arne360

I’m always exceptionally impressed by the work of concept artists in this industry (and probably would in other entertainment industries too I bet). It got me to wondering today why someone hasn’t decided to make a game using an art style that is more or less similar to concept art.

There’s plenty of stylized games out there, but I find something more organic and attractive in the flowing hand-drawn lines in the pieces of concept art I’ve seen over my life. Not only that but it seems, at least in the eyes of publishers, that there is plenty of space for games whose art styles are far more diverse than realistic or cartoon-y. I guess you could say that Another World (or Out of this World here in the US) was approximating this type of aesthetic in its game art.

Without a doubt, upcoming Xbox LIVE Arcade title Braid most closely captures the answer to my own question. It is one of the more beautiful games I’ve played in a while, so I can’t wait to play the final version.

Image of Uncharted concept art courtesy of Gamersyde. Image of Braid from the Braid blog.

It’s not often I run across someone from NeoGAF without expressly trying to meet up with them, even rarer when my reputation precedes me — what, I have a reputation?

Quite recently at my highly classified new job one of my coworkers spotted my browser open to NeoGAF and casually asked what my alias was on the board. Turns out he knows who I am on there — not a huge stretch there — and remembers reading my occasional flurry of posts back when I was representing Microsoft. Quite the interesting, yet weird moment. Too bad he wasn’t Kittonwy or Drinky Crow…