Liliana.
Azmi-Galoczi
History
ILO: 3/12/19
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In this task, I plan to compare the differences between game art of an earlier game of Adventureland (Scott Adams, 1978-1982) and Dauntless (Phoenix Labs, 2019). Then I will discuss over how art in games has developed by observing the images, then researching over how the job role will develop in the future.
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Through these tasks, I will be interesting to see the differences between the old and the developed art of games. But I will also learn about how the artists use the digital tools and equipment to create these pieces of art.
The history of art in games would simply be explained as pixels on the screen. But in terms of art of publishing the game, for example, in the game Adventureland (Scott Adams, 1978) includes a cover of a dragon with a volcano erupting, black mountains and a blue sky in the background. As awesome or fascinating as this sounds, but unfortunately the use of colours and creativity are quite lacking, or in other words, the image is rather basic. However, this game was released in 1978, therefore the players during that time period would have been excited and enjoyed the game.
But in 1982, the developers presented a graphic re-release of the cover, which conveys to be a drastic change from the original cover of Adventureland. The image includes a large and contrasting amount of detail and shading. Personally, it appears that the cover can visually tell the audience a brief about the gameplay. The image of the girl roaming around in the dark volcano along the edges of the rocks with the lava below and looking back at the tall lava fall. It can imply to the audience that the game consists of a journey of adventure. Especially by the large shiny axe held on her back and the dragon behind her can suggest the adventure of defeating the dragon. Except however, the game includes the objectives of merely collecting thirteen lost artifacts: a statue of Paul Bunyan’s blue ox, Babe, The jewelled fruit, the golden fish, a dragon’s egg, a golden net, a magic carpet, a diamond necklace, a diamond bracelet, a pot of rubies, the royal honey, a crown, a magic mirror, and a firestone. Hence some of the artifacts on the floor around the girl’s feet. So even though the menacing dragon stands behind the girl, but with the artifacts lying around, it reveals to the players that the game consists of the gameplay where the players must find these items to complete the game.
In terms of colours, the dragon changed from green with basic outlining to red with detailed spikes and texture. As well as including the semiotics of danger and anger. Even though the remastered image remains appearing considerably old, it’s still a clear improvement of art and the overall image conveys a clear overview of the game, even though the actual gameplay consists of pixels and writing commands to move across the map. Despite the game’s pixelated view and descriptive writing to ensure the players’ imaginations flourish, the cover also ensures the players to keep the gameplay as creative as possible - so by that, the cover is detailed, more texturised and it’s an image of an epic journey to find artifacts.
Adventureland (1978-1982):
In comparison to the art today, for example Dauntless (Phoenix Labs, 2019), in this image, it’s clear that its presenting plenty amount of interpretation that there is intense action of the character against the large, long-shouted blue beast. The concept art today consists of highly digital processes, such as Photoshop (Adobe Inc., 1990) and other professional art programs. So the brushes were mostly smooth and textured to create precise blending of colours and precise positions of the muscle, fur, hair, and many other features to create a colourful masterpiece.
However, the image in comparison to the Adventureland cover from 1982, highly differentiate to each other. Here’s a list of differences:
Dauntless:
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The canvas is horizontal - mainly because games are mostly and increasingly downloaded digitally and online than physically. Also because it’s appealing to the eye.
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There is a large flourish of colours.
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The image feels as if the action will proceed to move or the image already feels moving because of the perspective of the main view. A camera, for example, one of the character’s fists is close to it. And in the centre, there is a gap to show another character in a leaping position with her axe up high, ready to strike the enormous blue beast.
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The textures are not gritty like Adventureland's, allowing the flow of other textures and colour to keep the image appear moving.
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The background is slightly dimmed/blurred in focus to concentrate on the action upfront, but also reveal to the audience the environment and mood of the game.
Adventureland:
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The canvas is vertical, as well as the original cover because at the time, the audience bought games physically.
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The texture of the rock and dragon are gritty and solid.
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There are less flourish of colours, but also there are slightly basic colours and there is no advanced lighting and shading - considering how’s there’s lava glowing below.
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The background is particularly dimmed.
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The journey of the character is rather close-up unlike today’s concept where characters are normally smaller in perspective. (Explanations will be discussed below).
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Colours are not blended as much as the Dauntless concept art - making the textures gritty and the whole image appearing solid and sharp. Which also implies that the flow of action is the image is more frozen in time - an image without a sense of movement because of how the items are lying around on the ground a random dragon from behind slightly confuses the vision.
Differences:
For the art presenting the same position as the re-release of Adventureland’s cover (the character slowly walking towards/gazing at their destination). Today’s concept art for that design now consists of the character mostly facing their backs at the audience. For example, the image of Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Eidos Montréal, 2018), the canvas is horizontal and Lara Croft is gazing at her next objective. However, the details are nicely blended in a certain way to define the particular asset and feature of the objects in their certain positions, but also with the blends, it’s smoother than Adventureland so it ensures the audience’s vision is moved and flowing with the story of the art. Even though the image is presenting the same story as Adventureland - a journey - but the image still has a moving aspect to it. It may seem frozen in time like Adventureland, but it expresses a sense of discovery, therefore it’s a movement of a slow pace and gradual.
In conclusion, clearly the industry of art for games has rapidly developed just as much as the other job roles in the industry. Even though Walt Disney had a team of concept artists for his stories, the game industries at the time had only one animator or two artists. Whereas today, there is a large team of different types of artists: 3D modellers, animators, texture artists, shader artists and environment artists. As well asset artists and character artists. The evolvement of artists in the game industry developed because of how high in demand they are just as much as the roles. But also because the creativity and authenticity of visuals for games improved with the improved technology over the years, meaning high-end art can be successfully assembled on high-end technology.
The future of art will always be an onliving aspect of the media because by how demanding they are - and they are demanding because the industry needs to view a brief about an asset of something so they modify until the concept can be confirmed for full production for the film/game/illustrated book. For a quote of proof, a concept artist named Thomas, who says “I’m excited to come to work and see what projects I’m going to work on next”. This quote proves that art is an ongoing request as artists are given a request and a brief about their plans and the artists will create concepts about them.
BBC Bitesize (1998) How to become a concept artist: Thomas' story [Online]. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvwx92p [Accessed 9 December 2019].
Also, many people think that automation will take over jobs. They may dominate over jobs, indeed, but not necessarily the creative roles because robots don’t particularly have a creative mind to create an original creature, for example, because that takes creativity and uniqueness from a genuine brain of a human.
The future:
Reference:
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Game FAQs (2015) Adventureland - FAQ/Walkthrough [Online]. Available from: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/appleii/564078-adventureland/faqs/72205 [Accessed 3 December 2019].
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Luke Plunkett (2018) The Best In Video Game Concept Art For 2018 [Online]. Available from: https://www.gameindustrycareerguide.com/how-to-become-a-video-game-concept-artist/ [Accessed 4 December 2019].
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Google Images | PlayStation.Blog (2019) Dauntless’ Aether Unbound Update Lands on PS4 Today [Online]. Available from: https://images.app.goo.gl/wZwPfxFiQwxL2HU86 [Accessed 4 December 2019].
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Marc Holmes (2017) How soon will automation affect the future of concept art? [Online]. Available from: https://www.quora.com/How-soon-will-automation-affect-the-future-of-concept-art [Accessed 4 December 2019].
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reddit (2017) Automation and the future of concept art [Online]. Available from: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/5nfmlw/automation_and_the_future_of_concept_art/ [Accessed 4 December 2019].