Don't cramp my style (Patreon)

Caution: This post contains screenshots of other surgery video games that some might find unsettling.

Let's be honest. Surgery isn't particularly pleasant to think about, much less look at.

I knew from the get-go that whatever art style I'd pick would set the overall mood of Cutting Edge: ROM. So getting it right was a huge priority.

But what sort of mood was I going for?

Mobile

Well, I pretty quickly knew what not to do. A cursory search of existing surgery-like games showed that most of them are simple mobile games. And, in my opinion, most of these simple mobile games were simply disgusting.

Cold, stainless steel tools haphazardly strewn over a wincing, oddly cartoonish man. Viscera and blood on full display, often exposed by metal clamps forcing the flesh aside. The same scrub-teal color dominating the rest of the color space, burning your retinas.

Yeech. Source: Google images

Of course, if you're going for something more realistic or for shock value, then that's perfectly okay.

But that's not what I wanted.

I knew I wanted something more stylized - something that wouldn't turn most people away the moment they saw it.

I also didn't want the game to look the same as this sea of mobile games. Funny how they all look the same, isn't it?

I was including funny talking animals in my game, for crying out loud!

To make sure I knew what not to do, I took a sample of said games and blurred it, to get an overall impression of their color schemes.

I also made an approximate palette, and looked at a histogram of colors.

Whites and grays from the tools, and stereotypical teal/jade often seen on scrubs. A relatively small amount of red contrasts with these colors, for the fleshy bits.

These mobile games are typically saturated and are 'in your face.' They don't make use of the darker part of the spectrum.

After conducting this research, I came up with the following guide of what I planned on not doing.

Do NOT use the following:

Somewhat realistic 2D art style.

Oversaturated colors.

Teal/jade stereotypical medical scrubs color.

Oversized, mobile-friendly UI elements.

Overly-detailed organs.

Gore or viscera that evokes an “icky” or “cringey” feeling.

Cool. So what should I do, then?

Well, what can I do?

Asking myself this question helped narrow things down a lot.

I'm a 2D digital artist, and have been drawing as a hobby since around 2012. I've found that developed a sort of toony, simple style over the years.

A piece of fanart I did of Cobalt Core. Fun fact, it's actually got the most upvotes in the game's artwork category over on Steam.

Apart from that, I also made a decent amount of stuff in Flash. But I'd barely done anything in 3D, so that was more or less out of the question. I was looking to make my own assets, so I was also locked into things I could do within my existing style.

And since the game would feature anthropomorphic animals, I was shooting for a less realistic style. I didn't want the game to be too too serious, and my toony art style was along the right track for that.

Trauma Center

Well, how did they do it?

Source: Trauma Center: Second Opinion and Trauma Center: New Blood

Honestly, the difference between the mobile examples and these is night and day. Trauma Center makes use of a much different color scheme - something I would describe as more mellow and stylized.

The histogram of the previous screenshots. Note how much more of the full color range it uses.

Unlike with the mobile games, I always found TC's graphics way more pleasant to look at. Plus, figuring out what was actually happening on the screen was pretty easy - something that's important for, you know, a video game.

That's not to say this was an open-and-shut case. Even within the TC series, the style could vary greatly.

Oh. Source: Trauma Center: Under the Knife

The original TC (Under the Knife) featured graphics that were quite a bit more 'realistic.' I think they realized it was turning some people away, though, and Atlus backed off for Second Opinion and New Blood.

Shiny. Source: Trauma Team

On the other hand, I think the style was pushed a bit too far in Trauma Team. It wasn't just me that thought tumors looked like gems...

Maybe a little too abstract. Source: Trauma Team

Now, at least I had some good litmus tests to guide me.

To Stand Out

above the crowd, even if I've gotta shout out loud... Ahem, anyway.

I learned something recently that honestly blew my mind. It felt like unlocking an art cheat code. In hindsight, it was so obvious, but not something I ever actively considered. Now, I obsess over it.

It's checking your art's value, regardless of color and saturation.

This excellent article by Valve explains it way better than I ever could. Long story short, in most cases, whatever you're making should "look right" when it's desaturated.

An example...

Here's an older version of the game with placeholder art. Focus on the lacerations. They're not bad, but something feels off about them, doesn't it? Almost like they're also a bit difficult to make out.

After desaturating, the issue becomes clear. There's basically no value contrast between the cuts and the underlying organ. Yes, there's a decent hue difference, but that alone doesn't give me the visuals that I want.

There's also not enough brightness difference between the organ and the cavity in the background. It feels... flat.

When I started replacing placeholders with real, final art, the stomach was the first organ I tackled. It was important to get right, as it would serve as a "canvas" for the ailments you'd be removing, and I'd base how I'd draw every future organ off of it.

I pulled up the brightness of the organ a bit, which also gave me more breathing room to add some shading so it wouldn't look too flat.

I made the lacerations much, much darker, and reduced how much visual attention the background cavity was stealing. The increased contrast also makes it easier to focus on the organ.

Even though the glass has a similar brightness as the organ does, its transparent blue is enough to clearly set it apart.

The exercise of making the "real" stomach sprite was what really set me on the right path. I was quite satisfied by the results, and had a good template of what to do moving forward.

Color was also a huge consideration when designing the game's characters.

Even in black and white, the characters are readable, with borders being reinforced by large amounts of contrast.

Cutting Edge: ROM

In the interest of wrapping up this post, here are some more examples of what I ended up going with!

I'm pretty happy with the results, though it's fun to imagine what the game could've looked like.

And as thanks for making it this far, here's another screenshot from an earlier build of the game, featuring more placeholder art!

The overall contrast is pretty bad. The white outline also isn't particularly pleasant...

Expect to see more in-development screenshots in the future! Until next time!