I wanted the art for my game to be as simple as possible -- my own style is intensely meticulous and I overly detailed for an iPhone game. The most successful iPhone games are very streamlined and uncluttered in appearance. Therefore, I started looking at styles that were capable of representing forms with few lines and strokes.
Phoenix Wright, a well known title for the DS, uses simple shading and lighting in order to portray depth. Anime, while not my style of choice, is very good for expressing human form in an oversimplified way. Next, we go back to a game previously mentioned as an influence for its gameplay, The World Ends with You.
TWEWY is very distinctive, using thickly weighted lines and again, simple shading, to express form. The game is very consistant in its style, with each character thinly waisted and many enemies reminiscent of animals a person might find in the real world.
Above is an image from Tales of Symphonia. While in-game, models are heavily simplified and not overly detailed. While this game is not handheld, it captures the intentional movement away from realism I was trying to grasp. Below are some initial attempts and experiments, moving more toward something closer to what I wanted to achieve.
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