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How can we make post-apocalyptic settings pretty?

awareness of how the atmosphere changes when local light sources are removed from the picture. I want to see stars and beautiful colors in the skies in contrast to ground level decimation
little details and as little redundancy in assets as possible except where it's warranted
varied locales that depict how nature has taken over in the absence of people

fragile dreams bby
 
I thought the environments in Fallout 3 and NV looked great. Yeah, samey, but it instills the depression of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Without it Fallout 3 wouldn't have had that wow moment with the Oasis quest.

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TetraGenesis said:
Well that's the reason to get a PS4. Or a super cheap used 3.
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I feel like your avatar is mocking me.

XtaLarge said:
awareness of how the atmosphere changes when local light sources are removed from the picture. I want to see stars and beautiful colors in the skies in contrast to ground level decimation
little details and as little redundancy in assets as possible except where it's warranted
varied locales that depict how nature has taken over in the absence of people

fragile dreams bby
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Come to think of it, I haven't noticed any really good skyboxes in Fallout.
 
Make it cel-shaded.
 
Tie between New Vegas with a good ENB and Metro: Last Light.

Personally I prefer Metro LL, once you're topside, you get the feeling life has moved on past a human race that tried to wipe itself out. It's moved on in an ugly, savage way, but it's definitely moved on.
 
Grimløck;119730374 said:
in addition to the last of us, i think enslaved also demonstrated a "pretty" post-apocalyptic world. there's something majestic about nature uprooting civilization and reclaiming her domain.
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These two for sure, if you want a beautiful post-apocalypse world you let nature have it.
 
All of the answers here are good but I'm surprised no one has said imagination. That's the main issue I see here a lack of imagination. Post apocalyptic doesn't have to mean 'shades of grey' or MAD. Adventure Time is probably the best example along with Wind Waker in terms of creativity. Fallout....is Fallout but yeah it could be more out there given what the dlc was willing to do. Metro is a good example and TLOU if not only for the nature of its apocalypse making grey garbage impossible.
 
Bloodrage said:
Everybody's Gone To The Rapture looks pretty.
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That's not really post-apocalyptic though is it? It's more that everybody suddenly disappears, an apocalypse in one sense, yes, but not in the way one follows a devastating, destructive and catastrophic event.

It's as if everybody popped off for tea.

It does look lovely though, I've always had a thing for abandoned English villages in media; not least the Android Invasion episodes from Doctor Who, and the like, so I think Rapture looks lovely. Everything is better without humans stinking up the place.
 
Depends how far in the future it is, and the cause of the apocalypse. Typically, I like the scenery best when nature has completely reclaimed the destroyed areas. I haven't played TLOU yet but the pictures I've seen from that look beautiful.

Even Adventure Time sometimes has some nice backgrounds. Destroyed tanks/planes in the background are a nice touch, but backgrounds like this are beautiful (from season 5, "All the Little People"

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ProvenDeadly said:
The Last of Us
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For me, thats the most outstanding feature of the game.

The length they went to depict "Nature taking over" and how thats such an integral part to that game design is, for me, even more incredible than the story itself

Really believable world. Trying to grasp reality from its core. Even the "zombies" had a weird natural beauty
 
BibiMaghoo said:
Ban the colours Brown and Grey. Seriously, forbid an artist to use them. This would help immensely.
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I second that and the Final Fantasy X mention along with Wind Waker! make it more like humanity reclaimed itself in certain places, involve nature, make it colorful and stray from conventional cityscapes! When I think about it the civilization in Ar Tonelico, to me, always captured the feeling of a civilization rebuild after a great calamity perfectly and Eureka 7 gets a honorable mention aswell. Basically make it less everything is destroyed and dead and make it more, everything is rebuild and wonderous like the rebirth of a different kind of civilization.

And make it more like that too in terms of style, blue skies, lots of water and very few and frail remaining traditional cityscapes: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=4161525
 
It seems like for Fallout, Bethesda decided to go with a "radiation prevents anything from growing" design which made the overall game pretty barren.
 
I liked Fallout 2 and even The Postman for the kind of wild west vibe they depicted. And I think this romantisized depiction of post-apoc ala Cosy Catastrophe has been gaining more ground lately with shows like Revolution.

If you like foilage apocalypse then also check out Krater on Steam

 
To be fair, it seems Fallout 3 pushes the drab brown color scheme deliberately. There's plenty of ways to make things more lively even in an apocalyptic wasteland, but Fallout goes for the brown overlay.

It works, but it also gets somewhat boring after X amount of hours.
 
The problem I had with Fallout 3's setting is that the land shouldn't have been that brown and dead. Take a look at pictures from modern day Chernobyl - you will see a lot of green despite it being a little under 30 years since the meltdown. Fallout 3 is something like 200 years later so there should have been a lot more green than just what was there in the Oasis quest... Heck people mentioned the Stalker series which I agree did a better job of showing a post apocalyptic setting than Fallout 3. It's pretty much why I have to use Vurt's Floral overhaul mods in Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
 
draetenth said:
The problem I had with Fallout 3's setting is that the land shouldn't have been that brown and dead. Take a look at pictures from modern day Chernobyl - you will see a lot of green despite it being a little under 30 years since the meltdown. Fallout 3 is something like 200 years later so there should have been a lot more green than just what was there in the Oasis quest... Heck people mentioned the Stalker series which I agree did a better job of showing a post apocalyptic setting than Fallout 3. It's pretty much why I have to use Vurt's Floral overhaul mods in Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
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It probably helps that Chernobyl was a localized disaster. If it was world wide the trees would not have grown back. Radiation is a horrible poison. Whatever damage a nuclear war does to the atmosphere would make things growing back incredibly difficult. The fact that it is brown and grey is the whole point.
 
After so many burnt-out brown landscapes, I do prefer the natural overgrowth style of post-apocalyptia, but the whole point to making everything dead in games like FO3 and NV is to reinforce desperate nature of the world after everything has been destroyed and nuclear winter has killed off much of the complex life on the planet's surface...there's no ecosystem to foster a lot of plant and animal life in their takes. Enslaved, TLOU, and others follow on from the Planet of the Apes and Omega Man-style end of the world scenarios. Next month's release of Wasteland 2 will bring another take on the post-apocalypse, but WL1 already did the whole 'nature takes the world back' angle in 1988 as well as the desolate desert world of post WWIII.
 
Outside of those already mentioned, I think Chrono Trigger (2300 ad) nails it. It might not be green and 'pretty' in the same way as many of the others; but, to me at least, there is something 'pretty' and almost chilling about its graphical style.
 
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