BCM215

Exploring Concept Art: Pitch

Hayden Curley8 Comments

The games I aim to research for my project are:

  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order
  • Wolfenstein: The New Colossus
  • Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy
  • Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

I have chosen these games due to my familiarity and fondness for them. I believe studying these games will be more beneficial than games I am less familiar with as I am already knowledgeable about these and will be able to apply this knowledge.

As I will be analysing three separate video game series, my project will be split into three individual stages. In my first stage, I will be taking a look at The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and how it uses its concept art in its in-game minigame, Gwent.

Secondly, I will be taking a look at both Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. Both these games use Concept Art in different capacities, with The New Order having the art be unlocked at the end of each level, whereas The New Colossus makes itโ€™s art in-game collectibles.

Thirdly and finally, I will be taking a look at how the Crash Bandicoot series, particularly Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. CTR:NF used its concept art in its end credits, and so far I have been unable to find anything regarding N-Sane Trilogy’s official concept art, however, I will continue to research this, as I am interested why they haven’t done anything with it.

When exploring the topic of Concept Art, I have noticed that there is not a large amount of  research regarding Concept Art in Video Games, as most discussion regarding the topic is simply about what it is and why they do it, rather than how else it is used. However, I have still been able to find both academic and non-academic articles discussing the topic and therefore feel I will have enough to talk about.

As well as researching my topic, I also plan on engaging with people via Twitter to find out what they think about concept art and if they know of any good examples of it being used in the games industry. By asking others for feedback and insights, I will be able to gain more perspectives on this topic other than my own.

References:

IGN, 2014, ‘Wolfenstein: The New Order – Concept Art’, IGN, accessed 3/9/2020, https://www.ign.com/wikis/wolfenstein-new-order/Concept_Art

Kutz, S, 2019, ‘Gaming Industry Explained: Concept Art for 3D Games’, Medium, accessed 3/9/2020, https://medium.com/imeshup/gaming-industry-explained-concept-art-for-3d-games-d88ad8492fb1

Smith, R, & Farrell J, 2014, ‘Concept Art Best Practices for the Video Game Industry and Classic Illustration Techniques’, accessed 3/9/2020 http://www.victoriarehfeldsmith.com

Gabriel, P. 2015, ‘The Witcher 3 Gwent Cards and Concept Art by Marek Madej’ , abdz., accessed 3/9/2020, https://abduzeedo.com/witcher-3-gwent-cards-and-concept-art-marek-madej

Concept Art World, 2015, ‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Concept and Promo Art’, Concept Art World, accessed 3/9/2020, http://conceptartworld.com/news/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-concept-art/

8 thoughts on “Exploring Concept Art: Pitch”

  2. Hayden,
    I’ll start by saying I enjoy your idea for concept art in gaming very much.
    I think concept art is quite under-appreciated in the gaming world. Most people obviously play games purely for the interactive element without paying much attention to the many creative elements hidden in the game.
    Crash Bandicoot is an awesome choice for this as it I know they have a great emphasis on there concept art, hiding it in levels and allowing people to collect it if they choose to. I know I saw this first hand in Crash of the Titans.
    I first explored concept art on Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves and was really interested in seeing the initial designs for the game and how they had changed.
    What is interesting about this is that Naughty Dog games was bought by Sony in 2001 and Sucker Punch (responsible for the Sly Cooper series) was created by Sony. Both these games being owned and “produced” by Sony maybe there is a correlation between the two and their emphasis on concept art being one of Sony’s core values.
    I tried to look for research on how concept art is used in video games and you are accurate in saying there isn’ a whole lot posted on the topic.
    However, I do think Gwent is a great example of active concept art use in video games as the game is based around cards with amazing illustrations on them.
    There are so many cards to find and collect in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and I don’t doubt you are familiar with most of them already but here is a list on the official wiki for reference:
    https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Category:The_Witcher_3_images_-_Gwent_card_art
    I understand there is also a seperate game titled, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game which explores this minigame further, I found a list of the cards on reddit which you can find on this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MsoUord03QB7-OlBtCXfstTZ9LRP4Qn1
    Unfortunately I have no real experience with the Wolfenstein series so I am not much help there but I imagine it is also a great choice, I have seen some of the “mecha-nazi’s” in clips so the concept art must be incredible.
    It would be interesting to also see the similarities between the origins of the RPG, as we saw in the lecture material in week 4. The introduction of fantasy games and how they differed from standard war games, and how concept art had its impact on this.
    Looking forward to seeing this DA evolve, good luck!

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  4. Alright, Hayden youโ€™ve done it again, youโ€™ve taken something tiny that I would usually skip through in a game and youโ€™ve piqued my interest so +1 point already. I find the idea to focus on the predevelopment ideas of the game, surprisingly interesting. I think an interesting structure for this DA could be showing a comparison of the two things, one being the concept art and the other being the finalised in game location or thing (i.e. Gun, Sword, monster). I enjoy the idea of splitting the project into three distinct stages with the types of games. The Witcher 3 I know makes a serious amount of use of concept art and the style of concept art at the end of every act which would be an interesting topic to broach with your audience. The idea of collecting the concept art in Wolfenstein will be interesting as from memory it can be quite tedious, but Iโ€™m sure if you make use of YouTube or another streaming service you can do quite well with that on entertainment value. I havenโ€™t played much crash since I was a kid but Iโ€™m sure itโ€™ll make a fitting end to your project. I hope you stick to YouTube, because with a topic I can see you have so much passion for I feel you need to let you personality out and I can see you covering that best through video. All done now youโ€™ve finished with +10 points because youโ€™ve got me interested and caring about your project so well done, keep at it.

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  6. Although I would never call myself a gamer, I am far more interested in this topic than I first expected.
    Concept art (like most art to be honest) I always admired from a distance. That being said I do admire it. Iโ€™m sure for some of the same reasons you do. I think it has such a huge part in the game and in the franchise with fans and related content.
    My curiosity is have you considered fan art as well as concept art? The fan world for concept art is huge (https://www.reddit.com/r/conceptart/). Not just for images and desktop backgrounds, but all sorts of fan-based merch.
    Iโ€™ve never had the chance to play any of the games youโ€™re looking into (although Iโ€™ve heard of most of them). Seth has already spoken on his experience with them and his perspectives of art.
    So, will you address how their art influences first-time players too? I feel like this is an important aspect of any game, especially how the gameโ€™s first impressions are received.
    I feel like this is such a cool topic and a potential giant for you to tackle.
    Keen to see it unfold!!

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