Ubisoft
This is a game for the Nintendo Wii console aimed at children and their families, following the style of “Family Games” such as Rayman Raving Rabbids or Mario Party.
It is important to say that when I joined this project it was already underway. 6 months of research and failed attempts. And my entry marks the restart of the project. I worked on this project specifically generating ideas of all kinds, from gameplay to art, but my main role was defined as a concept artist. What you will see below is just a part of my work on this project.
My first action was to observe what was discarded during the 6 months of the project. I tried to understand what was wrong in the eyes of the French headquarters, which is our internal client. I knew that creating a new IP would be a big challenge. But to be honest I must say that our studio was not prepared for this “family game” vision. Everyone wanted something more realistic and outside of this familiar style, consequently far from the console’s technical specifications.
To warm up the engines I started by creating an illustration at the request of the art director. It was still something more realistic, far from what I had in mind. I didn’t want to deal with something that would be very painful, after all it was 6 months wasted, I started looking for this initial vision from the art director. For the records. The conceptual artist’s task is to seek an innovative look and generate illustrations that serve as tools to promote dialogue throughout the creation of the project. The first image I made is the cover image of this post.
During the project I continued to meet some art direction requirements, but I needed to move quickly to make more art, often outside of my work day and hours, I needed to use the conceptual art tool to convince everyone that the path was still wrong . We needed to go down to the visual level, not without quality, but rather with something more stylized, fun and not as epic as many wanted.
Below you will see a collection of art with several different styles and approaches. My attempt to bring to my “I want to be Nintendo” a vision for this project. The game was not approved by the French headquarters and this project marks one of the last works of our studio. It was a great learning experience for me as an artist to be able to unleash my full creative potential on this project.
Fun fact: a few years later, I discovered that all this art generated had not been properly exhibited or presented at the French headquarters, but I know that after the project ended they saw the art and thought it was incredible and that if they had followed this line it would probably have been approved. Sad to hear this, but it is certainly a matter of personal growth for many involved. Including for me.
games for everyone 