Hello everyone!
Over the last couple of years, the look and feel of Age of Ascent has undergone a major transformation. When I first began creating assets for the game, I attempted to match reality as much as possible. This posed a few problems for me. While most of these dilemmas were technical limitations due to our old 3D environment (now rebuilt), the biggest issue for me personally is that attempting total realism in a video game is boring! I have always been drawn to playing games that are heavily stylized, especially in a 3D space.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.ageofascent.com/2020/06/15/art-and-design-philosophy-of-age-of-ascent/