When it comes to game art, few people know more than James Zhang.

He worked on the Star Wars franchise with LucasArts, help set up Massive Black, and is now CEO of the 130-strong Concept Art House (part of Zattika, where he's CPO).

It's worked on social and mobile games from Zynga, Pocket Gems, Crowdstar and ngmoco, and more.

At Develop in Brighton 2012 conference, he spoke on the subject of Evolution of art in social and mobile games.

Looking nice

Zhang broke down the business in terms of how and where game art works particularly well.

For example, for puzzle games and resource management games, art is more about setting the mood or creating a strong first impression but not impacting gameplay.

The biggest change in terms of mobile game art has come with RPGs, which have move from list-based games such as iMob to creating a much more sophisticated world atmosphere, even if the gameplay hasn't changed that much.

Good virtual goods

Zhang argued, however, that art is crucial for decoration management games such as CastleVille.

"Often digital goods are just artwork, which may or may not impact gameplay," he said.

"10 percent of virtual goods are just for customisation. Art is very important for these games. You have to create something that generates desirability."

But more generally, art can improve the performance of all games.

"The quality of art can increase the initial install. Even changing the loadscreen art can change this," Zhang said.

It's also becoming more important as the competition in the social/mobile sector continues to increase, especially as company make the transition from 2D to 3D graphics.