Max Payne
June 25th, 2009
I’m not a fan of the new look that was recently revealed. Without going back and looking at any of the old games, I did this sketch.
War General
March 5th, 2009
This was a painting for Dominance War 4, an art competition for game artists. This is the first painting I’ve done in quite a while. It was good to make some art again :)
Game Design Nuggets
January 21st, 2009
I posted these on a forum recently. I can’t claim them as purely original, but I have found them to be my most useful heuristics in filtering game design ideas:
Everything is built on the Core Loop
Sometimes called the “game mechanic” or the “30 seconds of fun,” the core loop is the series of actions the player will perform over and over again in the heart of gameplay. The core loop of a Gears of War might be: 1) Encounter bad guys and take cover 2) Move to a good attack position 3) Kill the bad guys using a selection of your weapons 4) Re-arm and move on.
The smeXbox
November 25th, 2008
I found this sketch on my hard drive. It’s about a year old, but I still believe we will see a lot of the ideas come to fruition in the *next* generation of game consoles.
The basic idea is that the momentum from successes like the Wii and the casual games market will focus the device down to a casual, cheap box. It will be like a Wii that runs Xbox Live and has all the great content available on the web (like what XBL has done with netflix). Then, the hardcore crowd can go and buy a plug-in bit that will kick it up a notch and let it run Gears of War 5 in 1080p. The hardcore market has proven in this generation that they don’t mind a fragmented, multiple SKU console with the 360 and PS3. Seriously, I have no freaking clue how many versions of the PS3 there are out there.
Pressure from open devices like the iPhone, open platforms like Facebook, and digital distribution of games in places like Steam will push things in this direction. Somebody is going to realize that if they open up their console and go against the traditional Nintendo model, they can win. The manufacturer of this box can profit from hardware sales, but also from owning the marketplace. They can take it away from Wal Mart and Gamestop, and I belive they will try.
Books
July 21st, 2008
I always enjoy a chance to look over a list of recommended books and add a few to my amazon wishlist. So, I thought it would be a good idea to look over at my favorites on the bookshelf and write a list for the site here.
These are the top three (or 6, depending on how you look at it) books that I’ve returned to after I’ve finished them, and the books with the most to offer to a game artist:
Underneath It All
January 22nd, 2008
This is my entry to Conceptart.org’s “Last Man Standing 3″ competition, round one. The topic is “Underneath it all.”
And, yes, I need to update my image box javascript, I’ll get around to it soon enough (a good workaround is to open the link in a new tab).
Stylization in Game Art
October 16th, 2007
I recently gave a short talk on Photoshop Custom Brushes here at EA Mythic (I might post about that another time). I started off talking about stylization and ended up rambling for quite a while. I think the subject is big enough to deserve a post.
What I’m going to say here has been said before by many others and probably said much better. But, this version is focused squarely on how stylization relates to games. What I’m interested in is how to make a game more attractive and make it cheaper to produce with a single style.
Work In Progress Orc
March 24th, 2007
I’m thinking about trying to get a 3D printout of this guy after he’s done. I’m just starting on the armor.
