Concord - A Case Study in Character Design

[@diamonddust4486]

This game is honestly a perfect example of everything you can do wrong withcharacter design and there's so much we can learn from it.

[@Aliens1337]

The dev team tried really hard to break away from "stereotypical" designs, like the small skinny characters are fast or the big burly characters are tanky. Like they tried to add elements to those types of design tropes to make them different, but in the end, it became a mess. The designs don't stand out and you can't tell what kind of things each character can do from the design, which is an important aspect of competitive FPS.

[@kranichkrone]

The photorealistic art style they were reportedly forced to use did them no favours.

[@blumoon131]

You're the first person that I've come across to be critiquing these designs and actually bring up the importance of poses.

[@Philip-bz2pg]

I love how everyone uses the trailer footage because the game didn’t exist long enough to get anything else

[@soullevel7930]

Even if wanted to try this game out (I didn't), I never even got the chance to play it, because by the time I was slightly curious to see what the gameplay was like, it was gone.

[@HandOn-c40009]

17:25 hi fi rush in realistic artstyle would just be Scott Pilgrim movie

[@lanterns_glow]

One of the best example for the Silhouette Test is TF2, using characters like Scout and Heavy. You get the idea that Scout is this small,speedy nuisance because of his hunched posture, running in the frame, and his eyes forward look. This is the guy that you see for a few seconds before BAP! your rib cage is now a rib splinter across the floor. He's probably easily killed though because he's so scrawny. Compared to Heavy, who is this huge bear of a man, box chested and bulky with small legs and a massive gun held by equally big meaty arms give you the idea that YEAH that's the Tank, he's got a fat stack of HP and he's probably going more for a saturation/supersession fire over direct damage. He's also probably slow- short legs and that gun probably weighs as much as he does, so he's not going to be going anywhere quick. Bam. Two characters and you instantly know they're the polar opposites: a small fast speeder dps and a big slow bruiser who soaks up wherever you toss his direction. Even then, you get characters like Soldier with his slight hunch and the rocket launcher on his shoulder compared to the casualness if Sniper with his rifle; the low down posture of Pyro toting a flamethrower with Spy and Medic's more refined called to action professionals looks; Demoman's upright cheery movement with his launcher compared to Engineer with his wrench. 9 mercs, 9 silhouettes, and all tell you exactly who they are at a glance, even with cosmetics.

[@mechanwhal6590]

No other class gonna do dat!

[@AxiamWolfe]

Seeing the Concord character select screen, and all the nothingburger animations and poses contained within, made me realize how dynamic and striking all the Apex Legends character select screen poses are. Both the full length selection intro, and the last second’s snippet you get when mousing over each Legend are iconic and expressive. Sometimes I even lock my character in early just to ensure my teammates see the full animation during my turn to choose.

[@BackToTheGame.98]

I think the worst part of Concord's character designs is that they're very uncohesive. They look like they were made with a custom character generator, rather than thoughtfully designed.

[@magnatcleo2043]

Like someone hit the randomize button and just took whatever it gave them.

[@juniorjunior5884]

Double that with their names. The most npc names ever for lead characters.

[@MerelyAFan]

From a design standpoint, Concord's characters feel like paragraphs made up of multiple different languages; even if you speak all of them, they'll still bewildering to try and read.

[@kharijordan6426]

Hu...a literal red flag.... At least someone who worked on the game has a sense of humor.

[@nesmario123]

Teo Concord is unironically the funniest design ever.

[@r3dh0ll0w8]

He is literally just a dude with plastic armor😂

[@WarFoxThunder]

FR

[@kylele23]

John Cord

[@GurrenPrime]

I love how bored he looks in the character select screen.

[@OdaNobunaga15]

It’s like a really off brand cosplay of the Scout from TF2

[@Wandermidget]

Concord's character design feel like a bunch of first-time amateur cosplayers, cosplaying some Sci-Fi show I have no knowledge about.

[@ChimeratAlpha]

From what some people have reported from inside sources, no one was able to offer any critique, which explains a lot.

[@ChimeratAlpha]

@@toomanyaccounts That makes it so much worse. Thanks! >_

[@turbine219]

This is what happens when you're meetings are ruled by toxic positivity.

