Spacetime Studios came to our class last week.  We had the honor of listening to Gary Gattis, CEO, Bryant Wood, Senior Designer, and Eva Tran, Live Art Lead.  Each person gave us a fragment of what it’s like to work in a gaming environment in terms of art, design, technology, and production.  This was an “open, honest, raw” peak into life at Spacetime Studios (Gattis).

Spacetime Studios created Pocket Legends, a freemium mobile game in the app store, and Call of Champions, a free arena mobile game.  Gattis said the industry is very competitive because thousands of games come out every day.  Being noticed is difficult.  This reigns true throughout the art industry, in my opinion.

Wood talked to us about design.  He said its his job to “mold player experience,” meaning how the game feels in terms of possible actions, expectations, and struggle.  He refers to this aspect of gaming metaphorically: “heart of the game.”  Wood explained the difference between system and content design.  He said system design involves spreadsheets, economy, and numerical balance; i.e. health, combat, etc..  Content design refers to levels, quests, and encounters.  He told future game designers to analyze the games they play.  Although he was not talking to me, I feel as though the same concept of analyzing should be applied to any aspiring artist.  I want to create my own television shows someday, so I analyze television shows as I watch them.  I start with a question such as, “How do you successfully embed drama within a sitcom, without taking away from the humor or the sadness?”  Then I pick a great example of this in action (Dan Harmon’s Community), and find the meta joke in each scene, figure out what makes it funny, and the same for the dramatic aspects.

Tran told us about three different parts of art within game design– concept art, environment/character modeling, and animation.  Concept art includes new locations, creatures, and characters; environment/character modeling includes 3D environments, characters, and creatures; animation includes motion rigs and animated sequences for models.  Tran then brought up the invisible part of video games.  “You only notice it when it’s bad” she said of UIUX.  UI refers to what a character interacts with, and UX refers to a plan of how the player interacts.  This reminds me of craftsmanship in terms of art in general.  Her advice to artists was to draw for 5-6 hours a day.

 

Gattis closed with a discussion on production.  He said it ties everything together and keeps it all timed and on track.  He also said that the product manager determines what the game is and markets with creative people.