Organizers of the 2017 Game Developers Conference would like to quickly highlight one of the great taking place at the show next year that aims to offer developers a lot of high-level lessons about nailing the visual aesthetic for indie games.
In his talk on “Fast, Cheap and Flashy: An Indie Art Direction Adventure”, Chickadee Games’ art director Adam DeGrandis will share important lessons learned in his career as a game artist, such as how slowing down to think is sometimes the most efficient use of time, and how to tell when something’s “good enough”.
In illustrating these points, DeGrandis will also walk attenees through proven pipelines for visual development and 2d art production. For example, Chickadee contributed to the art design of Tooth & Tail (pictured), Pocketwatch Games’ follow-up to Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine.
As DeGrandis tells it, T&T had been in development for nearly two years, but the art was in trouble. It was inconsistent, hard to read, and a little dull. The style needed to be redesigned and ushered through production but there was a catch: it needed to ship in ten months and it couldn’t cost a lot.
Lateral thinking, semi-unconventional pipelines, educated-risk taking, and old-fashioned art fundamentals came to the rescue, and helped reshape the game’s style into something that won awards before the game was even released. But what’s the cost of succeeding early, and what happens when a team that worked so long with a big, stressful long term goal suddenly doesn’t have one? The examples are pixelated, but the lessons are universal — and you’ll hear them if you attend DeGrandis’ talk.
And don’t miss your opportunity to save money by registering for GDC early — the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 25, 2017. GDC 2017 itself will take place February 27th – March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.For more information on GDC 2017, visit the show’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas
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