[@MrTomemac]

I see the deliberate use of the grayscale thumbnail there lol. I mean even when splotched with color you can tell from a mile off that something is WAY off with this game. The fact that these "artists" could make such a basic error at that level of "professionalism" is astonishing. Did no one check it in grayscale? Did no one check the silhouettes? No contrast, no consistent accent colors? Non readable structures attached willy-nilly to the characters. That one with the beekeeper helmet? Like wth yo. How did anyone not catch that in the years it took to make this?

[@yoko_bby]

This is what happens when you have a culture of "toxic positivity" you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so you say that the designs are good even though they are not. You can't make anything good this way, you're essentially gambling. Go look at concept art for any major game franchise they almost never settled on Thier first draft of anything

[@soullevel7930]

@@MrTomemac I have a feeling that the artists and creative people involved wanted to change these designs and did notice these issues, but like I mentioned in the video it’s possible that there was interference from Sony. I’m sure that the artists wanted to do more and wanted to refine these designs as much as they could, but clearly something prevented them from doing that.

[@MrTomemac]

@@soullevel7930 It honestly doesn't sound like a healthy work environment tbh. If these designs ,which are inherently broken, are approved over pretty much anything else that would make better sense. And that is just from a basic visual language level. It feels like internal communication was broken in several places along the chain.

[@SauloA333]

Come and play CONCORD! WE GOT: ✓ A Florida iguana man with a lifeguard vest ( Security first!) ✓ A reciclying bin (Plastics only) ✓ A woman cosplaying as a bowling ball (Bowling ball included) ✓ Earth, Wind & Fire looking ahh mf ✓Paco from the workshop ( HR didn't grant him medical leave so he came to the construction site with colonoscopy bag) ✓ Some guy who stole a football uniform ✓ A girl with a fishtank stuck on her head ✓ ????

[@LoikrLoikr]

Good analysis! I even came out learning a thing or two about it. Its really mistifying how designs this bad could go through so many green lights. I guess whoever was in charge didn't listen to a single complaint about them.

[@arcanealchemist3190]

i recently graduated with a degree in animation, and ive watched 3 or 4 of these "what's wrong with concord's design" videos. might end up doing my own, because i feel like a lot of people arent looking at this in the right light. it is SO easy for people to blame the realistic design, say they arent stylized or cartoony enough, and just point out the failures of a few characters while repeating the fundamentals of character design. but the designs arent all bad. most of them are pretty bad, and even the good ones arent amazing, but there's a lot more nuance to this that i just havent seen represented. there are great examples of a similarly realistic style, that succeed without being set in a totally realistic setting, like Apex Legends, and their legends, or the art direction for Cyberpunk 2077, which managed to make some really memorable characters while still being very grounded in their setting, destiny, which apparently lost a lot of talent to this game also succeeded in making the realistic style work just fine. and like, the robot assassin lady is cool? several of the characters are conceptually interesting designs that are just failed by a game whose overall art direction was lacking in vision. even the weird catgirl(?) alien chick could have been saved by a retexture and some minor tweaks. it doesnt seem like an utter failure in character design, the artists who worked on this were clearly talented. the animation on display in the cinematics and in what ive seen of the gameplay are studio quality. and in those cinematics, the designs are weak, but not failures. the game fails artistically in more serious and complicated ways than that. and it leads back to the game design way more than the character design. something i would have loved to hear you talk about, because I'm pretty certain you could have made an hour long video dissecting the actual game design faults it had, with your own degree in game design. from what i understand its classes werent destinct, and it allowed you to rebuild the same character with different gear, and that whole system was a design mess which wasnt well communicated and didnt really do the game any favors.

[@soullevel7930]

The realistic art style isn't inherently the problem. It's the other elements of the character design combined with the realistic look that caused some problems. I bring up God of War 2018 in the video as a realistic game that has incredible art direction (Cyberpunk 2077 is also a fantastic example). And yeah, absolutely the models themselves are extremely well made and high quality. The artists who worked on this game absolutely are skilled at what they do. It's just the art direction that isn't there and when the art direction/style is lacking, it'll turn people off no matter how high fidelity the art assets actually are. While my degree was game design related, my focus within the degree was all on 3D art. Since I have worked on games in school, I know a thing or two about game design, but definitely not as much as people who are dedicated designers. I think you should totally make your own video talking about the character animations in this game and why they didn't work. That's a lens that I really haven't seen people talking about much.

