The artstyle is atrocious

[Mittsies]

Let me start off by saying that I've played and enjoyed many games with ASCII graphics or primitive tilesets; such as NetHack, DF and Brogue. ASCII graphics allow me to use my imagination to visualize what is happening, and I really like that. I understand that the gameplay itself is the most important aspect of a game, second to none. I also understand that investing time and money into the art assets means less development time for gameplay, which is bad. However this is not entirely an issue of art quality, this is more so an issue of bad artistic decisions.

I'd also like to point out that RimWorld is a fantastic game and I've logged 55+ Hours on Steam so far, still enjoying it a lot.

RimWorld's character models (pawns) are legitimately painful to look at. It is disruptive to the gameplay because I simply cannot get over how ugly everyone and everything is. I struggle to use my imagination like I can in ASCII or Tileset graphics because I'm instead forced to look at these hideous blobs of flesh that look nothing like human beings. The majority of the default hairstyles are goofy and distracting, despite being the primary visual identifier for pawns. I understand that the game is mimicking Prison Architect's style, but it just DOESN'T WORK for RimWorld.

Prison Architect's characters had "hands". Just a couple of circles was enough to make them feel like human beings. RimWorld's pawns not having any hands feels jarring and strange. Furthermore PA's characters were all basic shapes; composed of circles, squares, and a lot of sharp edges. Even hats and helmets followed this formula. Prisoners did not change their silhouette even while removing uniforms, and turning was a very slight skew rather than attempting to show them from a side view. RimWorld's pawns, however, look like a bunch of hideous flesh-blobs because they went for a slightly more realistic approach to body types (such as trying to show man-boobs).

And above all: Prison Architect was a totally different game, and its art-style was great for a free-build management game where you didn't really care about each individual person that much. But RimWorld is a ruthless survival game where each individual person matters greatly, and you want each of your pawns to be recognizable at a glance so you can micromanage them easier. RimWorld's pawns are primarily identified by their hairstyle, but that gets covered up completely when you give them a hat or helmet. It honestly just feels like zero thought was put into their design, even though I know that's not true, I know Tynan has put a lot of thought into it and I've read his reasoning. I know that the point of having a simple art-style is one part budget, one part less visual clutter. I find it incredibly hard to care about the character's well-being when they look so ridiculous, and that's not good for a game that's focused on clutch-survival.

Just my two cents.

EDIT: I will admit that this game's mod-friendliness has made it fairly easy to tweak some of the problems I have with the game's visuals. At least there's that. I now have 140+ hours of RimWorld played and I continue to enjoy it. Despite this review seeming harsh, I honestly really like RimWorld and I still tell my friends about it. It is easily the best Early Access games I've ever bought on Steam.

[Reviire]

Honestly while I do really enjoy Rimworld, I do think the pawn graphics are pretty sucky. But I don't think more realistic looking stuff would fit in at this point.

[Listen1]

There was someone doing a graphic pack for the game, as a mod, and some of the things looked fantastic.

Since the game is still on alpha, it is allowed to have some things as "placeholders". I've read nowhere that these are the final graphics. I believe that hands and more movement to the pawns, even if it was like PA or Rayman, will add benefit to the game.

Btw, the graphics do not bother me, but I know that they can be better

[b0rsuk]

I don't agree. I played many roguelike games and the only one where I couldn't stand the visuals was Dwarf Fortress. I like the art style of Rimworld. It has that symbolic feeling to it that I like.

Isn't there mod support for graphics ?

[Serenity]

They could be better, but they work alright. I like how some of them look. There also mods that show more is possible with hair, beards and hats.

[JonoRig]

Personally, I like the graphics, it was the first thing that attracted me to this  game and it's kickstsrter, it's minimalist, but hardly boring, and, to me, far from ugly. I like the pawns once I add a hair pack or two.

[Elixiar]

The art style is what drew me to the game.

[milon]

I also like the graphics, especially the pawns.  It's part of RimWorld's charm for me.

Having said that, I believe this is the thread Flying Rockbass was referring to:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=18733.0

[erdrik]

Im ok with the pawn graphics.
The general art for the pawns could be improved, but I don't think that improvement is necessary.

I do agree about the hair and how hats inhibit visual identification tho.
I've never really thought to look but it would be great if there was a "Don't show hats" option.
So you could still have colonists wear them, but the hats just aren't rendered.

Im also not a fan of some hair styles, but again understand the idea that they present a means of identification. But it doesn't help if the first couple of recruits after landing just happen to have the same body and hair style. Would be nice if you could build a Barber's Chair, and order a hair cut similar to how operations work. Then you could customize the hair to improve that identification.

[Listen1]

Having said that, I believe this is the thread Flying Rockbass was referring to:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=18733.0

Perfect, that is it, for me that would improve the game graphics. But I don't mind playing it the way it is.

But the more I think, more I would like hand (and schyter blades) to appear.

[MeowRailroad]

I feel like putting hands in Rimworld would turn the artstyle from "simplistic and clean" to "cartoony." I really like it the way it is, it is calm and simple and uncluttered.

[Tynan]

There was someone doing a graphic pack for the game, as a mod, and some of the things looked fantastic.

Since the game is still on alpha, it is allowed to have some things as "placeholders". I've read nowhere that these are the final graphics. I believe that hands and more movement to the pawns, even if it was like PA or Rayman, will add benefit to the game.

Btw, the graphics do not bother me, but I know that they can be better

These are the final graphics.

On the reddit AMA I talked more about why the style is the way it is.

[PotatoeTater]

I personally love the pawns and overall artstyle. That was a big draw to the game for me.

[pktongrimworld]

/imagines all the armless/mangled pwns.


yeeeeep

[ThiIsMe007]

I personally love the pawns and overall artstyle. That was a big draw to the game for me.

Ditto here.

As a big fan of "Prison Architect", everything graphical felt just right to me.

That, the VERY slick GUI (I just can't into DF for that only reason, sorry) and the fact that I could start playing the game WITHOUT the need to check a wiki prior, were the deciding selling points to me.

After my purchase, I've grown less fan of the random events that even on not-Randy stories cannot be countered by clever user input (like "blight" or "malaria" while the colony is still growing), but all in all I wouldn't want the existing game features to change too much, and rather see more nice features added in the future. Some balancing is okay and welcome.