How can you create mood and atmosphere with art direction?

When brainstorming the mood and atmosphere for your upcoming game, it's crucial to break out of your usual echo chamber. Don't just limit your research to other video games. Branch out and draw inspiration from different realms—like the fashion world or the film industry. For instance, consider the atmospheric depth in movies like 'Blade Runner 2049' or the avant-garde stylings of Alexander McQueen's fashion films. There's a whole universe of creative genius out there, waiting to inspire your next project.

Art direction and Game design are two different jobs, saying that art direction is a key elements of game design is wrong, is a key part of successful game. In gaming choosing a consistent art style also means that you need to consider the interaction layer. For examples in Tomb Raider the white is the grabbable edges color and orange is interaction in the scan mode. This ads a layer of complexity to the art style because you need to mix these ancient ruins with a white color on edges. To create a consistent art style you need to think about: the theme, the story, the meaning, the visuals, and the gemaply

Consider color and lighting as your narrative compass for guiding your viewer or player. Just as music conveys emotion, so does color. I often compare it to the customer journey map (CJM) in business: just as a CJM would guide a customer through intended touchpoints, strategic use of color and lighting can draw a player into specific emotional experiences at key points in the game. This way, we curate the player's experience. In fact, with a strategic approach to color, you can even map out and anticipate those reactions in advance.

Don't stop at colors, think about the light effect, does it flicker? it moves? it can be interacted? Etc In gaming, the behaviour of an object is as important as the color, shape and affordance of the object. An interactable light usually means puzzle, while static light are for illumination, flickering light are a danger, and moving lights need to be followed. These are general rules and you can create your own rules within your game, but don't stop at color.

I strongly feel that texture is hugely important to design professionals. In fact, it’s a fascinating element in any design category. To most creatives, sensory experiences are unequivocally key to any creation. Tactility possesses two elements: firstly, the capability of being felt or touched, and secondly, the responsiveness to stimulation of the sense of touch. Incorporating textural interest to any concept adds depth and visual interest, and by introducing elements such as these, it affords a mysterious allure: one can’t resist brushing one’s fingertips along an unexpected texture with the ultimate prize of an unpredictable sensory experience, gained through the stimulation of one’s curious sense of touch.

Camera movement and camera behaviour are really hard in gaming, you need to creates several gyms to find and test the right metrics that will work in your game. That's where most of game stops, when they have found the right metrics, they never change them because it will require a huge work on LD. While is right that changing your camera means that you have to change your metrics, not having a dynamic camera is a mistake. Dynamic cameras give a huge sense of quality and can immensely improve the mood and atmosphere of your game. How can you do that? For 90% of your game you should use your standard metrics, however (usually at relevant narrative points) create dynamic cameras that work only in that space

As I iterate on art direction and provide feedback to the artists, I consistently circle back to the core story or narrative. Every detail we consider—whether it's the environment, VFX, or even the protagonist's hairstyle, no matter how minute, conveys a part of the story. It's crucial to keep the broader picture in mind, occasionally stepping back to ask, 'How does this particular element bolster the narrative and craft that cinematic allure for the player?'

Bruce Block teaches us to be deliberate in our visual choices. Use space, linear motif, tone and color to support the narrative intentionally and draw the eye. There's no preset answer for this, it's all case specific.