Art fatigue

Art fatigue is what happens when players start to notice that the same art keeps coming back. Joel Burgess of Bethesda Game Studios defines it this way: "Art fatigue sets in where this repetition becomes obvious and erodes the authenticity of the world" (Game Developer: Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design).

It is a cost of reuse. Modular kits, trim sheets, tileable materials and instancing all exist so a small team can build a large world, and all of them repeat. Some repetition is unavoidable, so the aim is to keep it from being noticeable.

#Art fatigue in long games

Burgess points out that the median play time of Skyrim on Steam "has peaked at well over 100 hours", long enough for players to notice "the same rock or farmhouse or tapestry" again and again (Game Developer: Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design). In the 2018 interview he calls repetition "the great enemy" (80 Level: Building Huge Open Worlds: Modularity, Kits &…).

#Repeated detail and repeated architecture

Bethesda found that "players were quicker to react negatively to repeated detail elements, as opposed to broad architectural repetition" (Game Developer: Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design). A distinctive tapestry or a uniquely broken pillar is remembered; a plain wall section is not. For this reason, repeated hero detail is noticed sooner than repeated architecture. See hero assets, props and filler.

Kit design matters too. "Equilateral kits are very versatile but will tend to look the most repetitive" (80 Level: Building Huge Open Worlds: Modularity, Kits &…), and kit-built levels can "show the grid" (80 Level: Building Huge Open Worlds: Modularity, Kits &…).

#Ways to reduce art fatigue

• Mix kits. Bethesda's level designers "simply tried bashing Dwarven hallways with ice caves", which gave "an instant shift in tone and atmosphere"; Burgess calls this "kit-bashing, kit-jamming, or a kit mashup" (Game Developer: Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design). See kitbashing.
• Keep kits separate from content. Burgess avoids "hard associations between kits and certain gameplay or artistic decision"; "Seeing a posh castle kit covered up with grimy kobold assets and moody lighting will shake up player expectations and fight back against repetition" (80 Level: Building Huge Open Worlds: Modularity, Kits &…).
• Add light unique assets. "Lightweight unique assets and enemies" in a familiar kit "helps keep the setting fresh and combats art fatigue" (Game Developer: Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design).
• Off-grid placement. Skyrim's shell-based building layers "freely placed walls, pillars and balconies to break up the play space in an organic way" (Game Developer: Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design). On The Witcher 3, Michał Janiszewski says: "By not using a grid for mesh placement and having everything slightly imperfect we make it more believable" (80 Level: World Building of Witcher 3).
• Repurpose pieces. Janiszewski describes "taking a rock and using it as a cliff, rotating it to use as a climbable platform, or ceiling of a big cave" (80 Level: World Building of Witcher 3).
• Variants. Burgess suggests adding "01 as a suffix to any piece which will feature visual variants", so variants sort together and can be swapped (Game Developer: Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design).
• Colour, atmosphere and light. Kassondra Krahn, who says "Almost everything in this scene is repeated dozens of time", hides it "by using colour variations, atmosphere, or light", including tinted material instances and snow, moss and fog blended over the rocks (80 Level: Using Repetition for Creative Design). See vertex painting and blending and breaking up tiling.

#Related terms

modular kits, kitbashing, glue pieces, breaking up tiling, set dressing and art passes, hero assets, props and filler.

#Further reading and watching