A game's art style sets the tone for players. Most titles games go with one single video game art style that create their mood and defines their visual identity. But can a game use more than one and combine them in a coherent way?
Here's one interesting upcoming indie game that tries to do just that, and appears to manage the transition very well. World War V: Last Call makes surprising and seamless shifts from retro 2D pixel art to 3D voxel art, and the demo is leaving people impressed (don't miss our guide to Prime Day Switch 2 deals if you're looking for bargains on new games).
My indie game shifts between pixel art and voxel art (demo available!) from r/IndieGaming
Developer Studio HORANG describes World War V: Last Call as a comic and lighthearted war action game, which already sounds strange. The game features voxel battlefields with breakable terrain and a bunch of unique enemies and bosses.
The developer says most of the battles are in 3D voxels, but some story parts and a few mini-games are shown in a 2D pixel art style. This choice was made to "keep things fresh and fun," the developer wrote on Reddit.
The game is being built in Unity, and the developer created a custom voxel-running system on top of the game engine. Voxel art is used with shaders to make it look good in 2D.
The transition was the hardest part to execute, the developer says, but people are impressed with the result shown in the footage above. The depth of view from certain angles creates a striking diorama effect, one person notes on Reddit.
A World War V: Last Call demo is available on Steam now.
If you want to experiment with novel game concepts of your own, see our guides to the best game development software and the best laptops for game development.
