Joseph Cross

Marathon Art Style (a short thread). First of all thanks to everyone for all the kind words and enthusiasm for the art style/direction in our announce trailer, it's been amazing to see. This was the result of many talented artists working together, with the support of an amazing 

production and marketing team. There's been some curiosity around what we're calling the Marathon art style, hopefully this sheds a bit of light on it. Officially we call it "Graphic Realism", this is mainly a production facing term,

meant to frame how we think about and prioritize aspects of our visual world. On one side it's about a simplified/deconstructed universal design language, strong graphic design and color statements, and limited materials. The other side is about realistic

proportions &amp; scale, implied functional &amp; detail, and a generally grounded world. We're focused on creating visual "brand" of science fiction, that (hopefully) feels fresh and stands the test of time.

Giving ourselves freedom in limitation through a defined set of executional constraints will hopefully help us get there. We are looking back at games from previous generations for inspiration just as much as we are looking forward. We believe Games like Metal Gear Solid 2,

OG Marathon, and Wipeout (to name few) are full of interesting visual qualities and ideas, just as much as next/current gen games like Death Stranding, God of War, and The Last of US are.

A lot of you have already identified many of our visual influences, Mirrors Edge, Aeon Flux, Ghost in the Shell, Otomo, Koji Morimoto, The Designers Republic, Chris Cunningham, are all definitely in our "stew" of inspiration.

The work of Alberto Mielgo and the affect Into The Spiderverse had on Blockbuster animation has given us a ton of strength and confidence to take more visual &amp; creative risks.

There are also a ton of influences outside of games. Product and apparel design, photography, science, conceptual art, cinematography, sports like Formula 1 and MotoGp etc. are all big sources of inspiration.

We've come a long way and still have work to do, I can't wait to show you more.