Tuesday 29 March 2011

Game Art not Games Design

With the majority of the FMP behind me it's time to stimulate my mind in a more intellectual direction.

Today's blog takes inspiration from the interviews I’ve sat in on for the past couple of weeks.

One main theme I noticed was how many applicants were currently on a college 'Games Design' course, thinking it would fast track them into the games industry.

How wrong they are.


For starters, judging from examples of their work. These courses are poorly researched and structured. Their portfolios produced no evident skills that would ever prepare them for the games industry. In fact they would be a lot better off enrolling on a more structured art or foundation course as these will at least develop your fundamental art skills.

The major flow of these 'Games Design' courses is in the name. A lot of people confuse Game Art with Game Design. Countless times I have had to correct people as they think I will be responsible for design games.

Far from it.

Game Art is purely commercial, if you apply to DMU wanting to deigns your own game then don't bother as that does not entail the life of a Game Artist. Sure we can put our own spin on the concepts but for the majority of the time we are working to a strict brief as part of a pipeline.

Another flow these courses have is the broad approach they take to the Games Industry. The teach everything from concepting to scripting, to character design and programming sound. This would only be helpful in a crash course where it would help students gain better insights to how games work and then follow a specialised path. So that their time at college isn't wasted on a vague and skilfully weak portfolio.


Fundamental skills of a Game Artist is the ability to perceive the world for what it is and get that vision down on paper. We need to demonstrate skills of perception, lighting and colour theory which will show through with the 3D side of things.


We are Game Artists and we like to draw.

1 comment:

Michael Powell said...

yes, damn right post there.

more interviews on Friday :) I'm hoping you'll be there