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The Creative Process:Sentinels in Shards ofWar

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Intro

Oliver Trogemann

Joined Bigpoint 2011

Senior UI Artist, Head of 2D Art

UI and Concept Art (~40 Artists incl.

ADs/Art Leads)

Advising internal & external projects

Hiring

Feel free to connect on LinkedinFind us at: G6

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FARMERAMA2009 | 53m users

DARKORBIT2006 | 90m users

DRAKENSANG ONLINE2011 | 31m users

Founded 2002

550 employees

370,000,000 registered users in 200

countries

200,000 new users added every day

180+ payment methods

1 billion+ daily transactions

San Francisco

Istanbul

Hamburg

Luxemburg

Malta

Seoul

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About the Team

Teamsize total: 52

15 artists (2D, 3D, Animation, Tech)

2 Concept Artists/Illustrators

Unity / Custom pipeline

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About the GameSciFi Action MOBA

Free to Play

18 Sentinels (+)

4 Shards (Worlds) (+)

2 Maps (+)

2 Skins per Sentinel (+)

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Video

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Initial map

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New map: Benefiting from key learnings

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Features

W A S D Controls

Customizaton

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Sentinels

~4 week total art production (concept,

asset, artwork)

Art & Game Design: flexible/ collaborative

Regular Workflow: Game Design (character

specs) – followed by Art (visual concept)

Special Case: Big Bot

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Art testing shapes and sizes.Design created: Bastion

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Sentinels

Last minute feedback: Early Sentinels not

futuristic enough. Solved by replacing with

skin. (Examples)

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Example Vulcan: Switching early version …

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…with the skin

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Example Striker: Switching early version …

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…with the skin

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Skins

Require new 3D assets and illustrations

Illustrations: essential communication tool

(Story, Identification, Immersion)

Classification of „Story“ and „Fun“ skins

Varies each case

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Flatline

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Flatline: “Story skin”

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Zel

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Zel: “Fun” skin

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Blitz

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Blitz: Fun skin

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Skins

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Skins

New Skins: Preserve spirit and silhouette

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Skins

New Skins: Spirit and silhouette

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Skins

New Skins: Spirit and silhouette

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Bastion

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Bastion: Fun skin (Inspiration?)

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Rhino

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Rhino: Fun skin

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Identifying and testing 5-6 different

vendors

Providing 2 rough sketches, allowing

artists proposal

Surprise: Giving rather more than less

freedom = best results!

Sometimes making quick fixes internally.

Outsourcing

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Vox: Great inital artwork from thevendor

(Values, Composition)

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Second color draft lost all power.Different Artist?

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Solution: Inhouse fix

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Vendor had problems (perspectivedistortion)

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Outsourcing

Hulk saved us (inhouse fix)

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Outsourcing

You need great artists – simple as that

The more changes - the worse it gets,

start from scratch

Artwork is done when you say it‘s done

Giving Artists codenames from popular

show for later reference

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Creative Process

Keeping Sentinels inhouse, Outsourcing

skins

Currently 2 Concept Artists/ Illustrators

Switching between concept art and

illustration

Example: Zel

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Concept Art

Zel: Early concepting

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Concept Art

Zel: Weapon design

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Concept Art

Zel: Costume Layers

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Zel: Final concept

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Zel: Final inhouseartwork

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Questions?

Find us at:

Play the game: www.shardsofwar.com

G6