Considering that Little Tribals (official game name still pending) is to be set in a forest, it's highly likely players will be in an area that is densely populated with trees. I decided to view games that also had a similar situations and note on how they approached the design of it.
I wanted to be able to create trees that would not obstruct the player's view, but also make it feel as if the players were in a uninhabited environment.
In Don't Starve, the trees are thick and somewhat obscure the player's view. No matter what direction the player goes, the tree will always stay the same in that specific appearance. However, it fits what Don't Starve wants to sell, as in a game where players explore, get lost, survive, and try to stay sane. What I do like about the design is how thin it gets at the top. If we keep a fat bottom and a thin top, perhaps we can make lower the lack of vision in game.
As much as I like Animal Crossing trees, their purpose serves a different one from us. As the trees produce fruit, it has to be large enough in front to clearly show the fruit design and allow 3 of them to be placed on. Animal Crossing also does not have anything that targets or harms the player, so it's okay for them to have such fat looking trees. However, in between the bottom and middle of the tree, they allow a slight gap so the players can still be seen from behind.
In Sims 3, players are given several types of trees. As it is easy to spam the trees everywhere, more often or not, it can be hard to spot the Sims that are obscured by them. One thing to note is that the trees have a thin trunk and can be seen through slightly on top.
In Zelda: Link to the Past and Link Between Worlds, the trees are large, but block the player's path. However, doing this in the game will limit the player movement.
Another way, when discussed with the other team members, is to make it so that the tree fade slightly when players are behind it. However, the idea is rejected due to the reason that it could ruin immersion.
The best possible way to design the tree is by making it a heavy bottom and thin top. This will narrow our trees down to specific designs. The two trees that come to mind right now are Fir, Spruce, Redwood and Pine (all common trees in a forest).
So, we will need trees that are: Low poly, thin on top and heavy on the bottom, can bee seen through somewhat, and not obscure the player's view too much.
Ideally, since we will be filling the forest with these trees, it would have to be as low poly as possible. So if we want to make the trees unique, we will have to rely more on textures instead of modeling.
Now that the plan is somewhat concrete, I can start modeling soon.
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