[@nathanmitchell7961]

Thankyou man its good to have actual anaylsis rather than people yelling "WOKE" at every thing they fail to adequately describe or explore.

[@williamdrum9899]

I think that was part of why they thought these designs were good to begin with despite having zero fundamentals

[@MsMvsc]

Fr, I find the failure of concord fascinating. But sifting through low quality grifters who just shout "woke" is frustrating.

[@PurposefullyIneloquent]

Anybody who uses the term woke as a criticism immediately loses my attention and respect. It's such a low IQ complaint and it betrays people's underlying biases.

[@baalfgames5318]

Not gonna lie: it's refreshing. I don't like the designs either, especially not the painted human alien designs, but cry-wokers only caring about the characters "not being sexy" makes me feel more sympathetic towards the designs.

[@birb5306]

@@baalfgames5318fr fr

[@dumbvillage9253]

Concord's designs feel like shopping lists of personality traits, that are disconnected with each-other. Deadlock's Infernus is a calm, collected Bartender with a spark of fire. His design perfectly gets the point across that he is a cool, calm, collected guy that uses fire. His backstory tells that he is from another world, had a criminal past, and decided to become a bartender. While this run-down from me is dim witted at best. If you take a look at the details, you get a compelling design that perfectly gets the point across, and makes sense for him. His role as a chill bartender guy that can kick ass perfectly fits, due to his physigue, criminal past, and him being able to just fucking scorch you. He is an understanding guy with many a tale to tell, that is also inviting, and willing to listen to your stories. He seems like he'll be fun at parties, and do cool tricks. But his other side commands a level of respect and authority, and he won't back down from a necessary fight. His fire gimmick perfectly fits to his past, and his Voice gives just as much vibes of a chill thug. His less ordinary origins, while looking odd for his power level, do a great job at building the world. And giving you an expectation of what to expect from beings from other worlds. And makes perfect sense within Deadlock's lore. His backstory ties in very well with the world and his design. While i am far less knowledgable on Concord, Most Concord designs feel like lists of completely unrelated personality traits, that make absolutely zero sense. They don't give you the slightest interpretation of who they are, neither their backstory. Imagining a backstory for them would most likely be just pulling whatever narrative you want out of your ass.

[@NUSensei]

I actually felt that the first image of Terry Bogard was a better visual design, especially considering the guidelines you described. The colours pop out more, the pose is more dynamic and recognisable so that if you use the silhouette, you can tell it's a muscular guy with a cap in a power stance, and it's more evocative of the typical poses used in fighting game machine designs and cover art (e.g. Tekken, Street Fighter) where it's the main character doing a power pose, crossing their arms or, more commonly now, shirtless and doing the over-the-shoulder glance. The second image is much harder to distinguish - I was originally watching this video on my phone and couldn't tell who or what the pose was. It looks like someone standing on one leg. The muted colours don't pop out as much. And it's _too round,_ The hat is rounded, the shoulders are rounded, the shoes are rounded. The first image looks aggressive without needing to strike a fighting pose because the legs are sharp and rectangular, the cap is more square, the torso is blocky and the design of the collar is triangular, and the shredded sleeves add more triangular sharpness. It's badass American trucker vs. the Hunchback.

[@danieldover3745]

I feel like this should be explored more, because I knew where he was going, and obviously fighter pose is more useful, but to me, it felt more generic, like you could replace him with Ryu or Ken and I would be like "Oh, generic fighter game" but the other pose would have piqued my interest more. Sure, YMMV, different strokes for different folks, but I get the sense there are a lot of people who would differ on this point, and I'd like to explore that further, because yes, active pose better, but the other pose felt like it had more character. Why?

[@marcospenadev]

It also happened to me, the first pose was more interesting. You could tell he's a cool guy, muscular and full of self confidence. It's actually way cooler and appealing than generic fight pose

[@soullevel7930]

@NUSensei I think the fact that you liked the first pose more is a testament to how good Terry's design is.

[@soullevel7930]

@danieldover3745 Yeah that's interesting for sure. I wonder why this is the case?

