BigPoint: The creative process: sentinels in Shards of War

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The Creative
Process:
Sentinels in Shards of
War

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Intro
Oliver Trogemann
Joined Bigpoint 2011
Senior UI Artist, Head of 2D Art
UI and Concept Art (~40 Artists incl.
ADs/Art Leads)
Advising internal & external projects
Hiring
Feel free to connect on LinkedinFind us at: G6

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FARMERAMA
2009 | 53m users
DARKORBIT
2006 | 90m users
DRAKENSANG ONLINE
2011 | 31m users
 Founded 2002
 550 employees
 370,000,000 registered users in 200
countries
 200,000 new users added every day
 180+ payment methods
 1 billion+ daily transactions
San Francisco
Istanbul
Hamburg
Luxemburg
Malta
Seoul

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About the Team
Teamsize total: 52
15 artists (2D, 3D, Animation, Tech)
2 Concept Artists/Illustrators
Unity / Custom pipeline

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About the Game
SciFi Action MOBA
Free to Play
18 Sentinels (+)
4 Shards (Worlds) (+)
2 Maps (+)
2 Skins per Sentinel (+)

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Video

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Initial map

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New map: Benefiting from key learnings

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Features
W A S D Controls
Customizaton

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Sentinels
~4 week total art production (concept,
asset, artwork)
Art & Game Design: flexible/ collaborative
Regular Workflow: Game Design (character
specs) – followed by Art (visual concept)
Special Case: Big Bot

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Art testing shapes and sizes.
Design created: Bastion

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Sentinels
Last minute feedback: Early Sentinels not
futuristic enough. Solved by replacing with
skin. (Examples)

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Example Vulcan: Switching early version …

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…with the skin

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Example Striker: Switching early version …

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…with the skin

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Skins
Require new 3D assets and illustrations
Illustrations: essential communication tool
(Story, Identification, Immersion)
Classification of „Story“ and „Fun“ skins
Varies each case

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Flatline

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Flatline: “Story skin”

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Zel

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Zel: “Fun” skin

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Blitz

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Blitz: Fun skin

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Skins

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Skins
New Skins: Preserve spirit and silhouette

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Skins
New Skins: Spirit and silhouette

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Skins
New Skins: Spirit and silhouette

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Bastion

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Bastion: Fun skin (Inspiration?)

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Rhino

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Rhino: Fun skin

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Identifying and testing 5-6 different
vendors
Providing 2 rough sketches, allowing
artists proposal
Surprise: Giving rather more than less
freedom = best results!
Sometimes making quick fixes internally.
Outsourcing

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Vox: Great inital artwork from the
vendor
(Values, Composition)

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Second color draft lost all power.
Different Artist?

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Solution: Inhouse fix

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Vendor had problems (perspective
distortion)

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Outsourcing
Hulk saved us (inhouse fix)

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Outsourcing
You need great artists – simple as that
The more changes - the worse it gets,
start from scratch
Artwork is done when you say it‘s done
Giving Artists codenames from popular
show for later reference

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Creative Process
Keeping Sentinels inhouse, Outsourcing
skins
Currently 2 Concept Artists/ Illustrators
Switching between concept art and
illustration
Example: Zel

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Concept Art
Zel: Early concepting

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Concept Art
Zel: Weapon design

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Concept Art
Zel: Costume Layers

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Zel: Final concept

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Zel: Final inhouse
artwork

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Questions?
Find us at:
Play the game: www.shardsofwar.com
G6