Keep up the beautiful work.

Today I’d like to point you all to a nice article I found on A Hardy Developer’s Journal (Igor Hardy’s blog). It’s actually the first submission by Joshua Nuernberger (La Croix Pan, Boryokudan Rue), and totally oriented towards Point-and-click adve…

Hotspots: You are correct in that it defeats the principle of visual direction, but as a last resort, it’s still a tool you can utilize to direct the player. I threw it in just because it’s what I do when I can’t direct the player any other way–maybe I should’ve specified that better? So yes, it’s not technically visual direction (because it downright states an order to the player) but I still thought it was important to mention it as a useful tool when all else fails.

Contextual Trails: I agree. The blood is an afterthought, because in this case, I was working with a composition that was more or less set in stone. Maybe if I was designing the room with this issue in mind I would position the ramp better to subvert the directional problem. The way I talk about visually directing the player in this article is by using methods after you have set up a composition–which sometimes means you can’t break from it, and then must work around it.

So yes, I probably should have talked about composition, which may also be better suited for a drawing tutorial. Anyway, I’ll just say: throw your objects away from the edges!

Obviously sometimes these “cheats” are necessary because of time, budget, etc. mean you cannot redo an area.
However I think an article instructing the reader in visual direction should focus more on planning your layouts beforehand and the methods of mise en scene so that you can minimize your need to resort to reactionary measures to tidy up after yourself.

And before you ask yes I DO feel like a wank for dropping the term “mise en scene”

Concerning #2 you forget to mention that the thrown on label appears on screen only during special circumstances (when pointed at with the cursor), so it is hardly something obtrusive. In fact it is a very functional while not terribly ingenious method of highlighting a visual element.

Redoing graphics until they are perfect is definitely an approach worth admiring, but also highly impractical. That goes for dozens of other elements that go into a game too – in the end some things you decide to redo, but the majority you just fix and improve. Otherwise you are never finished with your game.

However, I definitely agree with your notion that good communication with the player through general visual composition of the images is a precious skill to have and minimizes immensely the struggles to visually direct the player. If only this skill was easier to achieve.

#4 (Contextual traits) seems sound enough in theory, but in your practice the blood just looks like a cheesy last minute addition and the ramp would have been much better highlighted had the background been redrawn. General image composition is probably the most important part of visual direction!

I think that highlights some of the general problems with this article. The solutions you give only treat the symptoms of poor art implementation-itis, but don’t fix the disease itself.

I think you make a some very good points, this one particularly resonated with me: “…there are no bad players–only bad designers”.

Very interesting read!