My buddy got this new action game last week after seeing an amazing trailer with excellent explosions and amazing character features. As soon as he started playing, he called me confused because the game seemed much easier than it did in the ads.
Most people don’t realize this, but games use two very different kinds of art. A game art studio might create promotional art to get you interested, while the visuals in the game are what you really play with. I’ll show you why this is much more important than you think.
Need Game Art Services?
Visit our Game Art Service page to see how we can help bring your ideas to life!
The Two Types of Art That Make Games Work
Games combine two very different kinds of art.
The first thing is the in-game graphics, which are what you see when you play. In-game arts needs to work hard while you’re creating things, shooting, or leaping.
It has to be:
- Quick and smooth, so your game doesn’t stop working
- Not too heavy for your device to handle
- Prepared to adjust and move right away
Then there’s promotional art, which is the cool stuff you see in advertising, movies, and posters. Promotional art doesn’t make your PC slow down or your phone crash. It only has to look great and make you want to play.
They both work together. Promotional art makes you want to play, and the in-game graphics keep you playing for hours.
What is In-Game Arts?
What truly goes on when you play your favourite game? In fact, your computer is trying really hard to show you 60 moving pictures every second. That’s like viewing 3,600 frames per minute, and modern game art trends push these visuals to be more detailed and immersive than ever.
In-game arts have to follow some pretty strict rules:
- Works on a wide range of devices, from a five-year-old phone to the newest gaming PC.
- Stay smooth even when things become chaotic
- Looks nice without using a lot of electricity
- Load in less than 3 seconds, so you don’t have to wait.
Think about games like Fortnite or Mario. More than 10 different kinds of devices can run Fortnite. Mario games, on the other hand, can be played on anything from small mini devices to big TVs.
It’s really hard for the game artists here. They’re simply trying to build something that looks good and can perform backflips without getting tired. It’s extremely interesting how these artists come up with new ideas.
They use colour and light techniques to make your eyes see more detail than there really is. It seems simple, but it’s really magic. A character with just 5,000 triangles might seem equally complex as one with 50,000.
Read More: Game Art Design: How to Make a Game Look Awesome
What Is Promotional Art?
Promotional art has one main job, and it is to get you excited about a game. And honestly, it’s pretty good at that job! This is where artists can spend 2-3 weeks on a single image and create the most stunning visuals possible.
In general, promotional art doesn’t worry about technical stuff. Plus, it doesn’t need to run at 60 frames per second or work on your friend’s old tablet from 2018. Game artists can spend forever perfecting every tiny detail.
What you’ll see in promotional art:
- Amazing effects that would crash most games in 5 seconds
- Perfect lighting that takes 8 hours to set up for one scene
- Incredible details that would slow everything down to 2 frames per second
- Dramatic scenes that tell a story
It’s a lot like movie trailers versus the actual movie. The trailer shows you the most exciting 2 minutes with perfect lighting and dramatic music. We can say that the movie is still great, but it’s a full 2-hour experience with quiet moments too.
There is also one bad thing about promotional art. Some people feel a bit tricked when the promotional art looks way different from the actual game. That’s totally understandable!
But most game makers aren’t trying to fool anyone. They’re just showing you the vision and feeling they want their game to have. It’s about capturing the spirit of the adventure you’re about to go on.
In-Game Art vs. Promotional Art: The 6 Key Differences
We will break down the main differences between in-game graphics and promotional art.
1. Technical Limits
- In-game graphics have to work on your device without causing it to overheat or crash. So, they must run at 30-60 frames per second as you play.
- But promotional art has no such limitations; artists can make it with as much detail and fancy as they wish.
It’s like the difference between making a fancy meal for a picture in five hours versus making dinner in 30 minutes. Both may look wonderful, but one must be ready quickly, while the other might take ages to perfect.
2. Creation Timeline
The timeline means promotional artists can dream big, while game artists have to make those dreams work in the real world of limited memory and processing power.
- Artists often make promotional art first, sometimes 2 to 3 years before the game comes out. They create these stunning videos to draw in investors and generate excitement.
- However, the in-game visuals follow them and try to mirror that vision as closely as possible.
It’s kind of like planning a trip. You look at pictures of beautiful vacations and then try to make your own when you get there. Sometimes the weather lets you get pretty close, and other times it doesn’t.
3. Purpose & Goals
- Promotional art makes you want to play this game. It needs to catch your eye in 3 seconds while you’re scrolling through hundreds of other games.
- In-game graphics have a different job since they keep you happy and engaged for 50+ hours of playing.\
This is why promotional art often looks more dramatic and exciting because it’s literally designed to grab your attention and make you stop scrolling.
4. Budget Allocation
Most game budgets spend about 60-70% on development (including in-game graphics) and only 10-15% on marketing (including promotional art). But that marketing art often gets way more attention because everyone sees it.
