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I really enjoy Nintendo's trend of making worlds look like they're handcrafted by real materials. The art direction and PBR compliment each other. This approach, born out of building physical dioramas and sets, using real materials, is my jam recently.
There was an interview about 5 years ago, for promoting Yoshi's Wooly World with Nintendo's Emi Watanabe about how her yarn yoshis she's made for the team during development.
It kind of illustrates a trait I've heard often about what Nintendo look for in developers: people who have influences outside of games
Been thinking a lot lately about the influences of real world construction of handmade dioramas, set and theme park design, and how that style evokes a mood not often seen in games. But the tech is there to pull it off! Just need the direction to do it.
Surfaces, made of other materials, meant to look and feel like it, allow for a clearly crafted look that is SOOOOO APPEALING.
or even just miniatures! I think most people respond to seeing things like this, and evoking styles, while still staying true to the idea of "this isnt a tree, this is a representation of one made of small clay/plaster/etc" really is fun to see done in a 3d game.
The fact Nintendo has the culture to say "hey what if we built things like these real world things, some people in the office do on the side for fun" versus "here are 8 other games we are going to try to look like" more often than not, speaks volumes.
