Concept Art: Why?!?!
Making a game is a lot of work. We work hard to get as much content in a game as possible. So why would we waste our time making stuff that isn’t going to end up in the game? What’s their purpose except for looking pretty on the wall of the work-environment?
For us there are two big reasons for putting effort in making concept art. The first one is pretty easy. When we define our art style, it’s not perfect right away. Hehe, no way. It takes many iterations to find the right style for all the assets. That’s the most obvious reason for creating concept art. However, another important reason is to tackle this problem:
Concept art is a great communication tool. A picture is worth a thousand words, and they tend to look prettier too. When I try to explain concepts to Bas for example, I tend to use picture. It’s easier to draw the picture in your head than to write it down in words. It also costs a lot less energy to interpret a picture. Another great side-effect is that you can draw on the picture to mark important stuff, or to draw lines that show, for example, a triangulation. Making concept art is like drawing out a goal: This is what we’re working towards.
Most of the time, our concept art is really sloppy. It’s more about the feel and the context than about the full art style. So don’t worry, our games will not look as crappy as my concept art, haha! This way we can make more concept art, so our goal becomes more and more clear. Making the concept art pretty is also a big motivational tool. If the concept art is sloppy, Bas is more like this:
But if you do it correctly, you will get the team motivated with just a purdy picture! Like this!
Hope this was a bit informing!
-Adriaan
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