[@ericbright1742]

The second one will make it clear it's a fighting game, but the first one has a "Oh, you're approaching me?" attitude. It's less clear that it's a fighting game, yes, but it feels more like a "cool" character archetype, that might be appealing on its own.

[@robertstryjak1973]

I really appreciate the calm and educational tone of the video. It would be easy for this kind of analysis to come off as judgemental even by accident.

[@soullevel7930]

Thank you! I wanted to be as professional as possible so I'm glad that it came off that way.

[@JCdental]

Brother This cost 400 Mil 100 Mil was just the cost of the studio "firewalk" when they bought them

[@soullevel7930]

Yeah I just heard and I don't think we knew until now. That's crazy.

[@OldyAlbert]

My impression of Concord's characters was "it's an RPG created character wearing armor for stats, like me in Elden Ring or something". But even live service games like DotA where parts of skins sold separately - look more coherent even when you mix and match.

[@zinv08]

9:10 Dude. That transition was the audio equivalent of a flashbang.

[@soullevel7930]

So sorry about that. In my next videos I did and will continue to pay closer attention to audio balancing.

[@emilymiller7620]

Very informative (and respectful)!! I'm gonna have to go back and analyze so many of my favorite character designs now lol, starting with Spyro

[@112523]

In 8 years time no one at the studio came to the conclusion that these designs simply dont work and that amazes ne

[@tessfabled4115]

I am almost certain the character 'Bazz' began life as some sort of human design/AU for Garnet from Steven Universe.

[@bit_ronic]

garnet was peak too, wtf happened there lol

[@markup6394]

15:20 --- To play devil's advocate here: the Concord setting is very realistic (hyper-realistic?), so the characters look like your everyday swashbuckler in a sci-fi costume. They look like REAL people, and thats the angle the devs went for: their colors are muted from the dust and simply washed out, their "armor" looks simple and bland because (from what I know, correct me if I'm wrong) they are poor suckers that cant affort shiny gear, and they practically live hand-to-mouth. Of course, this doesnt really help create appealing characters (though I think even with these corner stones in mind you could make interesting silhouettes and designs...) but at least it explains the overall desaturated color palette... ... Nevermind XD Its actually funny: there are so many content creators critiqing the character designs, but no matter how many I watch, they all have something else to add :) On one hand I feel bad for the designers who worked so long on this, on the other hand... 100mil and eight years and THIS is what you came up with?! ... Yeah, no, get those videos coming, guys and gals, and make sure we never have to see something like this ever again.

[@paulelephant9521]

Yeah, there have been a lot of videos examining the Concord character designs, and all have something new that's a problem! My big question is, if it's so obvious to everyone now, how did this game get released like this? They had the time and money to do better, but in the end they released what they released, was this due to complacency of the designers/interference from higher up?. I just find it fascinating when literally hundreds of millions of dollars get spent and yet the result is so underwhelming, someone at some point must have looked at it and thought 'we've f'd up big time here!', or perhaps not, maybe they were expecting it to fly off the shelves!?

[@markup6394]

@@paulelephant9521 Trust me, I've ben asking myself the same thing. Someone said, Concord's release created the "perfect storm" made of different elements (not least of all their character design), preciely at a time when their concept was destined to fail: Concord was a hero shooter releasing in a saturated market. They didnt introduce anything new. Instead they presented a lore-rich world, an obviously diverse cast (and gamers react vicious to anything remotely related to DEI, and this was on the nose) and luke-warm uninteresting gameplay. Its not just the boring character designs, its literally everything that makes a game. Maybe if they had releast 5 years ago, or better yet 8 years, it may have been different, but Concord is a completely new IP with no pre-existing fan base. On top of that, they totally screwed up marketing. - At least, again, thats what I've heard.

[@HandOn-c40009]

​​@@paulelephant9521to answer your question on how it get released sometimes the higher up or probably the art director with the idea refuse to listen or just outright shutting up any opposition because of their ego, you know those defensive comment on art youtuber that say "This is my artstyle" "it's cartoon so it doesn't have to be anatomically correct" when a professional point out a basic mistake as an example that not even reffering to them? now crank that personality to 100 and put them in a position of power and you get someone who can't listen to reason because they believe that their own idea is perfect.

