Concept Art Process

As I said last time, I asked three different artists to work on concept sketches for the game. This was because I wanted to get a defining look for a number of Gloranthan cultures, and to get alternate ideas for the more important ones. I was also really hoping to get some collaboration going.

The game studios I’ve worked with have tried to foster collaboration by getting everyone together in one room (usually with an open office). That wasn’t going to work when each artist lived in a different country, so I decided to try Slack. This is sort of a team-oriented chat system which looked easy to use and had apps for pretty much any platform. I felt a little hesitant asking people to install software and create an account just to work with me, but they all agreed. (One of them even said it helped to compartmentalize the work, so everything didn’t end up cluttering email.)

Working with contractors can mean it’s easier to work with the best people (you don’t have to find them something full-time to do, or ask them to relocate). But they are also temporary contributors, and often work in their own bubble. I’m really pleased that for the duration of the project, it did feel like there was a little team. People shared cool historical stuff, complimented each other’s work, and even answered questions about Glorantha.

Having a team meant that I could draw on different talents. For example, DarioTW made sure things were technically sound, Marguerite Dabaie was keen on costumes, and Jan Pospíšil was well-steeped in the look of Glorantha. (Not that this was their only dimension!)

To me, the concept art phase is about generating a bunch of ideas and seeing which ones work. It can be tough having to say no to something that’s actually really good, but doesn’t quite fit what the game needs.

At the same time, one needs to keep an open mind, and figure out whether a good idea can be worked into the game. I now know more about Glorantha thanks to the artists (similar to how the King of Dragon Pass artists helped define it).

And once in a while, an idea just needs a little tweaking, e.g. “how about a shorter tunic on that guy?” (Some of the tweaks turned out to be dead ends, though we do now have a lot of hat sketches.)

It’s still too early in the development process to show much, but I will share what’s actually the first sketch I got, from Marguerite Dabaie. It’s an example of something that I actually like a lot as a distinctive look, but is not quite right for Six Ages. Maybe for a future game?

Another nice piece, by DarioTW, would be perfect for another part of Glorantha. Again, maybe a future game?

All the artists did great work, and I enjoyed working with them. Now I just need to distill everything into art guidelines for production art.

Concept Art Continues

King of Dragon Pass had great art, but we’re trying to go even better with the concept art for Six Ages. As I said last time, we’re trying to be cool and distinctive, which weren’t explicit goals in King of Dragon Pass. And of course, we now have the excellent art from the Guide to Glorantha to live up to.

Looking back at the original KoDP art, we had only 11 concept sketches, from two artists. For Six Ages, we’ve asked for 72, and have three concept artists. Partly this is because the KoDP concept art only portrayed the Orlanthi settlers (although the game ended up showing 7 other human cultures, plus a couple of historical ones). Glorantha is full of different people, and we might as well figure out what they look like up front.

The team has assembled an extensive set of art reference, drawing from the web as well as printed sources, in a number of languages. (Our shared Dropbox folder is over half a gigabyte.) I borrowed a couple more Osprey books from my brother-in-law, and bought a few more (thanks in part to some good suggestions). A few library books were disappointing only because First Ancient History already included the same illustrations. I also found a few other useful books in my personal library, which I had forgotten about.

We should be wrapping up before the end of the year, and I hope to show you a little of the work in a future post.