Storytelling Through Visual Expression
A spotlight on the amazing creators behind the art at BitGuild Studios
Greetings, Guildmates!
Sometimes, when analyzing an entertainment product of any kind, the storytellers are overlooked. In games, more often than not, the storytelling comes directly from the artists. Visual artists infuse personality and style into their work, which reverberates throughout the whole product — key to creating an immersive and rich environment, telling the story of the game through the world and everything in it.
In this week’s post, we’ll be showcasing the many artistic talents of the team behind Bitizens.
Concept Artists
Something integral to the process of creating a finished element in any game is concept art. It’s a purely visual expression of an idea or a vision, and generally is never intended for release or publication. These sketches help get a clear image of the final goal, and serve as design guidelines throughout the process of turning an idea into an in-game asset. At this stage, we can already solidify story and world building elements that should be conveyed through these assets.
Tony — Senior Concept Art Lead
With more than 10 years of experience under his belt in a variety of positions, including senior concept artist, illustrator, graphic designer, and game UI designer, Tony is the perfect man to lead the concept art team. He can handle a wide range of diverse art styles, and has designed for Disney in the past, giving him a deep understanding on Western vs Eastern gaming art styles.
JP — Concept Artist
4+ years as a game concept designer with an emphasis on character design. JP was born for art; painting is the most important thing in his life. He likes edgy art styles, having taken a lot of inspiration from American graphic novels. He’s especially apt at game concepts that include large and bold brush strokes. He chose this industry because video games are a rare medium that allow for the expression of almost any style.
Amanda — Concept Artist
After graduating from college, Amanda worked for a live streaming company where she began her career in digital art. She is a young and outgoing person who loves Anime. A talented painter, Amanda always wanted to pursue a career in the art industry. BitGuild is her first professional game job and she feels fortunate to be able to express and share her love for art into digital form for the world to see and own!
Mona — Environment Artist
Mona has 4+ years experience as a professional artist. She has a carefree soul and loves traveling. Mona describes her work as a dream builder, building worlds for others to immerse themselves in. Everything she puts into her art comes from the heart. Mona’s belief is, life is a game, grab a controller and take on challenges to level up.
User Interface
As positions in the art department go, UI designers often go unnoticed. It is however a tantamount role in creating a pleasant user experience for the player — Navigating the game and its menus should be a breeze. Consider this — the less you have to think about how to use a product, the better the job the UI designer did.
Nina — UI Artist
Nina is a passionate gamer with many years of experience as a UI designer. She loves the challenge of understanding how a player navigates through a game. Nina has worked on over 60+ games ranging from casual, to social, to RPGs. Her go-to game currently? PUBG!
3D Artists
More work goes into creating 3D models than you may think. It actually requires a surprising amount of technical prowess, as well as a solid creative mind to boot. The work of a 3D modeller brings depth and life to otherwise static 2D concept images, further immersing the player into the world of Bitizens. Thankfully, we have a great team working on bringing our vision to life for you — one item at a time.
TJ — Senior 3D Artist and Team Lead
4+ years 3D Game Artist, 4+ years Graphic Designer, and Lecturer of game art. TJ is an enthusiast of 3D game art. He truly believes games are the final form of art, and he loves gaming, but by no means is he a traditional gamer. Sports, basketball, and soccer are his favorite sports. You could also consider him somewhat of a hipster —he loves history, and his favorite literature is science fiction from the golden ages. Last thing, TJ is a Cthulhu believer (!).
Gerrard — 3D Artist & Animator
Gerrard (not from Liverpool) has 4+ years of character animation experience and 2 years VR scene-design experience, even holding his own patent for a VR development technique. He believes that a modeler who can’t do special effects is not a good modeler, and that a design which does not aim for happiness as a primary goal, is irresponsible.
Mabel — 3D Artist & Special Effects
Mabel loves pixel, 8-bit styles in game art. She has an interest in researching all kinds of art effects in games and other applications. As a 3D modeler, she wants to help the characters break through the dimensional wall and give the character a dynamic and vivid life. Her favorite games are those that focus on the player experience, such as Journey, Monument Valley, and Child of Light. She believes that games can move people, and touch the depth of their hearts, just like any other artform.
If you’ve made it this far through the article — first of all: Thanks! We appreciate your interest in what we do. It drives us forward and inspires us to continue creating original experiences for our fans.
As you can see above, BitGuild Studios has assembled an all-star team when it comes to visual output. We can’t wait to continue sharing our full vision with you as we get closer to a complete release of Bitizens, with all the ever-evolving features the young and budding cryptogaming community craves.
BitGuild’s mission is to revolutionize the global gaming industry by creating a platform for a brand new class of games that live on the blockchain. Blockchain games completely redefine the relationship between players and developers by facilitating full and true ownership of in-game assets, cheap & safe item trading, cross-game compatibility of items & currency, and more.
