Essay Making Games 03/2015 FROM CORE TO CASUAL HARD LESSONS APPLIED CASUALLY Former Rockstar Art Director Ian J. Bowden explains which lessons he learned in twenty years of core games production. Ian J. Bowden wenty-two years in games. Two plastic bimbo.)? What did 20 years in the is Art Director whole decades. It came as a blind- games industry make out of me? Now I have at GameDuell. ing revelation to me when I real- male pattern baldness, too much grey hair ized it in 2013. In Autumn 1993, I and a weakness to migraine headaches. And a lucked into my first junior artist whole heap of experience. job in a tiny studio called Hook- stone Ltd. that was situated in the Mistakes? I made them all ... In 1997 Ian J. Bowden founded Mobius Entertainment where he was post-apocalyptic wasteland of North Yorkshire, Just over a year ago I left the AAA business Art Director on over a dozen handheld and console games. In 2005 T UK. It was the year that we were playing »Sam and found that I was looking for a different Mobius became Rockstar Leeds and Bowden left his mark on out- and Max«, »Doom« and »X-Wing«. Production challenge which presented itself through an standing AAA productions such as »L.A. Noire«, »Red Dead Redemp- values were pretty low still, but improving inspirational industry veteran called Todd Eng- tion«, »Max Payne 3« and the »GTA«-series. After two decades in the field of core game production Ian is now Art Director at GameDuell to year on year and the games industry was lish, leading the social and mobile games unit boost the visual style for their social and mobile titles. beginning to have pretentions towards the of the Berlin-based games company Game- mainstream. Like most of the UK-scene at that Duell. I wasn’t sure that I was the best fit for time I sort of fell into the business. There was a casual game setting, but Todd, who also just no real plan, no dreams of world domination recently joined GameDuell from Popcap where through the medium of the pixel and the he was Head of Studio for the Asia Pacific polygon (except, perhaps, in »Sim City 2000«), Region, convinced me otherwise. I believe the just a desire to be involved in something more hard learned lessons of those decades of AAA fun than a regular office job. development as well as some of their success You see, I had graduated from Leeds Univer- factors can be transferred and applied to the sity with a degree in English and Art History a casual games production. On the 1st of August year before. With such illustrious qualifications 2014, twenty-one years after my first taste of my options were teaching or wearing a garish, game development, I began to put them into itchy nylon uniform and asking if »you want practice in my new studio at GameDuell. fries with that?« You can probably imagine my delight to have dodged either of those particu- The Eisenhower Plan lar bullets and found my way, by luck or fate, I’m sure most people are familiar with the into a creative industry for which, back then, maxim »fail to plan, plan to fail«. I’ve always there were no real qualifications necessary. hated the smugness of that particular cliché. Perfect for me since neither English nor Art Say it in a whining nasal voice. Make a smug, History are real qualifications. weaselly expression while you do. That’s how So what do I have to offer from 20+ years it sounds whenever I read it. I want to punch with a track record that covers huge franchises that phrase in its face. I’ve always preferred like »Star Wars«, »GTA«, »Red Dead Redemp- Eisenhower’s »plans are nothing. Planning is tion« and »Barbie« (Yes, Barbie. I did a horse everything«. A plan is rigid, if something goes riding game for Mattel starring the immortal wrong, if a goal shifts, the plan is no longer 58 Details: Good games valid. It is the process of planning that is impor- tant, everyone knowing their part in the greater are like great architecture picture, a team dialogue creating a synergistic So, good games are built on the solid founda- strategy. I was involved in a game which started tions of planning. However, Mies Van der Rohe, as a 3D »Tempest 2000«-clone with a robotic one of the great pioneers of Modernist Architec- spider as the player character which, over the ture said that either God, or the Devil, »is in the course of two years, morphed into an epic space detail«. His body of work not only paid attention opera with a mysterious female bounty hunter to the gestalt, but also to the tiniest details. If protagonist caught in a battle between warring a game artist wants to make something truly factions of aliens ... and then got unceremoni- outstanding, they should learn from Mies van ously cancelled. Unsurprisingly. der Rohe and consider everything as gestalt. But how, I hear you ask, could that happen? In open-world games like »GTA«, the reality of Three little words: Lack. Of. Planning. We the world is sold by the attention to detail. I’ve simply did not understand our goals, or how to carried a sketchbook for many years, record- achieve them. If, like Ike Eisenhower, we had ing faces, buildings, the minutiae of life. It is done our planning, everyone could have moved a device to train the eyes to see what makes a forward semi-autonomously towards finishing world convincing and reproduce these details the game that we wanted to create. Instead in another medium. Get the little things wrong there was the pernicious spectre of unchecked and you can undermine the players’ suspension feature creep. There was no one who said: »But of disbelief, break their immersion. hold on ... what about the spider?« Want to make a believable room? It’s not just In casual games, working with a small team, about clever lighting models or complex shad- effective planning and pre-production is vital ers. An artist needs to think like an interior de- and achievable. In all the projects that I’m signer, an architect, an electrician and a builder. currently involved in, the GameDuell propri- Where would the plug sockets go? Is your room etary development engine and the two games in Europe? In the US? Those electrical outlets currently in development, we have intentionally will look different in different regions. Are the reserved pre-production a major chunk of the doors the correct height for a human? How high development timeline. During pre-production does a door handle have to be? Basic details to all team members are involved. The team is get right. Ignore them and the room will look informed about every new idea and how it fits weird, awkward. The player may not be able to into the whole. Team leads communicate and tell you why, but the vague sense of wrongness discuss the entire plan with their team, every- will make them uncomfortable and mar the thing is mapped out and goals are clear. Indi- experience. But do you want to make a room vidual team members can see the deviations to that feels real? That’s where it gets fun. We’ll age the plan and red flag them. The synergistic crea- the room, add scuffs and stains, dust and imper- tive benefits of the time we consciously take for fections. The skirting board that doesn’t quite exploration, research and planning are palpable. join up at the corner, leaving a gap. The slightly Our teams are also aware of the other develop- off angle of the light switch. There are no truly ment projects in the company, which stimulates straight lines in nature, to the constant dismay creative input across actual team boundaries. of the modern architect. The artist next has to This way our projects profit to a large extent imagine the person who lives in that room. They from the lessons learned in the pre-production must inhabit the room in their imagination. Ar- and planning phases of the others. thur Conan Doyle in »The Sign of Four« creates a In the early nineties, most developers in UK became part of the games industry Over the course of two years, a 3D »Tempest 2000«-clone morphed into an driven by the desire for something more fun than a regular office job. epic space opera due to lack of planning. 59 Essay Making Games 03/2015 watch, full of little details that Sherlock Holmes You see, tools are important. Running a small uses to deduce the character, habits and the art department producing the dizzying amount eventual death of Watson’s brother. The details of high quality content that is expected of a tell a story. Human beings have evolved incred- modern AAA game is near impossible without ible pattern recognition skills and, as artists, we good custom tools. Give us a good tools pro- can leverage this ability to trick the player into grammer, a place to sit (and an unlimited sup- reading the narrative of a room. We can tell a ply of coffee and pizza) and we can make you a compelling story with the most subtle of details, world. It is all too familiar to find that an artist and even the most anodyne story of suburban gets used to an awkward work around, no mat- domesticity is better than no story at all.