polygonrunway

Behind The Scenes: Gameworld

Added 2021-08-31 12:18:47 +0000 UTC

Imagine you got briefed by a potential client from gaming industry to create a game themed illustration for a website. The illustration should include multiple games and should be recognizable at a first glance as a gaming motive.

That's how I approached this week's project and got to work. Briefs can differ and they can be really specific, or leave a lot of room for interpretation. In this case, I had to come up with the whole concept. When it comes to games, nostalgia is a really powerful tool. How many times did you have conversations about old games you played on this or that console?

And when it comes to classic games, you can't go wrong with Nintendo and Sega :) Everybody recognizes Mario or Sonic. And most of the classic games were either side scrollers or isometric, so that gave me some frameworks as well. So the final concept was an isometric colorful mini world, that would include multiple classic games.

Visit the full Pinboard here

I didn't jump right into board creation yet. There was some concept work to be figured out first. Mostly, what games should I include? I wanted to be thorough, so I found some articles and charts. If you google "best classic games of all time", that should get you started. I picked some of them and searched for references on Pinterest and added them to a board.

After filling up the list, I've continued my search and looked for style references. Any isometric game inspired illustration, that would help me to filter out ideas and get some better directions.

This time, the sketching process is absolutely essential. I had some references and game titles, but didn't have a clue about the scale, or the layout. I started by sketching out few platforms and imagined some game objects, that would go there.

After few attempts, it became obvious that I couldn't fit all the game references I've gathered. It was a shame, but overcoming this feeling to make the illustration consistent and readable, is one of the most important decisions. Letting things go to make something better is underrated designer skill, sometimes more important than ability to create.

You can watch the process video on Youtube