[@Camo-un8ee]

As an artist, to this day i still use concord as a baseline of how to not design characters. Its funny because even characters i make up on the spot have a more unique look and silhouette at least

[@NourArt02]

This is by far the best video explaining what's wrong with Concord, i've seen a lot of videos from bigger channels and none of them explain it as well as you did, well done bro, and well deserved sub.

[@soullevel7930]

Thank you I really appreciate it!

[@thegamesninja3119]

I am going to add something I call The Monopoly Piece Test to the character design discussion. Basically, character design is like a glorified Monopoly pieces. The pieces have rules hacks to the game. The Monopoly Piece Test is, if a player doesn't instantly gravitate to one or more characters by appearance alone, the way people do Monopoly pieces, the design fails. I call dibs on the race car!

[@goldentiramisu7935]

not to mention they got too many humanoids for a sci fi shooter set on alien world

[@soullevel7930]

That's a good point! Where are my crazy alien characters at? Having only humanoids makes it easier from an animation standpoint, but it definitely would've been cool to have some quadruped aliens or something.

[@baalfgames5318]

This is what ultimately sank these characters for me. I was never gonna connect with the humans, but the least the game could have provided was some unique, imaginative, bizarre, believable, or at absolute least, diverse alien designs, and it's all just humans painted a different color. Absolutely disgraceful.

[@bluejay43]

15:15 I didn't know Jeff the Land Shark existed before now, but now that I do know he exists; I would die for him.

[@zackspiker_]

When you talked poses, I immediately thought the late Overwatch 1.

[@soullevel7930]

RIP Overwatch 1

[@Ayozaa]

This video is great, and so is your channel! Hope it keeps blowing up and maintaining the momentum - can't wait to see what comes next!

[@soullevel7930]

Thank you so much!

[@redlunatic2224]

One of the best videos on the topic I've seen. I think the shape language is probably the weakest part here, and I'm glad to see someone pointing it out.

[@mikubrot]

in terms of artstyle, a cartoony aesthetic would be so much better, because it would make the characters not look like they're cosplaying themselves

[@I24FFA]

after inspecting your channel im surprised you only have 235 subscribers and the most part of all visualizations of your channel come from this video this was an interesting video, so i think you can rise a lot those numbers! keep up the good work

[@soullevel7930]

Thank you that means a lot!

[@leesasuki]

hats off to you sir, the only other video I knew talked about the character design feels so vague and I have no idea what's the problem after I finish that 1 hour video, while yours is straight on point the moment you talk And by following what you said on the green tank girl, I search up Baymax and found something interesting. Its armor form has square bulky feels but added a little bit of rounded edge to smoothen it to feels friendly, and compare it to Concord design really make the problem obvious

[@KennethTora-dj6sw]

Very easy to understand explanation of color theory and shapes. Thanks.

[@KenGee97]

Im loving all these videos breaking down the shit character design in concord. Also shoutout to the dead rising music

[@SaoryEmanoelle]

I learned SO MUCH in your video. Thank you for it

[@soullevel7930]

@@SaoryEmanoelle I’m glad! Thank you so much for checking it out!

[@fable23]

Nothing could have prepared me for the fucking _Ford Escape_ example.

[@soullevel7930]

LOL 😂

[@Bluargh02]

The problem is these characters are originally drawn in a comic design. Translating that to realism creates something really surreal. It just doesn't work. I saw the artwork of the Designer and they're actually good. The problem is they didn't look at the materials and how to translate that into realism.

[@soullevel7930]

Yeah I looked at some of the concept art after I made this video and while I still think that the designs have issues overall, they do look more appealing in concept form.

[@leandrobenitez292]

before watching the video, i'll give my reason why thinkg the design is bad: >the color pallete is atrociously ugly, bright pastel colors make everything look like unicorn vomit >very bland clothing lacking in any detail, it's one thing if you are desigining for comics or cartoons but 3D renders have no excuse >very geometric character siluoettes with basic shapes and no layers or textures

[@leandrobenitez292]

wow, i just watched the vid and you mention the exact 3 things that came to my mind for the record, both a person who studied this and one who did not came to the same conclusions

[@chuxety]

Funny and educational nice video!

