Illustrations for the some of the main characters for the upcoming game from Blizzard, Diablo 3.

Character designs from Bioshock 2, which primarily include a range of mutated and misshapen civilians and intimidating, faceless beings bound to the armor and weapons they wear. For the civilians, imagery of various injuries from World War 1 and 2 were used to create disturbing mutations and ugly marks over their bodies. The setting and fashion design also seems to stem from the same time period, adding to the lauded and effective atmosphere of the game. As the game is in first person it offers more focus on these kind of design features as well as a more restricted field of vision, enabling the player to easily be taken by surprise. These two aspects of the game contribute to gameplay with a strong and successful sense of tension. The main threat in the game, however, are the more than conspicious are the 'Big Daddies/Sisters' adorned in detailed and heavy armour developed from the atmospheric diving suits used to travel into deep water. Like the mutants, these enemies are paired with another aspect of the game for added effect - The world is set in a built civilisation underwater, making these enemies both impervious to the main danger to your character and able to follow you no matter where you go. These kind of effective character and and environmental concepts provide a lot to more than just a few key traits of any game.

Landscape art from the 'Fallout 3' video game. The work is based upon a somewhat convoluted setting, a 'what if' scenario - Where the future envisioned by America in the 1960's is a reality, a future which is then ravaged by an apocalyptic and all encompassing nuclear war. It was a unique and ambitious setup proposed by the makers of 'The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion', a game renowned for its huge world and open ended nature. The main concern was that this world was one of vivid colour and fantasy, whereas Fallout was in some senses the opposite. The skilled and above all confident creative minds behind the games came up with a - though decrepit - stylised world packed with mystery and eventful surprises. The concept art is perhaps most effective because of how it sums up so much about the game - Set in a foreboding and unforgiving wasteland that is often isolated and dangerous.

Concept art from the video game adaptation of 'Batman: Arkham Asylum', previously a surreal, abstract graphic novel with art from Dave McKean. Though the story and characters of Batman are interpreted in dozens, possibly hundreds of different ways, the games design is based mainly upon the animated series, and it is interesting to see how it has been transformed into a video game. It promotes its comic book influence but provides designs a lot more detailed and textured, as seen in a lot of concept art. The strong linework and exaggerated features capture a balance between serious/dark and quirky/graphic. It seems very sure of its style, and the artist has drawn the characters back in a similar pose for the viewer to see what the character would like from more than one angle which can be necessary for some concepts. The end result of the art looks very similar to these drawings, with only minor changes that are perhaps related to unrelated 3D limitations, or a slightly darker feel the game decided to go for. The amount of strong visual and literary source material was beneficial for the game developers as it gave them a great creative starting point, which shows how much concepts like these can gain from such reference.

My Brief

My Brief

To design aspects of a completely new video game, taking on the role of a lead concept artist, including character and landscape concepts, promotional art (loading screens, posters etc.) and packaging art (game box, manual, extra poster/map etc).

The general outline of the story is of a man who starts as an unknowing character lacking in any defining traits. As the tale moves forward he learns more about his world and the abilities within every being on the planet – power, that most people are born with very little of, limited only by the speed which one can gain it through varying methods. This aspect of the plot stems from all the fiction that includes characters with great strength – I want to use this well known aspect and turn it into something plausible with its own logic. The idea is that he starts off as anyone would, but by the end with the help of many others and his own desire to gain strength he becomes one of the strongest, if not the strongest, beings on the planet. It is almost homage to the simple formula of many video games, especially RPG’s, where the player is encouraged to level up and get as powerful as possible. This would be the ultimate definition of that.

I’ve seen a huge amount of storylines and I feel that characters within can be somewhat categorized into 4 states.

The first would define beings that most in the real world belong to, from the weak to the moderately skilled and strong, which by our standards is still a lot. The second would imply a much higher level of attributes like strength and speed that the best of humanity and animals can achieve, which is rare but still real - World class athletes, people who have trained their minds and bodies to handle extreme conditions, soldiers who have served the military and elite groups for decades. What I want to do, however, is imagine what it would be like if human ability could keep going, much further than even that. The third would then encompass beings that surpass all notions of reality and include characters from a huge amount of fiction - People with magical prowess, supernatural abilities, intense skill and many other possible traits. This field is where most video game characters fit into, as they are given impressive traits far beyond reality, but not so much that they risk mishandling the subtleties of the storyline. The final stage is rarely seen even by fictional standards, which arethose who surpass anything that is ever usually seen in a character. Characters are not regularly given this status as it would end most if not all notions of a plausible story, as the said character would be able to make actions of any other character useless.  Nonetheless they are occasionally seen, capable of blowing up planets with a wave of a finger, blotting out the sky with their attacks, or leaping so high into the air they could be flying.