Art

Testronic, a Quality Assurance company, has launched a new advanced testing facility in Manila, Philippines.

Art director for Overwatch and World of Warcraft, Bill Petras, has passed away

The Moscow-based company Game Art Pioneers, which is developing the game DISTORTION, announced the departure of its founder Dmitry Zdesyev. He made this decision "due to differences in the vision for the future development of the company"

Viktor Antonov, the art director known for his work on Half-Life 2, has passed away at the age of 52

In October-November 2024, the Creative Industries Agency (CIA) accepted applications from Moscow companies for residency in the video game and animation cluster opening in "Skolkovo." The initiative attracted just under 60 companies.

The US Copyright Office has clarified that works produced with generative AI are ineligible for copyright protection unless an author or artist is involved in the "creative process".

We continue to review the results of 2024 with teams involved in gaming or related to the gaming industry. Up next is an interview with representatives from the outsourcing studio Infinite Art Solutions — CEO and co-founder Alexey Pechenin, Business Development Director Oleg Rozhnov, and Art Director Alexander.

We are publishing a new article in our series dedicated to various gaming professions. This time, it's about the work of a CG artist. The "basics" were shared by Katerina Knyazeva from Glera Games

Recently, the website of the Agency for Creative Industries (ACI) launched a form through which applications can be submitted for residency in the cluster designated for Moscow-based companies involved in gaming and animation.

We continue to publish chapter by chapter the results of the salary survey conducted by us from April to May 2023. The current publication is about the income levels of Russian-speaking game artists

During a presentation at Devcom, Judy Ehrentraut, the creative content strategist for Red Meat Games, emphasized the significance of ethically training generative AI models and explored various tools that can be employed in game development. Ehrentraut remarked, "AI is the biggest buzzword and it's either hyped as the new way to solve every productivity problem, or it's received with a groan." She noted that both perspectives have merit, as disruptive technologies are not inherently positive or negative. Their impact is largely determined by the manner and ethical framework in which they are implemented

We are launching a new section on our website where games industry experts share insights into their professions. In today’s article, Valeriya Berlenko, content producer at Cubic Games (part of the GDEV holding), explores the unique role and responsibilities of a concept artist.

Valve continues to work on improving Steam in terms of user experience. The company is currentyl testing a new feature aimed at filtering out uninformative reviews.

We continue our series of publications where specialists from gaming companies discuss various professions. The new article in the series is dedicated to the work of a concept artist. Valeria Berlenko, content producer at Cubic Games (part of the GDEV holding), shared insights about the specialization

The French publisher Red Art Games reported that its website was subjected to a cyberattack. Hackers managed to steal some user data, including players' names, birthdates, email addresses, residences, and phone numbers

French publisher Red Art Games recently announced that it experienced a cyberattack. In a communication sent to customers, Red Art Games confirmed that personal data, including first and last names, birthdates, email addresses, shipping addresses, order details, and phone numbers, were compromised. However, the company reassured customers that their banking information remained secure and unaffected by the breach

Brett Jones, a renowned game artist behind iconic titles such as GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, has passed away. The announcement was made by David Doak on social media, where he also shared a screenshot from GoldenEye. "So much of what made GoldenEye and Perfect Dark special came from Brett's talent and rascal humour," Doak stated in a subsequent post

After a short break, we continue the series of publications in which specialists from gaming companies talk about their professions. The new article in the series is about a 3D artist. Dmitry Murzaev from Glera Games provided a detailed insight into the position

To celebrate its 8th anniversary, Owlcat Games looks back at the development of its very first game. Here is a breakdown of creating the Kingdom management system for Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

We are launching a new section where specialists from gaming companies talk about their professions. It's aptly named "Profession." The first article in the series is about the work of an environment artist (level artist/environment artist). Timur Ozdoev, the lead level artist on the SPINE project, Nekki's first game for PC and consoles, shared what the job entails. Previously, Timur worked at CD PROJEKT RED on Cyberpunk 2077

Epic Games has officially released an updated version of the Unreal Engine — 5.4. It has significantly improved the quality of animation and improved rendering performance.

