi or message me on Instagram so we can work out the details.