How Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny's Art Style Unites…

The upcoming Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny have just unveiled a new trailer, one that showcases several new characters—all of whom display more aspects of the game's art style. Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny is utilizing a multitude of IPs, and its art style effectively preserves a hint of each series' identity.

The long history of Nicktoons crossover games dates back to the early 2000s. From standard crossover fare (such as kart racers and platform fighters) to the more individually unique Nicktoons Unite! Series, there's a wide variety of licensed games representing the company's iconic cartoons. This has culminated in Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny—an RPG that will transport Nickelodeon's characters into a medieval-fantasy world. The Best War Games sat down with game and narrative designer Rennan Spinola, who discussed how the team blended all these disparate characters into one art style, including the newly revealed Flame Fatales.

How Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny's Art Style Bring Its Characters Together

Nicktoons and The Dice of Destiny boss villains trailer screenshot

Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny's Unique Style Explained

In previous crossover titles, characters have mostly retained their original aesthetics, aside from some tweaks owing to the transition to 3D. The Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny art style goes one step further, however, translating all of its characters into a bite-sized, chibi-adjacent format. What's interesting about the art in-game is that, despite giving all the characters a similar height—leading characters like Ember or Azula to have entirely different proportions—every character retains something from their original series' design philosophy.

This is distinctly evident with the newly revealed Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny Flame Fatales villains, a trio consisting of Angelica Pickles, Azula, and Ember (characters from Rugrats, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Danny Phantom, respectively). Angelica demonstrates the differences in direction the most acutely, with outline width, outline color, and eye shape all reminiscent of the original Rugrats. Azula and Ember share more in common, including a pupil shape, but there are also clear distinctions, such as a different eyeball shape. It seems that Angelica has one of the more unique designs overall, which only makes sense; the more simplified pupil design is key to the look of Rugrats' characters, and Angelica would lose a lot of her identity if she conformed more.

Nicktoons and The Dice of Destiny boss villains Ember McClain freeze frame bard attack

Many of these points were echoed by Spinola, who went into detail about Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny's character design and direction. Spinola discussed the unifying elements of this art style and how it's reflected in the Flame Fatales:

"Yes, the different character art styles within the respective shows provided a great opportunity for us when bringing them together within this game. When it came to the Flame Fatales, we decided to use a consistent art style for all the characters as a way to really unify the three characters, especially in our cutscenes. Blending them together makes both our villains and the world feel much more connected to each other."

Using magic as SpongeBob in Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny

The blending of art styles when it comes to Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny's characters is key to maintaining visual cohesion within the crossover project. Given the acute differences in head design and shape, the bodies of characters show the most conformity, all of which demonstrate similar proportions and line weight. There are exceptions, naturally, with characters like SpongeBob sporting more specialized silhouettes—something Spinola touched on, discussing the balancing act of combining silly and serious properties into one project:

"This contrast is essential to keeping the feel of the NatDoD world: an extremely fun world where the quest for the Dice of Power raises the stakes, and any slip-up can be potentially disastrous for the characters. The Flame Fatales capture this balance well, representing a real threat to the heroes (given how powerful they are) while also bringing that touch of humor that makes it feel like we’re in a wonderful Nickelodeon cartoon world at the end of the day."

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