Bop It!

Bop It was game that spent the longest time in development, but it is also one that has the most depth in user experience. The changes went back and forth trying to find engaging gameplay and visuals to reinforce that gameplay; it was tight since we developed the whole game in about eight months. 

I want to include a little bit of the process here to emphasize how fluid the development process is- it's awesome- good ideas get exchanged for better ideas, weak ideas are left behind, and there is a lot of listening and responding to other. A lot of listening goes a long way. 

At first, the game hid the avatars in a capsule of sorts and you could see it rocking out. Cool to see, but not experience. The second version was a big screen the avatar stood in front of...that seemed redundant and removed the experience away from the toy interaction. The third or fourth version brought in a ring on the floor around the avatar, followed by the idea to nix the avatar and create a circular construct to play with.

Lastly, tie the good aspects of all those ideas together and add richer visual cues through the environment...bingo, you've got BopIt! Below is a lighting color script for gameflow, to reduce scope and improve stage consistency we dropped the set entrance. I know FGN isn't a AAA title, but it was great to work on for it's fast pace, open direction, and the folks at Wahoo Studios can't be beat. Cheers.

Sorry Sliders and Yahtzee

As promised here is more of the concept art I did for FGN: The Game Show. All images copyrighted by EA and Hasbro.

There are two games that occur in the same stage space in the game- Yahtzee and Sorry Sliders. It was fun to make sure each game had it's own flavor but not feel like the player was being transported to a different space.

 You may have noticed the changing colors of the pillars and spotlights. For each of the games I created a mini-color script to give variety and unity, that was fun. I was also asked to design in a Mr Potato Head statue that was never used. We were going to have a figure skating MPH figure, but we were asked not to have a cross-dressing potato. Go figure!

Kudos to the programmers on this one, they did some great work with the Kinect system to recognize all the different ways you could push a 6.5ft bowling ball and giant Sorry Slider.

Junk Fu= Whack-a-mole+Guitar Hero+Fruit Ninja

My latest game to be released, Junk Fu for the Kinect Fun Labs, was amazing to see being developed. What started out as an "urban ninja training ground" shifted to a "retail rampage," then "cosmic karate." The game solidified as a "martial arts trash smash-athon".  Everything was meant to look distressed and worn out, a futuristic junkyard with outrageous props for destruction. Here are some of my pieces from the game.

The paintings below were quick concept painting, no more than a few hrs. that show possible gameplay environments. I even painted donuts for one of the concepts! Note that the final and purple/pink one use strict 1 point perspective. It was decided to fake 3D and have either the world or the objects advance. In the end we did a little of both.

In gaming and animation you truly check your egos at the door, everyone is willing let their contributions be discarded/ molded to help make the whole better. Even though there were some wonderful ideas, we worked together to get the best option for out scope, team, and time. Casey D. and Shawn worked on the art with me (Shawn concepted the items to be destroyed and Casey made them look amazing as well as do the final UI elements)

All work it copyrighted by Microsoft. So don't be a hosehead and steal stuff that's not yours.

Family Game Night: The Game Show

Last year Wahoo Studios contracted me to develop and animate for Family Game Night: The Game Show a multi-console video game. The studio put a lot of trust in me letting me take first crack at developing it. I ended up doing all of the target art for development for each game. Here's the first concept I did for ScrabbleFlash.


All a concepts had to reflect the Family Game Night TV show on the HUB Network that features a variety of Hasbro games in a larger than life setting. Since the game was targeted to feature Xbox Kinect gameplay, I worked closely with our designers and programmers to get interface to work for both controllers and Kinect.

Connect 4 was my favorite game in terms of the Kinect gameplay.

Shawn Boyles and I did work on character design for Mr. Potato Head. I had so much fun working with his drawings and doing some design of my own for each game. These were the concepts I helped design that made  it through approval. For the record, nobody can as much draw personality into a potato as Shawn; a shame we can't show those here.

There are several versions of the concepts that got released online. If you google any of the games- Sorry Sliders, Connect 4, Scrabble Flash, Yahtzee Bowling, or BopIt one itteration or another pops up.I'll post about the other games soon.

All artwork copyright belongs to Electronic Arts.

Caricature of Shawn Boyles

This past week we had an art challenge at work to caricature a coworker. I was assigned to one of my great friends, concept artist Shawn Boyles. He is one of the great creatives I know; his sketchbooking explorations are prolific! Shawn's love with his work shows in every beastie, beauty, bug, and accessories he creates.

He's got huge appeal embedded in every line that makes me jealous every time he draws, and he draws a lot!

My apologies for having been so long absent. I'll be giving you an visual update on work done in the last year.Since my last post, I joined Wahoo /NinjaBee Studios and have been developing and animating games. I'm finishing my 3rd title and working on my 4th currently. It has been great in so many ways.

We had a little character design workshop at work from Shawn. This is what I came up with... just trying to have some fun.

The Sound Secret: Painting 01

This was a blast to paint the sketch from the last post. Nothing fancy but I think it does the job. I invited my 3yr old son in for a critique. "Amazing treasures!" he said. So I'm calling it a success.

After he read the letters on the gem he asked, "But what's on the other side?" I think kids these days expect  interactivity when approaching anything on a display screen. Creating content that uses that expectation to direct and focus attention - that will be one of the signs of effective use of media.

What are your thoughts on media and attention?

Dino-mite

Who doesn't love cutie dinosaurs?! I sketched one and he just needed some friends.

A handful of bad bikers for Road Rage - character concepts

Here is a page of character designs from my sketch book. I sketched these guys a couple months ago and finally got around to painting them this week. It's a television series concept that follows a biker gangs on their road escapades. Of course each gang is full of steroid pumped stereotypes. Any favorites or suggestions for improving the gang?

A quick sketch

Aloha, here is a little shape experiment and quick digital paint, 1hr tops. Just having fun with the shape composition and some free brushes from Chris Oatley. Hope you all enjoy.

Character Design with Chris Oatley

Aloha, this week I had a blast recording a podcast episode with DTS artist Chris Oatley of Chris Oatley's Artcast. If you haven't checked out his show... shame on you, . We talked shop about continuing artistic development, networking strategies for the entertainment industry, and character development technique. I'm constantly learning from the great talents everywhere, here are some things I picked up recently. Feel free to leave your own criticisms and suggestions.

I started developing some sketches for a Sci-Fi concept. Chris took one look and sent me to a great resource The Skillfull Huntsman, the book that takes a Grimm Bros Fairytale through early concept development as if it were a real production. Here's my first sketch (1.25hrs) and some areas that instantly stood out for improvement after picking up the book.

I wanted to try some of the exercises mentioned in the book. Here are a couple of the principles The Skillfull Huntsman put forward:

Compare Apples to Apples-Using the same basic pose and create various designs varing scale, pattern, positive and negative space, etc. Here are a two of mine using one pose.
A good silhouette holds endless possibilities-After I was satisfied with the outline of a character, I try to see the different possibilities within the one form. By imagining a different place, time, gender, technology, etc. I came up with these two drastically different characters, each one has a different story & personality. What character do you see?

Did you know Luke Skywalker started out as a girl in Ralph McQuarrie's drawings and evolved into the character we know today. The initial design process is to mine the creative depths of an concept; establish a strong appropriate silhouette and build from there. Avoid jumping to the details like I did in my first drawing.

Check out these great character designers- Awesome forms. Joe Olson, Nicolas Marlet (Kungfu Panda), and Peter de Seve
More to come as I explore this world and other projects.