Behind The Scenes: PC Games Mashup

After a few detailed and textured works, I was in a mood for something more stylized and illustrative again. Something colorful and cute. I had two options here. Go for a stylized game asset illustration, like a building or some icon, or to build something with larger scope and concept. Having very little time available, of course I went for more difficult direction :D

But sometimes it's like that. You want to feel excited about the work you're doing next. And when you really ask yourself, what would you enjoy the most regardless of the difficulty or time requirements, you will find your next thing.

Last time I did this kind of work, it was very focused around the Game of Thrones franchise. I already did few of these for movies and TV shows and I was starting to niche down. But then I thought about how it started all, with a little arcade games mashup. And I realized, I didn't give much space to games since then.

Visit the full Pinboard here

I didn't even had to think twice about what's going to happen next. It's back to the roots for me, where it all started. With a little me getting up at 6am to play Command and Conquer on a beige Intel 486 PC.

I could just list some of my favorite games, but I always want these to have a general concept. So I scanned through multiple chart articles out there, picking out possible candidates. It can take some time, because a lot of charts are not curated, they just list the games based on metacritic score. I wanted to make a nice slice through history and pick titles that were able to define or evolve a genre in some way.

For example, C&C is not a first modern RTS in history, but it evolved the RTS gameplay mechanics in a way that was captivating and defining for other strategies for years to come. Same applies to Half Life 2. Not the first FPS shooter by far. And even not the first to introduce the interactive environment. But definitely the first, that perfected those interactions as an active gameplay mechanics (oh Gravity Gun, how I miss you) and combined it with movie quality narrative.

I put everything from the list on the moodboard, saving mostly old game screenshots and cover arts. Now the real work began. How do you place everything on the isometric layout, so it's recognizable, distinct, coherent and pleasing to look at?

This is why I simply can't start any of my work without a pencil. With all of these ideas and lists in my head, I need to go through a curating process and sketching really helps. You're doing something manual while visualizing everything you just scanned through.

First, you start with a simple very subtle lines and block out the composition, looking to find a suitable place, that these games deserve. I started from the bottom of the composition, so I can the work with the platform elevation to make things in the back visible. And the shapes you draw will show you new possibilities to place objects around them, behind them, or directly on them, slowly molding it into one coherent illustration.

You can watch the process video on Youtube