[@soullevel7930]

Thank You!

[@ShoryukenPizza]

New info is $400 mill, but $100 mill is still too much. I hope the employees got their bag regardless of the character design.

[@karlsonkopfspalter3127]

Doesn´t this mean the design team had no idea what they were doing? Up to the very top.

[@soullevel7930]

It could mean that. In this case however, it has come out that, many of the artists could not speak out about the issues with the character designs because the people in charge wouldn't want to hear any criticism, even if it was constructive.

[@OG_McLovin]

The Bazznificent memes were worth all the pain.

[@waket1570]

14:10 the insane difference of the Marvel game with all the energy and colors and personality, compared to the Concord ones acting like cosplayers waiting for the photographer to be ready... This isn't even budget, this is just plan incompetence, there's no way you can't tell while working on it that this approach is super boring

[@coxandrewj]

This is a very well made video. Keep it up and that subscriber count will grow very fast

[@soullevel7930]

Thank you so much!

[@justblueboy2939]

That "Ted" character must be the most generic character I ever seen, just a dude wearing football gears and a gun, he even wearing a normal T-shirt under all that.

[@CatManThree]

A lot of the game's artstyle is pretty clearly modeled after the Guardians of Galaxy films, which were still relatively fresh and pretty big within pop culture early in the game's develoupment. Hence why the alien characters in particular look the way they do in particular, they look like actors in a movie with makeup and/or VFX layered into them. Additionally, a lot of the game's visuals evoke a sense of retrofuturism and comic-booky color palettes, which do not mesh well with the visuals of the Guardians films. At least to the extent they went with it.

[@hullstar242]

The concord logo also doesn’t look like a video game logo lol

[@Adnyeus]

Great vid, I learned a lot, your presentation is easy too understand, Subbed

[@Spezifischable]

Concords character designs can only be described as „stunning and bold“.

[@Waffletigercat]

I actually genuinely like the design of 1-OFF. Don’t hate me. lol

[@magnatcleo2043]

Honestly, 1-OFF is the best looking character in the game. He's got a color scheme that doesn't suck, his overall design is inoffensive enough that it doesn't elicit a negative reaction, and being a obvious robot gives him immunity to the uncanny valley effect that the some of humanoid characters suffer from.

[@tamaskarsai2072]

5:32 you could say that this character design giving you some red flags.

[@WitchHunterSiegfried]

The lead artist managed to make Rei and Asuka butt ugly, that alone is an achievement lol.

[@nightday2030]

I am not an art student but if they have any course related to business, this game could probably be used as a case study like you do.

[@GigasGMX]

I watched this hoping I’d get an answer as to why That Skinny Green Guy Everyone Uses To Symbolize Concord makes me feel ill every time I look at him. I did not get an answer, but it was very interesting anyway.

[@magnatcleo2043]

I think it's the fact that he's the lazy kind of alien, where it's baically just a human with weird features tacked on, combined with the overly realistic artstyle causing his design to fall straight into the uncanny valley. Additionally, that awful shade of green they used for his skin just makes him look like he's sick. In other words, he makes you uncomfortable because he looks less like an alien, and more like an incorrect human.

[@nakano15]

Watching this video while lunching is hard though. Staring at the concord characters was nearly making me hurl. Even more on 9:15. Edit: 16:16 That was close.

[@AXL.]

I also felt bad for the development team but then some started talking smack on Twitter, and all my sympathy went down the drain 🤷. Still i know there are some good talented people that simply got unlucky of working on this mess

[@zadtoon2799]

That's some dope content

[@tcmk0812]

Gundam 00 S1 and S2 are the best and the innovative hi-tech mechanics design in different form and shapes 🔵🔻🔶️🛑

[@OdaNobunaga15]

I don’t think the character designs were the main reason why Concord failed but it definitely played a role. I don’t remember the last time I saw a video game roster of the some of the most uncool looking character designs I have ever seen lol.

[@soullevel7930]

Wasn't the main reason, but was a big reason as I highlight in the video. I never said that it was the main reason.

[@OdaNobunaga15]

@@soullevel7930 oh I’m sorry, I didn’t assume or accuse you did. I’m just saying.

[@soullevel7930]

@@OdaNobunaga15 Yeah no worries! Hope you enjoyed the video!

