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?
ChronoNomad
The game looks very appealing! It's always interesting to get a glimpse of what you're up to. Definitely going to check the game out soon.
I'm sure that the publisher was dismissive about the art comment because he was thinking "Duh, of course it looks amazing. Because BoMToons."
BoMToons
Ha ha! I think he was nervous and trying to stay "on script" about the game, the art comment from the interviewer was probably unexpected :-D
Yeah, check out the game, it's "Free to play" but not annoyingly so.