I took a break from implementation work on my side project in favor of just exploring worldbuilding (and "story refactoring"). And while most of that has been on the story side, a nice side benefit is that I've mostly figured out the art style for the game's setting. It is "The most advanced and gorgeous AAA game graphics but with a tilt-shift effect to make them tiny." I am sure it'll be totally doable for a solo, hobbyist project by someone with no programming or art experience.
(It's nice to just dream and never ship anything).
I got all these screenshots from the artist/youtuber Flurdeh, who posts up a number of tilt shifted videos of AAA games. Here's the Elden Ring one they did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ9RU7pznTs
What strikes me is that these are great to look at, but would be horrible to experience in the games showcased - mainly, action-adventure games where there's a lot of camera movement since the blurriness and depth of field is so overpowering. As a player, you would not be able to define what the eye (or camera) focuses on. However, I think a narrative-based game that needs a lively backdrop and no camera movement would be a great match. This leads me to opine once again that I just wish AAA games would let other people reuse their assets for other games, like tie-in visual novels, so we have more opportunities to gaze upon all this fantastic art.