Game companies know that one piece of amazing promotional art might be seen by millions of people, while the in-game graphics are only seen by people who actually buy and play the game.
It’s like spending most of your money on ingredients for a restaurant, but putting extra effort into making the menu look amazing. The food has to be good, but the menu has to make people want to try it.
5. Audience Targeting
- Promotional art targets potential buyers who might spend 10 seconds looking at it.
- In-game graphics target actual players who will stare at them for dozens of hours. These are very different groups of people with very different needs.
Someone looking through the App Store quickly wants to find something cool. But someone playing for 3 hours straight needs something that won’t hurt their eyes or distract from gameplay.
6. Quality Standards
- Promotional art only needs to look good in one picture or video, so it can go for perfection.
- In-game graphics have to find that sweet spot between looking good and running smoothly.
It could take more than 40 hours to finish a single piece of promotional art. But each piece of in-game art could take between 5 and 10 hours to make because there are so many of them, and they all need to work together without slowing down the game.
Real Games, Real Stories
Let’s discuss some real games and how they dealt with the difference between promotional art and in-game graphics. Some of them got it right, others learnt the hard way, and a few came up with incredibly smart ways to fix things.
The Good Ones: Spider-Man PS4
Spider-Man PS4 used its marketing graphics in a creative way. The videos and pictures looked great, and they also seemed like something you could really play. People were thrilled when the game came out because the visuals in the game were what they had hoped for.
The swinging across New York was exactly as smooth and fun as the trailers said it would be. Of course, there were minor differences in the lighting, but the main experience was still there.
Spider-Man PS4 shows how to make promotional art that gets people excited without giving them too much to hope for. The idea was to display genuine gameplay instead of flashy cutscenes that fail to portray what the game is really like.
The Learning Experience: No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky is definitely the most well-known game, where its promotional art and the actual gameplay are quite different.
Earlier videos showed huge monsters, busy space stations, and worlds that looked amazing. The in-game graphics at launch were… well, much simpler.
Players were hoping to see those huge creatures that looked like dinosaurs and detailed online battles. But they got a simpler adventure game instead.
The team wasn’t trying to fool anybody; they just showed their ambitions before they found out what people could really do on their computers.
However, the developers maintained working and adding features for 5+ years. As a result, the game has since gotten much of what the initial ads said it would have.
The Creative Solution: The Legend of Zelda
Nintendo found a really clever way to solve this problem with Zelda games. They use a cartoon-like art style that looks the same in promotional art and in-game graphics.
When something is stylized rather than realistic, it’s much easier to match the promotional materials.
Breath of the Wild’s trailers showed the same colourful, painted look that you see when playing. The promotional art didn’t have to be super realistic, so the in-game graphics could match it perfectly.
This approach works because cartoon-style art ages better and runs on more devices. A realistic character from 2010 looks old today, but a cartoon character still looks great.
The Honest Approach: Indie Games
Many smaller indie games are getting really good at being upfront about their in-game graphics. Games like Stardew Valley and Hollow Knight show exactly what you’ll be playing in their trailers. No fancy cinematics, no impossible promises; just the real game.
These developers often use actual gameplay footage in their promotional art. So, when you see a trailer, you’re seeing the exact same graphics you’ll play with. It might not be as flashy as big-budget trailers, but players trust these games more.
The indie approach proves that being honest about your in-game graphics can really help sales because players would rather know exactly what they’re getting than be surprised by something different.
What This Means for You as a Gamer
Now that you know about in-game art and promotional art, there are some really smart things you can do before buying your next game.
The main thing is learning how to spot the difference between fancy promotional art and real in-game graphics.
Always look for actual gameplay videos first because they show you the in-game graphics you’ll actually be staring at for hours.
Most game stores now make developers include real gameplay footage, which makes everything way more honest than it used to be.
Pay attention to these warning signs when browsing games:
- Screenshots labelled “promotional” or “not actual gameplay”
- Trailers that only show cutscenes and no real playing
- Games that avoid showing UI elements like health bars or menus
- Too-perfect lighting that seems impossible for the platform
The gaming world keeps getting better at being transparent about this whole thing. More developers are figuring out that happy customers who got exactly what they expected beat disappointed customers who felt tricked.
Everyone wins when promotional art and in-game graphics work together instead of trying to fool people.
The Future of In-Game and Promotional Art
Gaming has come a long way since the early days of 8-bit games, when box art had nothing to do with the games inside. We now have great technology that gets better every year. Promo art and in-game images are getting more and more alike as faster phones and better graphics cards come out.
The coolest part is seeing how developers come up with new ways to combine the two types of art. Some games look so good these days that the art used to promote them is mostly just pictures from real games. Others use clever art styles that look great in both previews and the real game.
Finally, both promoting art and in-game shots should be praised for what they do. One makes you dream of travelling to new places and having exciting adventures, while the other takes you there and lets you stay there for hours.
