Art Direction in Game Remakes: Key Takeaways from the Nordic Game Talk
Video game remakes and remasters, despite their reputation, are far from being straightforward. Making a successful remake is a complex quest that requires significant creative, engineering, and management efforts. The increasing interest of IP holders in reviving older games coincides with an increasing role of external partners—like ourselves.
Boti Harko, our Art Director, and Hunter Wright, Associate Game Director at Dragons Lake (our Development team for PC & Console), gave a talk on the topic at Nordic Game 2024. We compiled the key takeaways from the speech for you below.
Why Make a Remake in the First Place?
Titles we used to love playing as kids are inherently nostalgic, holding up in our memories as vibrant, detailed, and pretty much flawless. The truth is, most titles we enjoyed years ago don’t hold up very well today—especially from a visual standpoint.
This is one of the reasons behind the emergence of remakes. Technological advancements play a significant role, with modern tools and improved computing power making it easier to achieve high-quality graphics. Remakes make it possible to retell classic stories, often in more compelling ways—with visual storytelling evolved to cinematic levels.
The Industry Trend
The appetite for risk of publishers and developers has decreased greatly, with companies relying on well-established and recognizable games more than ever. This is because of the increasing costs of game development and the need for commercial success to stay afloat.
Remakes provide a safer bet, offering fans familiar content with modern enhancements. Balancing fan satisfaction with modern user preferences and technology is challenging—but vital.
Importance of Art Direction and Visuals
Art direction and visuals are more important than ever. Successful remakes recreate the feeling of the original while building on what before were technical limitations and adding value with the new tools and technology at our disposal years later.
Dead Space, released in 2023 as a remake to the original 2008 horror classic, is one of the gems in Room 8 Group’s portfolio. We humbly believe that it is a prime example of how to preserve the original art direction while enhancing details that previously could only be implied.
Addressing Quality of Life Improvements
Aside from the massive art direction enhancements, making smaller changes can contribute to a well-done remake. Modernizing user interfaces, implementing auto saves, and even offering options to switch between new and original graphics to appreciate how far we’ve come can significantly enhance the gaming experience. These quality-of-life improvements are relatively easy to implement but have a substantial impact on the final product. Your goal while making remakes is not to recreate the game 1 to 1, but to make it better while respecting the source material.
The Resident Evil series exemplifies successful remakes. Adapting the IP to the current market’s shift towards 3rd person experiences, Capcom rethought the original series from the ground up to cater to modern audiences. Thanks to the usage of a custom game engine, the franchise saw vast improvements in art direction, shifting from fixed pre-rendered camera angles to dynamic 3D perspectives, while maintaining the original story and character essence (but also drastically improving core elements, such as Ashley’s AI mechanics in Resident Evil 4). Similarly, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth transitioned from implied detail to a living, breathing world, with more nuanced and expressive characters, solidified architecture, and fleshed-out backstories.
Summing Up
Effective remakes aim to match how players remember an original game, retain the core elements that made it successful while adding previously unattainable features. Remember: understanding the player base and ensuring a good collaboration between IP holders and external partners is key. The guiding question should always be: “Is what we bring to the table doing the original team’s efforts justice?”
