Friedrich Romanticism and Games

Let's get introduced to one of the most video-game-defining artist out there... ...born in 1774. The german painter, Caspar David Friedrich is one of many iconic artists of the romanticism movement and responsible for defining many fundamental tropes in early and modern games. His paintings not only gave fodder for...

All You Can Glue Paper Arcades

Here are plenty of paper craft templates for arcade cabinets for your paper crafting urges. With a bit of work you can create your own cabinets based on these templates. Have fun. Dookie-Poo Get the printable hiRes via. Scott C. for IAM8BIT!! More on Scott's site via. Wreck-It Ralph Various...

Stylized Realism

Stylized realism at first sounds like an oxymoron. Aren't realism and stylization at odds with each other? Yes. And that is why it's time that we talk about this hybrid art form, which got its big break through thanks to computer generated images. While we can find examples of art...

Art Style Atoms

This is an excerpt from a 2-day lecture I gave on art direction, in which I provide a toolset to take any visual style apart, so you have pieces to combine anew to make your own vision come to life. What is a "visual style"? Style is a term universally...

What Murdered – Soul Suspect could have been…

Early gothic horror concept art for Murdered – Soul Suspect. The game became much smaller than what these concepts have been exploring, so the mind wanders, what the game could have been. The artist is Yuki Matsuzawa. Scroll down for images: Source: http://eu.square-enix.com/en/blog/exploring-beautiful-concept-art-murdered-soul-suspect

Metal Gear Solid in Unreal Engine 4

A group of indie devs is remaking Metal Gear Solid in Unreal Engine 4... Let's check out the trailer and talk about gains and losses, when doing current gen versions of low spec titles. First, credit where credit is due. Even though, we can expect this project to never get...

Surrealism and Games

Surrealism is a genre in which the psyche, the subconscious and the fears and desires of a person or character are translated into images, spaces, objects and characters. Whenever game designers let you explore the mind or dreams of a character as a virtual space or come up with characters...

Overwatch’s Torbjörn Guide

Great references, step-by-steps and detail shots of Torbjörn from Blizzard's Overwatch. [slb_exclude] [/slb_exclude] Via: http://www.overpwn.com/news/2-overwatch-origins-blizzcon-2014-panel-recap http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/media/ http://blizzard.gamespress.com/en/BlizzCon-2014-Overwatch-press-kit

Specialized Game Sound Synth BFXR

BFXR is a free sound synthesizer, specialized to let you make 8-bit/16-bit game sounds on the fly. It no only has very cpable options and a reliable export functionility, it also comes with multiple sound generators – such as "coin", "jump" or "explosion" – to get you started with one...

Gothic Horror

Gothic Horror (often referred to as gothic fiction) is a western writing genre, originating in the late 18th century, which had a profound impact on popculture. Gothic horror explores themes of death, the supernatural, crime, horror and romance, usually set in locations with gothic/medieval architecture (or modern architecture in a...

Orwellian Environment Design in Arkham City

How Arkham City came to be... Arkham City – the titular location of the 2011 third-person action-adventure by Rocksteady Studios – is a human rights violation from start to finish. It's somewhere between a stalag and a ghetto, where unwanted people are just dumped without resources or help and are...

Orwellian Images

First, let's start with a handy explanation of "orwellian" from wikipedia: "Orwellian" is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by...

target concepts – Overwatch

A nice comparison shot between the early concept works to capture the feel of the map (inspirational concept) and then later some iterations of the visual target (how it was meant to actually look in the game and cinematics). via

How Old Is Too Old For A Rookie Concept Artist?

First off, love your site. Wish I found it sooner. It seems to allay many of my fears and doubts. I hope you're around for a long time! I do have two questions though: 1) How many concept artists could be working on a game at one time? There's an...

What Languages Should You Learn?

Hello, In your opinion, what would be the best language to learn, if one wishes to become a Game Designer or a Concept Artist? I've been learning German for the past six months, but for reasons that have nothing to do with this career. Some people say that Japanese would...

How About Working Remotely As A Game Artists?

Hello! My name's Matteo Lolli, I work as a comic book artist for Marvel. I was alway a passionate game user and I was always intrigued by game art and character design in general. Today I stumbled across your website, it is GREAT and I'm planning to spend a lot...

The Politics Of Girls Drawing Manga

As someone who works as a designer and teacher I got around to have many many people show me their portfolios and ask for advice about how to improve their skills and works in hopes to better snatch a place at a design school or to be more attractive for...

Beyond Fantasy – Gender Performance & Games

Here is a thought: What if games where you save a princess or shoot up hundreds of gangsters aren't primarily escapism and power fantasies for men but real life masculinity performance systems? And what if those systems require sexism in games and games culture to work? And what can be...

I Gave Classes On The History Of Video Games

Last week I was giving my first classes in “the history of video games”. My focus was on cataloguing the evolution of gaming technology (platforms, interfaces, distribution) and how it enabled designers to create more and more complex and deep gaming experiences. Then I walk my students through the history...

From Mickey Mouse To Megaman – A Timeline

This timeline gives a super rough overview about how 1930's USA animation is connected to the inception of anime and manga and subsequently influencing japanese game creators to create gaming's biggest classics. You can zoom in, if the typo is too small for you: I already have researched and gathered...

Don’t make me use Post-Its

I took these snapshots some months ago and found them on my cam recently. This is Metro 2033, a really really solid shooter, especially when it comes to atmosphere and narrative design. However some of the guns do not have a HUD crosshairs, but use a laser pointer for aiming....

How to Build Your Portfolio?

Christos asked: Greetings. Question: What do concept art portfolios really look like? Is it a series of polished, shiny images of either fantasy or science fiction characters/environments that we usually see in online portfolios or is it more like the kind of stuff one sees in 'The Art of X Game'...

Color Theory For Game Design 2 of 4 – Glyphs And Neutrals

This is a multipart article on color design for games. It is aimed at game designers and game artists alike and focusses on how to use color when crafting player experiences. Check the color theory readlist tag for all 4 parts of this series and the color design tag for...

How About Pricing for Freelance Work?

Hi Anjin, I have a fairly uncommon question, and it's okay if you don't want to answer -- or just give me a general answer perhaps. I am an illustrator and you are the only person I could find, who may know about character guidelines or design sheets. How much...

From the Archives – Game and Swatch Part 1 and 2

If you are interested how my color theory work looked a few years ago in 2011, here are the relevant documents from the archive: Game & Swatch – Color Theory for game Designers Part 1 [LINK] Game & Swatch – Color Theory for game Designers Part 2 [LINK] You can...

Color Theory For Game Design 1 of 4 – Fundamentals

This is a multipart article on color design for games. It is aimed at game designers and game artists alike and focusses on how to use color when crafting player experiences. Check the color theory readlist tag for all 4 parts of this series and the color design tag for...

How To Tackle Character Design For 2D Games?

This user asked: Greetings, I’d like to know how to design a 2D character for a poin’n'click adventure and animate it. What techniques and what software would you use? What would be the best resolution for common devies?Kind regards -Johannes W.- I'd like to expand on that question and answer...

Started Collecting Famicom Cartridges

I just started a new retro collecting obsession... Famicom cartridges are much more fun, than the standardised grey NES cartridges released in the US and Europe. Even though I have a system to play these Japanese games, my Japanese language skills are not even enough to recognise a "press start"...

3.5hrs Beginner’s Guide To UNITY

Okay, so a couple of months ago I was a total newbie when it comes to working with Unity. Never did anything in it... I worked with a lot of people wielding the engine, but never did it myself. And then I got together with Martin Nerurkar and he gave...