Fifa Street Takes New Art Direction

by Patrick Steen on December 5, 2007 at 8:19 pm

A Pleasing Direction I Might Add.

Fifa Street. Hmm…Fifa Street. Not very memorable was it. Things are about to change. Things are about to get exaggerated. People are about to grow huge calf muscles and tiny knee caps. Fifa Street 3 is offside, and changes things up.
This is the generation for developers to express themselves artistically and show us what they’re made of. An EA game being artistic? My word, what is happening to the world!?

Fifa Street is an arcade football game, so why not try and make it different? Joe Nickolls, the games producer, took this view and wanted the games art style to compliment the exaggerated gameplay, where it’s not uncommon for players to perform over-the-top moves.

This is why the art style falls under a “heroic” stylized look, rather than a photo-realistic one. A look that might be compared to Team Fortress, or even (at a stretch) Uncharted. They created a caricature style for the players, that emphasises their athleticism, but also makes them recognisable rather than “goofy”.

Looking at the lanky Peter Crouch in the England team is quite hilarious, but it’s certainly not out of this world – you can tell it’s him, and when you play as him you’ll definitely be able to feel his advantages (strange sentence I know) – his height. When everythings exaggerated, players are both recognisable and distinct.

The stylisation continues on to the environments with lighting and shading all creating a distinct and exciting look, with locations that stray from the norm for a football game – a beach, or a Mediterranean roof top.

So Joe had a target for the game:

It was important to us that if you were to walk by a kiosk or store window that was playing FIFA 08 and FIFA STREET 3 side by side – you would know at a glance that FIFA STREET 3 was a different experience.

And thanks to a stylised look for both players and environments…you will. Why not have a gander at the gallery.