One thing I've seen over the past year or so is that, working steadily, my art style has evolved a lot and gained a bunch of nuances and quirks. The progress is imperceptible day to day, but over time I can't deny that I've made some significant gains. Looking at the art from when I first started Super Chibi Knight, compared with what I was producing at the end... there's a marked difference.
A lot of my stylistic progress came from working with someone who pushed me out of my comfort zone as an "art director" for a mobile game that was just recently released. He was almost NEVER happy with my first drafts and often gave me specific feedback that led me to push my boundaries. I disagreed with his feedback every time (vehemently on occasion), but I have to admit that, in the end, his influence was really positive (once I calmed my artsy ego) and helped me get to a "new level." I feel a little sheepish working with other people whose standards are higher/different than mine and whose instincts are ultimately more dialed into what will be popular/successful in the world of game dev. Apparently I still have a lot to learn.
The game I did all this art for is called, "Good Knight Story." It took the publisher over 2 years to release it and it just came out a couple days ago. For a while I was worried all my work would be lost to the ages (because of the delays), but it's cool to see something out there that has my art in it. It's a bit weird not to be involved in ANY of the other parts (coding, music, voice acting, testing, marketing, etc.) But I'm still proud of it in a strange way. Here's a gameplay video running on an iPad (notice how the publisher dismisses the interviewer's comment about the nice art style at 1:54 ish...):
Here's an article about the game on appadvice: http://appadvice.com/review/good-knight-story
FYI: @ricepirate and @thatcomposerguy also worked on it (weird how the publisher tracked them down independently of my influence) - So we collaborated on this game via a 3rd party!
Of course, now I notice nuances in others' art that I was oblivious to before that encourage me to keep aspiring for improvement, but it's good to recognize progress in yourself every once in a while.
You may remember my last post about the little financial fiasco that blind-sided me out of the blue and forced me to take on a side project. That project is nearing conclusion and I'm really proud of how it's turning out. It won't be my most epic game ever, but the concept is cool and I drew a TON of art for it in record time.
I'm hoping it meets some decent success on the web and the publisher will be interested in deepening the concept for a mobile/steam release. Here are the 32 enemies I drew and animated for it over the last 2 weeks (spoiler alert!):
Which is your favorite?
Finally, here's a cool animation that reminded me of @butzbo's style:
Have you noticed any changes in my stuff over the last couple years?
