Aesthetics

This entry would be a quick follow-up to my To pixelate, or not to pixelate topic, where I briefly talked about my aesthetics problem of using pixelated art vs. modern HD masterpieces. Strangely enough, yesterday Extra Credits roughly talked about the same thing. Which made me wonder on how and what could be done in order to capture that magic, I so desire to see: A world that astonishes you, but also gives you a sense of wonder and magic. Getting the aesthetics right, both visually and technically, is not an easy task. [Like when you see an AAA title, with poor lighting and even worse--yuck--horrid normal mapping.] But I do believe that there might be a middle road, for having that something that looks fine (modern) and still captures the magic of said pixelated art. For starters, I thought to lay down a base for EOTH, by using The Lord of the Rings as an example:

(Mind you, this is the Theatrical version! Highly recommend to watch this one.)

Clear and definitive when it comes to defining what is good or bad, cold and hot, etc. High fidelity might take out the need for using your imagination, but with proper aesthetics, it can be reintroduced (combined with cleaver storytelling), even reinforced to an extent. At least that would be my plan to start out with . . .

Questing

* It's important to mention that it has a lot to do with timing (literally and figuratively): When is the quest presented to the player (in town or in battle), are there distractions or pushing factors (e.g.: is this quest for leveling up, or to get that item that I need), does it worth their time (aka. fun enough), etc.