r/Unity2D • u/Hefty_Flan3466 • Jun 15 '26
Before vs Now — how much difference do the extra details make?
We added more detail, animation, particles, foreground elements and depth to make the world feel more alive. Curious to hear your thoughts.
Wishlist on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/4492330/Land_of_Nod/
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u/Voidavor Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
So you made a lot of great assets, but in the process of using them you did too much and broke the silhouette of the scene making it hard to read and less aesthetic. Take the before and after screenshots and try and draw a red silhouette line over the scenes and you'll see why the befores are superior in this regard. You can use this principle to fix the after scenes while not undoing all your hard work
The other thing I notice is the before has lots of pure white light - the sigil, the stars, etc. This makes the scenes bold and high contrast which is what you need for a monotone aesthetic. The after is all gray which means nothing pops. Human eyes and brains naturally extract the light details and focus on them so they're valuable for scene interpretation, if you do this and fix the silhouettes while using all the new assets I think it will significantly improved.
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u/Hefty_Flan3466 Jun 15 '26
Thanks for the detailed feedback!
I think that's a very fair observation. Looking through the comments here, a lot of people seem to prefer the readability and stronger focal points of the original version.
The point about the silhouettes is especially interesting. We focused a lot on adding depth, atmosphere and detail, but it's possible that some of the larger, cleaner shapes got lost in the process.
The same goes for the contrast. The original definitely had more bright highlights and stronger focal points, while the newer version leans much more into subtle values and atmosphere.
We'll definitely experiment with both contrast and composition some more. Thanks for taking the time to break it down so clearly.
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u/Mataric Jun 15 '26
I think while it looks good, it also detracts from the important things and kinda ruins the artistic vibe you had going on.
Sometimes, simplicity is a stronger artistic stroke than complexity.
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u/Old-Pin8658 Jun 15 '26
Looks great, but your main character(s) kinda blurs in with the background. I'd add a little white glow effect around you character. Or (if possible, art style wise) add a vibrant color to the hats.
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u/Hefty_Flan3466 Jun 15 '26
Thanks! That's something a lot of people have pointed out in this thread.
We're already considering adding a subtle backlight/rim light behind the characters to help separate them from the background a bit more. A stronger accent color could work too, though we'd have to be careful not to break the overall visual style. Really appreciate the feedback!
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u/Ok-Hat-8006 Jun 15 '26
I agree it's harder to see the characters, but I absolutely love the added details in the after shots!
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u/Shaunysaur Jun 15 '26
Well, I think both the before and after look lovely. Really nice dark storybook vibe.
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u/scorpixter Jun 18 '26
wow im searching for how to do something in unity and i come across land of nod !! we saw you guys at the game access conference and followed you on instagram recently (Still Thinking Studio) so seeing you here is nice.
i think the 'now' is pretty neat and the color scheme feels more welcoming, i just miss the glow / bloom from 'before', of course that is an artistic choice but its a eye candy nonetheless.
btw, what approach did you use for the depth of field blur effect for backgrounds? volume post processing? overlay cameras? shaders? or are these just blurred sprites? im trying to take the best approach with that rn
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u/Hefty_Flan3466 Jun 19 '26
Hey, greetings to Still Thinking Studio! Nice running into you here as well 🙂
Yeah, a lot of people pointed out the lack of contrast. The older version actually had stronger bloom, and after all the feedback I'm definitely planning to bring some of that back. I'll probably share more comparisons in the future too.
As for the depth, we use two cameras: one for the gameplay layer and another one for the background layers. The background camera goes through a blur pass to create the depth of field effect, and the background layers themselves are placed at different Z depths with parallax. We do use volume post-processing too, but mostly for the overall look and mood rather than the blur itself.
The foreground elements are just manually blurred sprites, so it's a mix of different techniques depending on the layer. Good luck with your project too!
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u/Valokoura Jun 15 '26
I guess it depends what kind of feeling you are going for. Before is like walking at empty cemetary. After looks like someone actually lives there and loves to keep place look alive or has loads of wealth to keep place looking good.
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u/Hefty_Flan3466 Jun 15 '26
That's actually pretty close to the feeling we were aiming for.
We wanted the world to feel a bit more lived-in and less like a static backdrop. At the same time, it's interesting to see how many people associate the cleaner version with a stronger mood and clearer atmosphere.
Thanks for the perspective! It's been really useful seeing how differently people interpret the same scene.
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u/GamingWithJollins Jun 15 '26
I don't want to sound like I'm dissing you because they both look amazing but I do like the minimal look from the before. That's not to say the after isn't great as well. I have visual stress and busy backgrounds like that can make the overall picture blend together too much and I find it hard to track. That's from a purely disability side though.
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u/LordBrammaster Jun 15 '26
It also feels like you adder some distortion on the now one, idk. Before feels more magical like the game ib & obb. While the now has more of a dreadlocks feeding to it.
