Interviews with the Team: Connor: Art Lead
Hey guys, Adam here again from Angry Ghost Games. Whilst I'm working on this week's main blog post, I thought I should offer you something to read in the meantime, and settled on continuing my series of interviews with the team.
I managed to catch up with Connor over the weekend, and we spoke about his time with the game, how he has been enjoying his role, and his thoughts on how the project is going.
Could you describe Magefest in your own words?
Connor: I mean, it's still relatively early days with a couple kinks that need ironing out, but Magefest is a light-hearted, platform arena fighter styled party game for all ages; with a funny and adorable magical theming. It's easy to pick up, it's fun to play and it looks pretty! Magefest is our baby; and like a baby I will look past its janky bugs, because i know it will eventually grow into a well rounded member of society... um I mean game hahahaha!
You've been working on the game since the beginning, what has changed? What are some features that got left behind?
Connor: Other than the team, honestly not a whole lot has changed with our game. The general scope has remained the same. Our team is made up of level headed people with realistic expectations of what we can produce in the short time frame we have. This may be due some of us having previous experience in game making, the general fear of coding we all share, or a healthy dose of cynicism. Regardless of our reasoning, we have all continued to set and achieve realistic goals. Go team! However, if you want a tiny list of things that have changed, that I am aware of: we have removed the exploding platform idea; we have changed the initial idea for the levels (RIP Library level); we got rid of the idea of a rendered projectile; we slightly changed the original character design; we dropped the possibility of adding extra elements, and very early on we slightly changed what each element did.
Speaking of the team, this semester part of the team changed; with the loss of one and addition of two new members. Has this affected the game at all, and what were your thoughts on the changeover?
Connor: I genuinely think that the changeover has brought a massive improvement to the team! The newly revamped team is eager, energetic and hard working! For a start we now have a music and sound effect focused member! Something that I think the original team kinda ignored in the hope that we would just ‘eventually figure it out’ HAHA. Secondly, we have another artist!!!! WOOO. The role of art director is now shared with one of our new team members, and I am obsessed with her work! So yeah, absolutely loving the new changes. It lowered the amount of work we all had, and allows us to focus on other things. Like marketing, modelling and refining!
So your role is that of lead artist, can you explain some of what that entails?
Connor: So as the lead artist my main focus is (shock horror) the art! Haha. It is pretty much my job to make sure that all the assets, art, levels and ideas are visually coherent and adhere to the initial vision of our game producer. A job that is made easy with such an awesome and communicative team. Woo angry ghooost.
How well do you feel the project is going? Are there any areas you're concerned about at all?
Connor: I think we have made solid and consistent progress. The areas of concern are really just surrounding the rigging and animation of our character. We have left it unfortunately late, and I'm aware of how tricky rigging can be. So hopefully it all falls into place and we all skip merrily off into the sunset (haahahh) once that is complete, and our menus are all finished and polished off. Our game should be a nice bit of smooth sailing, bug fixing and pretty poster making!
What have you worked on personally that you're most proud of?
Connor: So far, I'd have to say that the tree top level background art and animation is by far my favorite piece, and also surprisingly one of the more complicated animation sequences I've had to make. It’s visually simple, fun and pretty. Exactly what Magefest is all about.
Was there anything else you wanted to mention?
Connor: No, I'm easy with that. Thankyouuuu.
I'd like to thank Connor for this interview, and for offering us an insight into his thoughts and feelings on the project. I'll be sure to attempt to round up the other members of the group before too long, so look forward to that.
If you're reading this as it comes out, this weeks proper blog post should be up later tonight.
Thanks so much for reading guys!
I managed to catch up with Connor over the weekend, and we spoke about his time with the game, how he has been enjoying his role, and his thoughts on how the project is going.
Could you describe Magefest in your own words?
Connor: I mean, it's still relatively early days with a couple kinks that need ironing out, but Magefest is a light-hearted, platform arena fighter styled party game for all ages; with a funny and adorable magical theming. It's easy to pick up, it's fun to play and it looks pretty! Magefest is our baby; and like a baby I will look past its janky bugs, because i know it will eventually grow into a well rounded member of society... um I mean game hahahaha!
You've been working on the game since the beginning, what has changed? What are some features that got left behind?
Connor: Other than the team, honestly not a whole lot has changed with our game. The general scope has remained the same. Our team is made up of level headed people with realistic expectations of what we can produce in the short time frame we have. This may be due some of us having previous experience in game making, the general fear of coding we all share, or a healthy dose of cynicism. Regardless of our reasoning, we have all continued to set and achieve realistic goals. Go team! However, if you want a tiny list of things that have changed, that I am aware of: we have removed the exploding platform idea; we have changed the initial idea for the levels (RIP Library level); we got rid of the idea of a rendered projectile; we slightly changed the original character design; we dropped the possibility of adding extra elements, and very early on we slightly changed what each element did.
Speaking of the team, this semester part of the team changed; with the loss of one and addition of two new members. Has this affected the game at all, and what were your thoughts on the changeover?
Connor: I genuinely think that the changeover has brought a massive improvement to the team! The newly revamped team is eager, energetic and hard working! For a start we now have a music and sound effect focused member! Something that I think the original team kinda ignored in the hope that we would just ‘eventually figure it out’ HAHA. Secondly, we have another artist!!!! WOOO. The role of art director is now shared with one of our new team members, and I am obsessed with her work! So yeah, absolutely loving the new changes. It lowered the amount of work we all had, and allows us to focus on other things. Like marketing, modelling and refining!
So your role is that of lead artist, can you explain some of what that entails?
Connor: So as the lead artist my main focus is (shock horror) the art! Haha. It is pretty much my job to make sure that all the assets, art, levels and ideas are visually coherent and adhere to the initial vision of our game producer. A job that is made easy with such an awesome and communicative team. Woo angry ghooost.
How well do you feel the project is going? Are there any areas you're concerned about at all?
Connor: I think we have made solid and consistent progress. The areas of concern are really just surrounding the rigging and animation of our character. We have left it unfortunately late, and I'm aware of how tricky rigging can be. So hopefully it all falls into place and we all skip merrily off into the sunset (haahahh) once that is complete, and our menus are all finished and polished off. Our game should be a nice bit of smooth sailing, bug fixing and pretty poster making!
What have you worked on personally that you're most proud of?
Connor: So far, I'd have to say that the tree top level background art and animation is by far my favorite piece, and also surprisingly one of the more complicated animation sequences I've had to make. It’s visually simple, fun and pretty. Exactly what Magefest is all about.
Was there anything else you wanted to mention?
Connor: No, I'm easy with that. Thankyouuuu.
I'd like to thank Connor for this interview, and for offering us an insight into his thoughts and feelings on the project. I'll be sure to attempt to round up the other members of the group before too long, so look forward to that.
If you're reading this as it comes out, this weeks proper blog post should be up later tonight.
Thanks so much for reading guys!
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