Industry Practice: Case Study - the art style of Don't Starve

Art Style Case Study: Don't Starve

Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment 2013) and Don't Starve Together (Klei Entertainment 2016) are survival games in which players command thoroughly unprepared explorers stranded in the wilderness. Over the course of in-game seasons, players gather equipment, craft items and armour, grow crops and explore the world to combat dangerous monsters and find resources in hazardous biomes. With somewhat surreal and fantastical theming, many of the monstrous creatures in the Don't Starve games are chimaeras of a sort, mixtures of two or more creatures that create unique combinations that represent specific themes or seasons in the game.

For example, the "Bearger" enemy is a mixture of a Badger and a Bear, with a hulking humanoid form, bear-like claws and a badger's head. This unique combination of animals is used in Don't Starve to represent the season of autumn, with badgers and bears both being animals representative of the season.

Turnaroud sprites for the Bearger. (Klei Entertainment n.d)

This artistic choice for the design of the world, when coupled with the art style of the game, creates a highly unique game look that adds to the tone and theme of the game. This is seen in how the game straddles tone: it is both dark and whimsical, the story about survivors starving, getting hurt and losing sanity in the wilderness, though it is presented in a package that is not overtly graphic and more verges into the territory of dark comedy (Alex Wawro 2014). It still bears a bleak tone, however, and still uses elements of horror in the game, and I feel the art style used in the game assists this tonal enforcement greatly.

Promotional Art for the Turn of Tides update. (Klei Entertainment n.d) 

Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment 2013) and Don't Starve Together (Klei Entertainment 2016) use scratchy, sketchy lines and desaturated colours almost everywhere in the game, from promotional art to character sprites to monsters and the environment they live in. This creates a stylistic cohesion in the game, one that is unified in its sketchiness and chaos no matter where in the game you are. With the games designed to be unforgiving survival experiences, this scratchy style helps to show a certain unease in the world, with lines rough and ragged and harsh, as if they were drawing scrawled down in haste.

Turnaround sprites for the "Wilson" character (Klei Entertainment n.d), The "dropped razor" sprite (Klei Entertainment n.d)

In this, the style of the Don't Starve games is somewhat simplistic, not relying on complex shading or realism at all to convey characters or environments. It is simple in a manner that assists the game in cultivating the surreal nature of its theming, with both characters and monsters being highly animated and emotive. The gothic nature of the style, described by Klei Entertainment's Writer, Kevin Forbes, as having "Burton-Gorey-Addams" inspiration (2014).

Christmas Card with Robot and Female Prisoner (Edward Gorey 1945-2000), Clockwork Bishop Sprite (Klei Entertainment n.d)

Looking to Edward Gorey - one of the cited inspirations for the Don't Starve art style - comparisons can immediately be drawn between his work and the art of Don't Starve. Abstract and gothic, with unsettling shapes and malformed proportions, the image shown above - showing a large and cylindrical robot - is mirrored in the "Clockwork Bishop" enemy found within the Don't Starve games. This robot bears a long and slender shape: a stark difference from the short and squat characters seen in Don't Starve, who bear large and disproportionate heads. This creates vertical space between the Bishop and the characters, creating an overarching intimidation between the enemy and the player. This height difference can similarly be seen in the composition of the Edward Gorey piece, as can the too-slender legs that hold the automata up, giving it a somewhat whimsical and unrealistic appearance in the context of the scene. This assists in making the robots seem like outliers in the environment, their height and odd physicality creating a sense of estrangement from the rest of the scene and the other characters. It is evident, through design alone, that there is a divergence between the robot and the character, and I feel that such a use of height and composition could serve to easily show differences between characters in our project.

Clockwork Bishops appearing after a Maxwell Statue was mined. (Klei Entertainment n.d)

I feel that the Don't Starve titles use of a unique art style to convey tones and theming is potent and a strong example of how art style could be used to similar effect in our visual novel project. I chose Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment 2013) due to the uniqueness of this style: in previous discussions we have spoke about using a "creepy/cute" art style in our game, and I feel that this unique art style is shown clearly in Klei's titles. The scratchy lines, desaturated colours and gothic tone do not necessarily make the Don't Starve games feel overtly dark or oppressive, though they do contribute to an overall tone that is unsettling and innately creepy in form. The exaggeration of facial expressions could also be used to effect in our project, as this could be used to very simply show different facial expressions in characters. Additionally, the creepy/cute aesthetic, whilst cultivating a theme of creepiness or unease, will fit our target demographic of 14+ whilst still bearing enough artistic flexibility to show the darkness and unease of the narrative we seek to convey.

Bibliography:

Images:

Edward Gorey, 1945-2000. Christmas Card with Robot and Female Prisoner [online]. Available via: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/202030/christmas-card-with-robot-and-female-prisoner [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Klei Entertainment, n.d. Turnaroud sprites for the Bearger [online]. Available via: https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Bearger [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Klei Entertainment, n.d. Promotional Art for the Turn of Tides update [online]. Available via: https://dontstarve.wiki.gg/wiki/File:DST_Turn_of_Tides_Promo.png [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Klei Entertainment, n.d. Turnaround sprites for the "Wilson" character [online]. Available via: https://dontstarve.wiki.gg/wiki/File:Wilson_Original_in_game.png [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Klei Entertainment, n.d. The "dropped razor" sprite update [online]. Available via: https://dontstarve.wiki.gg/wiki/File:Razor_Dropped.png [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Klei Entertainment, n.d. Clockwork Bishop Sprite [online]. Available via: https://dontstarve.wiki.gg/wiki/File:Clockwork_Bishop.png [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Klei Entertainment, n.d. Clockwork Bishops appearing after a Maxwell Statue was mined [online]. Available via: game/images/0/05/World_6_Maxwell_Statue_After_Mined.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20130328134819 [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Video Games:
Klei Entertainment, 2013. Don't Starve [online], PC. Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/219740/Dont_Starve/ [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Klei Entertainment, 2016. Don't Starve Together [online], PC. Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/322330/Dont_Starve_Together/ [Accessed 16 October 2024]

Websites:
Alex Wawro, 2014. Road to IGF: Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve [online]. Game Developer. Avilable at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/road-to-the-igf-klei-entertainment-s-i-don-t-starve-i- [Accessed 16 October 2024]