THE MONOCHROME WORKSHOP
This small, indie gaming company was based around a workshop model where we had, at our peak, dozens of artists attending meetings and working on commissioned assets. The main game we were working on was a game called the Monochrome RPG, a 2D, greyscale, rubberhose style RPG that was communally built and contributed to. We worked really hard to make game creation equitable and attainable to everyone who wanted to work on the game. We did this through assessing the strengths of incoming artists and assigning assets or commissions based on importance, skill needed to complete the commission, and timeframe that the commission was needed.
The overall tasks I had as Art Director and Lead Artist were:
- Commissioning Art and Creating New Asset Assignments and Projects
- Assessing Skills and Proficiency of New and Active Team Artists to Determine Appropriate Art Assignments
- Collecting Reference Materials and Creating Style Guides
- General Static Asset Assignment, Upkeep, and Auditing
- Concept Art (All Asset Types, Backgrounds, Key Art, UI, Cutscenes)
- Game Asset Creation (Foreground, Midground, Full Environments, Cutscenes)
- Marketing and Steam Page Art Creation
- Providing Weekly Feedback to Our Team of Artists
- Facilitation of Weekly Team Feedback Meetings
- Advanced Knowledge of Photoshop and Other 2D Art Software
A NOTE ON STYLE GUIDES
Style guides were extremely important and extensive. I helped put together documents and reference files full of images and materials that would help supplement commissions and keep artists on style.
Because we were working with artists from so many places, skill levels, and backgrounds, it was key to be able to have both visual references and extensive written guides for people to reference at anytime.
All artists were given frequent feedback, critique, and advice on how to best follow style guides and improve on their commissioned piece of artwork. We also facilitated group feedback meetings every week so that the Workshop could collectively and constructively contribute to the feedback given to each commission.
STYLE WAS MAINTAINED ACROSS BATTLE ENVIRONMENTS, OVERWORLD ENVIRONMENTS, AND UI
OVERWORLD ASSETS IN ENVIRONMENT
UI ASSETS
MARKETING ART
CHARACTER ART
