While games are definitely an art form, game art is a production task that requires specific business skills to ensure that each product reaches its most important goal... customer satisfaction. This outline represents the foundation blocks for Steve Reid's Art for Games class in collaboration with Wayne Community College where he will be a guest instructor.
There are several differences between school and work for students (and Instructors) to consider:
- School is where you pay to work on what instructors want
- Studio is where they pay you to work on what they want
- Seldom you get paid to work on what YOU want
- School education ends with graduation
- Studio (real-world) education never ends
- Schools are building programs to meet the needs of the industry
- Studios are inventing products to meet the needs of the consumer
Start your education/career with a plan.
- Build samples (or steps toward the samples)
- Build relationships (network at local events)
- Build industry knowledge
- Build business skills
- Be prepared to face common challenges
- Be ready for the commitment
- Adopt the vision of the school/studio
- Build skills typical to entry-level roles
- Communication is often the area requiring the most growth
- Become comfortable with collaboration
- Become comfortable with critique (personal and public)
- Become prepared for iterative development
Mantra for Portfolio benchmarking: Ideally, you will eventually be able to create assets “greater than or equal to” industry quality of your target platform and/or studio to which you apply.
How will we discuss and evaluate success:
- Productivity: volume of work
- Quality: craftsmanship of work
- Creativity: unique aspects of work
- Communication: discussion and debate
- Critique: giving and receiving creative input
- Research: correctly collecting and applying outside influence
- Process: displaying the working development (paper trial)
- Timing: completing project stages when expected
How should you evaluate success: Personal growth in all aspects above.
Research (style guide development):
- Setting/story/characters: What is it about?
- Mood/atmosphere: What should it look like?
- Style/trends/competition: Where should we differentiate?
- Documentation of the work process
- Every asset can influence the experience (fun) of the player
- Every asset is accountable to critique: “The proof is in the PLAY versus ‘As per design’”
- Every asset must maximize the known (and evolving) restrictions
- Every asset influences your class success: “Done is done” versus “Pretty but late”
Art (creative) Direction (map):
- Art is habit, fashion and science
- Art is woven with opinion
- Art is about choices and execution
- Art must be viewed in context
- Art in games is more of a production art than fine art
- Art Directors balance the company’s need for creative control and the artist’s desire for creative freedom
Learn through observation and experimentation:
- Play games… both good and bad games
- Validate using the player’s perspective
- Listen to critique/feedback
Understand how assets support features
Understand the moment/rhythm of play:
- Identify a player’s typical actions
- Determine the challenges
- Create diversity over the time of play
Excite the player:
- Build drama and motivation with major story
- Build intrigue with mini-stories
Educate the player: Focal points, landmarks, rules/messages, etc.
Reward the player: Build in customization
Critique Philosophy
Critique Benefits
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