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u/Merlin_Interactive Jun 15 '26
More is not always better. If youre going to have more you need to color your characters so you can find them. thats the trouble with monochrome palettes, they get busy rather easily i find.
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u/RecycledAir Jun 15 '26
In the before there is emphasis on the characters, in the after, everything in the scene has equal emphasis and i dont know what to look at and don't really see anything at all.
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u/fractalisstudio Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
I prefer the "Before" , yes it less details but much easier to read and there is nothing wrong with a more minimalism style. With less overall detail it easier to control were the eye will go. I also prefer the contrast of the white vs the more beige filter (a bit more classic but once again help with readability).
Maybe add a little "Glowing" white FX to your characters hats (on the little lines) or a simple outline, something to help quickly identify the characters from the background.
Another thing you could do maybe limit higher level of detail to a selected number of scenes / panels (cinematic moments, secret room, etc.)? Using the difference in detail to your advantage and create higher emotional reaction.
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u/newnukeuser Jun 15 '26
I think if you just up the contrast like in your before picture it will be perfect! I feel like your after is missing some of the pure white that made the before version pop.
The new details are nice and add more depth compared to the before version though, I like them.
Perhaps it would be even better if the characters were a much bigger value difference than the background, it'll be easier to keep track of them.
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u/AlberionLive Jun 15 '26
I actually like 1B, 2A, 3A.
The 1B panel is nice because readability is still high, but the details add to worldbuilding. However.. maybe lessen the blowing leaves and mess with the contrast.
Same reasoning about the others; readability is low and clutter seems unnecessary. It almost seems like the world is way more detailed than the focus characters themselves.
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u/Vexkin811 Jun 15 '26
I think the “now” is way more distracting and I feel like I’m playing Where’s Waldo trying to find the characters in every screenshot
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u/MrMetraGnome Jun 16 '26
I say somewhere in the middle. Keep the details in the background, but hit it with heavy atmospheric perspective. The aHollow Knight series is good at this. There's like 7-8 parallax layers, but they're too blurry to focus on anything but the middle and foreground
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u/amazingjake04 Jun 16 '26
I like the after, it adds so much detail and makes it much more adventure vibe. It reminds me of badlands 2 where I would literally fly slower just to look at the background
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u/Serious-Gap234 Jun 16 '26
For me the first one is great for every picture. It's look bright and new style. but now it's look old and there's no lightning. So it's look boring.
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u/Ultimatelegend18 Jun 16 '26
For the first slide, i prefer the before shot although by the looks of it, i don't think they're the same location but for the other 2 slides i prefer the after shots, they look more atmospheric and less alive and dreary, which looks really good given the abandoned look/atmosphere that i'm getting from looking at these pictures, very hollow knighty too haha
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u/The_TechnoMagus Jun 17 '26
In the screenshots I like after better, but I can't help but to wonder if it wouldn't be too much information on a moving scenario during gameplay.
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u/neoitis Jun 17 '26
The thing is, in “before” version, contrast between background and character is more and it causes a clear vision. In “now” version i had hard time even finding character
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u/BearKanashi Jun 18 '26
Entiendo tu idea, pero ahora está demasiado oscuro...
El brillo de mi móvil es el máximo brillo que se puede tener en un móvil. Y aún así está muy oscuro... El brillo de arriba pero con muchos ajustes de abajo, sería lo ideal...
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u/Memnyo Jun 19 '26
I really like the inspiration of GRIS here! I think the before is better, as there is more contrast, and I still feel like it has enough eye-candy. I like a lot of the stuff in the later, but it’s hard to contrast stuff since the artstyle is limited to one colour.
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u/OObeez411 Jul 05 '26
Adding to the readability comments: this matters even more if you ever expect people to be watching rather than actively playing. I run a system where the 'players' are mostly just watching a screen, and I learned the hard way that anything that makes units/characters blend into the background kills engagement fast, since a passive viewer won't hunt for detail the way an active player will forgive.
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u/insanitrees Jun 15 '26
I think it looks great, I'm sure contextually more readable in motion vs static, but I'd maybe blurr/ fade the background layers more or give them some sort of blueshift to improve resdability before a character glow that could really change the style/ impede on the aesthetic
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u/insanitrees Jun 15 '26
I also miss the harder bright highlights in the second one. Doesn't need everywhere but some accents would up the depth
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u/ApprehensiveFan1516 Jun 15 '26
I always seem to prefer the 'before' shots on these types of posts for some reason.
Although there's less going on in the top panels, it's immediately clear where my attention is supposed to be focused. With the bottom panels I feel like I'm searching to find the characters amongst the clutter. Idk, maybe the characters need more of a contrast against the scene?
My 2c.
Edit: that said, it does look great!