Untitled @joebamberfutureworks-blog - Tumblr Blog

Indie Game Art

Whereas AAA western game art is slow, sluggish and at often at the mercy of its investors; the indie scene is free to do whatever it pleases. The lower budgets, smaller teams and flooded market means that indie games really have to do something special if they want to stand out.

Usually, the first thing anyone notices about a game is its visuals; mechanics and story are good too but at a glance it’s the art people are going to notice. As such, many indie games gain popularity simply by being way prettier than the competition. Lots of successful indies opt for a more stylised approach, often driven by a single artist with a single vision. This contrasts greatly with the majority of AAA dev teams, in which there is a team of artists churning out concept art for what is most likely a realistic looking game.

Here I have collected a few of the more well known artists operating in the indie space.

Arnie Jorgenson - Banner Saga 1, 2 and 3

Arnt Jensen - Limbo, Inside

Jen Zee - Bastion, Transistor, Pyre

Jo-Annie Gauthier - Jotun

Matt Nava - Journey

Scott Benson - Night in the Woods

Jakob Wahlberg - Steamworld Dig, Steamworld Heist, Steamworld Dig 2

#futureworks #dd2453 #research

Western game art is a broad subject with many levels, but when looking at big budget AAA games there’s precious little variety between companies. As the stakes are so large, risks become exponentially riskier and so publishers tend to refrain from going too far off the beaten path. As the AAA game industry is very focused on tech right now, and building ‘immersive worlds’ photo realism is very common as it appeals to the widest range of consumers.

This runs in contrast with the Japanese games industry who focus less on photo realism but who still try to cater to the largest audience possible. So whilst the styles of work being produced may be completely different, it’s not to say the reasoning isn’t the same. However, there are far more comparisons to be made.

In Japan, it’s quite common for a single artist to work on a game, whereas in the west big teams of artists are more common (at least in the AAA industry) again, this may come down to protecting the investment but as to why Japan doesn’t do the same I can’t be sure. Perhaps they have a greater amount of trust in their artists.

Western game art cannot necessarily be described as ‘typically western’ I don’t think. To do so would be to paint in too broad a stoke. What can be said is that the themes often tied to western society do crop up frequently. War and conflict is a major one. Although by no means exclusive to the region, ‘the west’ is rather large and contains a myriad of different cultures. It’s difficult to make a product that appeals to everyone but the one thing all of these cultures have in common is they were probably involved in some sort of conflict with one another at some point.

#dd2453 #futureworks

Jaime Jones is another huge artist working in games. Known for his great handling of scale within his paintings, he has worked for several huge companies. Bungie, on Destiny, Blizzard, Wizards of the coast and more.

#dd2453 #futureworks

Matt Rhodes, lead concept artist for Bioware, has worked on all of their recent marquee titles. Of all the artists on this list, he is the only one who sticks to a more stylised method of working.

#dd2453 #futureworks

Donglu Yu is currently working as lead concept artist with Warner Bros. In her career she’s worked on some huge games, particularly for Ubisoft; Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry 4 to name a few.

#dd2453. futureworks

Craig Mullins is another incredible artist working in games. He’s done some great work for Halo, Assassin’s Creed, Bioshock and Dragons Dogma.

#dd2453 #futureworks

Adam Adamowicz was the primary artist for Bethesda Studios during the production of both Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. he sadly passed away but he pumped out so much artwork for Fallout in particular that he defined the entire art style of the franchise as it continued after his death with Fallout 4.

#dd2453 #Futureworks

Nicholas Bouvier (Sparth) has been working in video games since the mid nineties. In that time he has worked on some major franchises, Halo, Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia...

#dd2453 #Futureworks

Hethe Srodawa has done a lot of concept art for various studios. In the past he has worked with Rockstar on Red Dead, and more recently he’s worked with Respawn Entertainment to concept a lot of Titanfall 2.

#dd2453 #Futureworks

Roxie Vizcarra is another artist who has worked with Rockstar a lot, particularly on LA Noire, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption.

#Dd2453 Futureworks #research

As senior artist with Rockstar Games since 2001, Steven Bliss helped establish the illustrative style that defined Grand Theft Auto.

#dd2453 #research #futureworks

Yoshitaka Amano is another titan of the industry alongside Shinkawa. He’s been with the Final Fantasy series since its inception even if it’s now in a cursory fashion as he only really designs the logos these days. His work is far more traditional than most Japanese art, drawing heavily from the regions past looking at Ukiyo e paintings.

#DD2453

Yoshida Akihiko is most known how his work on Tactics Ogre. His work has a distinctly storybook feel to it which the other artists covered lack. This is particularly due to his use of crosshatching and colour. His work does have a slight European influence whilst still retaining most classic hallmarks of Japanese art.

#dd2453

One of my favourite artists full stop. Masahiro Ito has worked primarily on Silent Hill, but also Dark Summoner. His work is much darker and scarier than the other artists on this list, it’s deeply disturbing.

#dd2453

These two classics are responsible for a whole lot of games where big dudes with big guns take on entire armies single handed.

The list goes on...

#dd2453 #futureworks #research

Has Film Influenced Video Games? - Cont.

I would be remiss to mention that little sci-fi flick that’s been making the rounds, Star Wars or something?

That series of films has a healthy collection of games all inspired by the original trilogy.

#dd2453 #research #futureworks

Has Film Influenced Video Games? - Cont.

Science Fiction is in no way under represented within video games, and a few films can be marked as clear influences over most of them.

The first of which is Blade Runner.

This weird dystopian classic has its hands on a lot of different games, here are a few.

Depsite not having released yet, Detroit was the first game that came to mind. It’s primary theme of androids masquerading as humans is very reminiscent of Blade Runner.

Bioshock is a somewhat different example and a far more tenuous link, but its grandiose dystopian society gone to ruin is at least somewhat linked with Blade Runner’s own vision of the future.

Deus Ex is another very good example and far more obvious. Its primary theme of humans augmenting themselves and being persecuted for it is indicative of Blade Runner’s own themes and certainly the city in which the games take place is similar to that of Los Angeles in the film.

#dd2453 #futureworks #research

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Untitled