[@janm5854]

"Me and my fastfood crew" - Daw

[@Bucketus.Lord.of.Buckets]

5:25 The reason it has a little red flag up is to let you know that it has mail and other parcels in it.

[@ndbiet]

I di have a feed back for your video. That is the background music need to be waaaaay lower because it is so hard to hear you over the music. you need to pay attention on volume balance.

[@soullevel7930]

Thanks for the heads up! It sounded fine when I was editing while wearing my headphones, but I'll definitely see what I can do to balance the audio more in future videos.

[@nightfrostbreeze]

Great video but please be careful with the sound level for some of the the effects I’m on headphones and some of the effects were very jarringly loud compared to the rest of the video

[@soullevel7930]

@@nightfrostbreeze Yeah I’ve gotten some other comments about that too. It sounded fine on my headphones when I was editing, but I’ll definitely pay closer attention to audio balance in the next videos. Thank you!

[@TheGallantDrake]

Man, just goes to show why the fundamentals are important.

[@lazydaydream9989]

I know it's a much much older game, but Team Fortress 2 has some great character design.

[@maninanikittycat4238]

The alien characters like the green guy and the girl look like humans in makeup. How do you mess up an alien character design

[@scroptels]

this really was deviantart ocs made into a game.

[@KorporalKittyKat]

Well done

[@siriguillo]

I think the color saturation problem come because they were trying to copy the avenger movies, that have no blacks, to make the movie feel cheery, fun and far from grim

[@jtolb65]

Thank you for this. All I've heard is how bad the character design was but nobody said WHY. Please shitcan the Wii background music in future videos as it was really distracting. All around well done. New subscriber.

[@marcogarcia7944]

They look like substance painter tests/protfolio characters

[@Swankoholic]

Lmao the bit about the ford escape clearly buddy never had a head gasket blow on one of those they’re junk

[@soullevel7930]

@@Swankoholic Yeah I’ve seen how they have rust issues too. Just cause a design implies something doesn’t mean it’s actually true 😂

[@tizooky]

Honestly a lot of these designs really scream _over_-iteration to me, not under (we have to keep in mind this game was being worked on for 8 years). If the people up top were really pushing for a realistic art style or had more say in the overall art direction than the concept artists did, that's going to cause problems for a game like this. Doesn't help that some of the characters' movesets/roles just aren't communicated in their designs. So whatever amount of potential these designs had was sanded away, to result in a non-cohesive bunch of realistic-looking people wearing dumb sci-fi costumes.

[@112523]

Live service games can work. Thing ks however, most ganes that are made witb the intention of being one, often simply shouldnt be live service but just multiplayer. The only times it works is when its an mmo. And of course yhere are exceptions like helldivers 2. But even then, helldivers is walking a very fine line and can go wrong at litteraly any moment.

[@imacg5]

the poor director (who just stepped down) was a designer. this whole thing doesn't compute.

[@MyWatermelonz]

At 15:49 you got jabali. Im also noticing pronouns in the top right (never knew they did this but that's hilariously bad), but compare jabali to infernus from deadlock. Weird cream and cyan with tinted glasses, just a normal dude. Vs infernus, just black and red, evil smugness and it doesnt surprise me if you say he's a demon bartender because that's exactly what he looks like. Deadlock beta characters are just so much better and half arent even fully done.

[@vedrisnightmare]

doesnt change the fact thugnificent's cameo in the game was a waste of money

[@soullevel7930]

@@vedrisnightmare Who’s that?

[@vedrisnightmare]

@@soullevel7930 you gotta watch the boondocks

[@yaoiboi60]

I mean I doubt it tops the flop that was ET for the Atari, which, in america, dragged the entire video game industry down with i

[@soullevel7930]

It's definitely debatable for sure. The one big difference is that with ET for Atari and the crash that ensued, that was during the infancy of the video game industry. Concord was a huge flop, but it's not going to cause a crash like ET for Atari did.

[@HandOn-c40009]

Atari sell 1.5 million copy and took only 5 week to develop, it doesn't bring minus profit like concord. also it's a final nail in the coffin not the CAUSE of the crash, the cause of the crash is because everyone is making game for atari with no quality control, overasaturation of trash lead to the video game crash. this is why nintendo use special chip and nintendo seal of quality, to prevent any company to distribute game for their system without quality control.

