GAFB: 01 – Art for games, not games for art
One of the most important aspects of working with games is to remember that the end result is a game, not simply a collection of art and sound and code. Since this is important, it sounds like a great place to start the book.
“Of course the end result is a game!” I hear you cry. While it sounds like a simple premise, it is one that is all too easily forgotten. As an artist, your job is to make art for the game, and the game is more important than your work.
I have met more than one person in my career who put the work they had done before the game. These people were convinced that their work (whether art, sound, design, code or other) was perfect and that it should be used exactly as it was with no changes.
It might seem like a cliché, but these days a game is a team effort, and people need to be flexible. You might produce the best piece or work in your entire career, but if it doesn’t fit the game, it will need to be changed.
Not only that, but your artwork is there as a part of the game, to complement the other art, the sound, the AI, the gameplay, held together by magic code glue. You art has to fit into memory with all those other things, so while you might complain about the specs you have been given, the chances are that they were given for a reason.
As an aside, I was once in the situation where a terrible piece of game code had been written, and when several people protested we were told that since it had been written, it was going in – otherwise it would have been a waste of the programmers time.
This was only a few days after several of my completed characters were cut from the game because the story had changed.
April 13th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
[...] I just checked out Rick Stirling’s excellent blog and found an article for young artists that I wholeheartedly agree with… it’s called Art for games, not games for art. Basically he posits that one of the chief considerations of art for games is putting the needs of the game above your own art and your need to feel creative for yourself only without consideration for the project. Very true, often overlooked, and needs to be said. :) [...]
November 13th, 2007 at 1:20 am
[...] Your teacher probably knows more than you do. I have a friend who teaches a game art course, and every year the students complain about his harsh specs "That’s not what people use in the games industry!" they cry. It is. He is probably trying to smack you around the head to make you think "Hmm…if I collapsed this vert and mirrored these UVs then….ah…and then…." You need to remember that even though next gen consoles are powerful, their goal is not simply to display your artwork…and thus I present another of my rants: Art for Games, not games for art. [...]