The latest Fantastic Pixel Castle podcast focuses on art direction and some of the ways that it can be part of the process of determining the overall direction on a game, including FPC’s own project, Ghost.
This time, Scott Johnson and Greg Street were joined by Shanti B, VP of creative and David “Kube” Kubac, Ghost’s art director.
When it comes to game development, you have to consider your art style and how much it fits the game's tone, how realistic or stylized you want to go, and how the team can commit to visual themes, biomes, and how the art design team helps shape the world that other teams will fill in. Shanti brings up the balance of creating a world that makes people want to explore but also making it feel cohesive and fit the themes.
One of the standout features for World of Warcraft is its unique, instantly recognizable visual style. There's something to going more stylized in order to try and not face looking dated as technology quickly advances. The right art design can create a real sense of place and feeling, and one of the examples that comes up is Shadow of the Colossus.
Recently, the studio shared a new milestones blog, which featured some new concept art, With the reminder that this could or could not be the final look.
Kube brings up how the team is working with different elements to create environments and creatures to stand out. They're actually working with the concept artists to create new creature concepts that fit within the universe they are creating. This begins with questions like “what would an alligator look like in this universe?”. They want the biomes to feel memorable, to have plenty of things to interact with, and have player experiences with a sense of wonder, And to also potentially impact the evolution of the world.
They also address a couple of other topics, including preservation of a live game and what that means now, as well as looking ahead to eventually their next milestone update.
