Tim Dean Art Director Central Media Microsoft Game Studios

Visual Targets Visual targets are images intended to depict the artistic vision for the game Clearly communicate visual goals Think about the vision Be reasonably possible in engine

Getting Inside the Box The Box Experiment Volunteer? Schrödinger cat

What’s All This For? The right picture can be worth more than a 1000 words. Goals All stakeholders understand and share the vision Vision can be clearly communicated to others Team gains momentum with management and/or publishers

Worth the Cost? 50-person team + $10,000,000 Budget = $200,000 worth of decisions per person 50 people x 24 months = 1200 man months or $8,333 per man month 20-person art team – 2 months going the wrong way = 40 man months or $333,320 wasted dollars 3 + additional artists

Visual Targeting Process Reference gathering Concept art Visual targets Style guide

Right Audience at the Right Time Visual Targets Concept Stage Reference Stage Team Upper management Publisher Marketing Extended team Contractors Participants

Design Brief Stylized exploration game with kids as the heroes Location as a character 3 rd person Mysterious Story focused

Photo Reference Style Blade Runner & Crackdown Structures Coraline & Lemony Snicket’s Lighting Dark Stormy & Bright evening sun Effect Frame Jitter & Bloom

Share It

Goals for Reference Composition Mood Lighting Texture Materials Details Effects

The Concept Is My Target, Right? Too many teams start and stop here Concept from MGS archives

Goals for Concept Art Don’t let these be your first and last steps Explore styles Create mood Build the fantastic Concept from MGS archives

Mood vs. Execution Experiment early to find the magic Pieces don’t need to be photo-real, just inspire Iterate Inspire Concept from MGS archives

Test Assumptions Concept from MGS archives

Partner with Other Teams User Research 7,300 lab and home studies 5,000 online surveys Audio Marketing Biz Dev Your devs

Experiment Visual Target from MGS archives

Prototype

Final Target Visual Target from MGS archives

Gears of War 2 - Concept Gears of War 2 © Epic Games

Visual Prototype Gears of War 2 © Epic Games

Final In-Game Image Gears of War 2 © Epic Games

Kick Off Graphics Conversation  Identifying the Key Visual features  Character Outline  Shaky Buildings  Cross Hatch Shader Visual Target from MGS archives

Style Equation What is the essence of your game? Distill it down to a detailed list of rules Body proportions are mostly correct Feet 20% bigger, torso shorter, legs longer Lighting is always at dusk or dawn Everything is moving and alive Edgy but not scary or cartoony

Goals for Style Guide Identify key concepts Define style direction Determine tech Drive conversations

Staying Ahead of the Curve? Look at your competition now and in the future Understand your team and tech Visual targeting for two years out is hard, four-plus years is impossible

Lessons Learned Targeting with laundry list of features Operating in a vacuum does not work Self-reliant artist can get more done Find the right people Be involved and engaged

Anyone Can Become a Genius 10,000 hours of practice separates someone who is good from someone who is brilliant The Beatles played eight hours a night, seven days a week. When they became popular, they had already performed ~1200 concepts

Worth the Cost? While games can get signed with one great video or a few good screen shots, lack of vision or the inability to communicate it has killed a lot more

Key Takeaways There is no template, so be flexible Make cool stuff Get people excited and on the same page Understand how’ll you get there, so you can plan to be there

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