[@GigasGMX]

ET was a symptom rather than a cause.

[@Y7Y01]

Music sound is loud relatively

[@soullevel7930]

Yeah I've gotten several other comments about this. Will pay closer attention to audio balancing in future videos. Thanks for the feedback and I hope you enjoyed the video!

[@Yomush]

1:28 "I'm sure that they had good intentions" - Meanwhile devs having a meltdown on Twitter calling Gamers "Talentless freaks" simply for not liking their DEI slop...

[@soullevel7930]

If this really happened that's definitely not a good look for them.

[@timothykennedy2454]

ONE character animator, Xander Farrell, made that comment on X. Don't be misleading. This was not an entire studio pushing back with negativity. This was one person making a stupid comment that they're already paying for.

[@Yomush]

@@timothykennedy2454 That specific comment yes, but it's not the only dev who is having a temper tantrum

[@7thKings]

500m+

[@marcusclark1339]

game could only be designed in a echo chamber company that refused to acknowledge their designs had problems the narcissism is apparent in design from this company, something inside it is rotten and hopefully it'll be flushed out when layoffs happen

[@Sanomorf]

terry bogard

[@OstinBond]

I’ve never even heard of this game. Looking at the characters now, throughout this whole video I’ve seen literally only one that I liked. The pink robot chick with a tie and blue round eyes. The cowboy with goggles could be good, but wtf is that bright cyan on his jacket?🤢 Everyone are very bland, they don’t look like main characters, they look like random npcs or jobbers

[@Gunzalo70]

Art is subjective rhetoric should stop. It's very clear it's not purely subjective to some degree or else this garbage wouldn't have failed. What's the number percentage, idk 70-30 some will say. Personally I believe it's 80-20.

[@HandOn-c40009]

Art is subjective but when you start selling your art in bulk it stop being purely art and become a product and a good product is not subjective. The very basic definition of good product is that people want it and willing to shell money for it.

[@512TheWolf512]

concord was made by a bunch of people whose entire core ideology is entirely dependent on violently rejecting objective reality. it is entirely expected of them to not employ any principles that rely on said reality in their work. i am more baffled that this hasn't happened sooner, at least in video games. dunno about any other medium, i don't pay them much mind

[@Darkkfated]

Good video, but someone please teach this man the word "aesthetics".

[@soullevel7930]

I know the word. Definitely could've used it though to vary up some of the vocabulary a bit more.

[@harpsdesire4200]

I enjoyed the game. Sue me I guess?

[@harpsdesire4200]

@@jeji5860 okay I can agree about the character design but I can't believe we've come to the point where its controversial to charge for a multiplayer game🤷‍♂️

[@WindexDrinker-j6v]

Sounds like you haven't played many other games recently

[@WindexDrinker-j6v]

@jeji5860 ??? Am I wrong, also the response was to OP not you

[@WindexDrinker-j6v]

@jeji5860 it's all good YT comment sections don't do any favors for making threads readable so I don't blame u

[@harpsdesire4200]

@@WindexDrinker-j6v I have played many single player games recently, but as for multiplayer, I've not stuck with anything significantly since like 2017. Because in my opinion they all just felt weak. That's why I liked Concord because it felt like an old school shooter with a new school twist. The lastest MP game I played that I enjoyed was RE verse , which really wasn't that good but I can tolerate it because I actually like multiplayer. Most free to play slop bores me and I genuinely dislike that model so out of principle I refuse to engage with most of them.

[@MikeRedead333]

They Made the characters ugly on purpose, and it backfired.

[@RealRiders]

Pointing out design “guidelines “ is a cop out when they are true and tested. It’s part of our human nature. Or maybe I haven’t observed art that contradicts said guidelines. There’s always a couple of rules that are followed

[@hedgehugs]

12:25 ngl I found the first pose looks cooler at first glance but yeah the 2nd one definition tells you that you're about to hop onto a fighting game

[@sivasankar2784]

I've never understood the meaning of the term 'eyesore' until i saw concord characters

[@Deckotaocho]

5:13 that’s just missy elliot in the sock it to me music video