The use of artificial intelligence in game development continues to cause heated debate. This time, Champions TCG studio participated in them. She stated that the artwork for her collectible NFT card game Champions of Otherworldly was made using neural networks. They were created by an "AI artist" alone, to whom she paid tens of thousands of dollars.

Good news. Despite the crisis in the industry, new gaming companies are still emerging. Emanuel Palalic and Garrett Young have announced the launch of a new studio. It is called Emptyvessel. This is the second such announcement in the last 24 hours.

Last week, Owlcat Games studio posted a vacancy for a concept artist for its next project. Among the requirements for the candidate was the experience of working with Midjourney, DALL-E or other neural networks with which you can generate art. This condition caused a flurry of criticism.

We continue to summarize the results of 2023 with the gaming (or related to the gaming sector) teams. Next up is an interview with Dmitry Zdesev, general producer of Game Art Pioneers.

On this frosty Tuesday, we continue to summarize the results of 2023 with the gaming (or related to the gaming sector) teams. Next up is an interview with Alexey Pechenin, founder of the outsourcing studio Infinite Art Solutions.

Actually, this is not news. Information about such a budget has already been passed, but we, for example, missed it. We are correcting ourselves.

We continue to summarize the results of 2023 together with the gaming and near-gaming teams. Next up is an interview with Denis Khamin, co-owner of the Allcorrect studio for game localization and outsourcing of 2D and 3D art.

Fun gameplay aside, one one of the factors behind Dave the Diver’s success was its combination of pixel art and 3D graphics. Here is how a small team at Mintrocket managed to create the game’s appealing visuals using the Unity engine and its tools.

In this article for Game World Observer, ZiMAD artist Andrey Novikov shares his insights on how to interact with AI tools and explains which parts of the work can be delegated to them without compromising quality.

At the end of last week, Fortnite creative director Donald Mustard quit Epic Games. Now it has become known that his position has passed to Charlie Wen, who at one time was responsible for the design of the world and characters in the films of the Marvel cinematic universe.

Dan Pinchbeck, who co-founded The Chinese Room 15 years ago, has announced his departure from the studio. He is best known for creatively leading the UK team and working on games like Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

What approach to work on art is practiced in the R&D department of Belka Games, – said Anastasia Morzina, the company’s lead artist.

On June 15, Epic Games announced the release of the MetaHuman Animator tool for the MetaHuman platform. It allows you to capture facial expressions of people through the iPhone camera and create realistic facial animation.

Playkot 2D artist Tatiana Mironova has detailed how the studio implemented image-generating tools into their pipeline to create UI elements for Spring Valley. Here is what the team learned during this process and what are the clear advantages and pitfalls of training your own models.

Playkot 2D artist Tatiana Mironova has detailed how the studio implemented image-generating tools into their pipeline to create UI elements for Spring Valley. Here is what the team learned during this process and what are the clear advantages and pitfalls of training your own models.

Game Art Pioneers is a Moscow studio developing a middlepunk RPG with elements of the DISTORTION strategy. She signed a deal with the AVC foundation on phased financing for a period of 14 years.

By using a neural network in conjunction with their own extension, the team at Skywaylab Studio was able to reduce their creatives’ production time from 20 to 2 days. Right now, the studio is focused on preparations for releasing its own tool for creating 2D animations to fit its new pipeline. Aleksey Emelyanov, one of Skywaylab’s founders, told us how that’s going to work.

Jason Wilson (aka Jay Gunn), a prominent game developer of the 90s, has put his art and design archive for sale. However, the reasons for this decision are rather unfortunate, as he needs money to pay bills while looking for a job.

Nightdive Studios recently faced backlash from some players for posting an AI-generated image related to the upcoming System Shock remake. The team has now explained its intentions and attitude towards AI art in general.

Blizzard Entertainment wants to simplify the creation of graphic elements for games. The Gamerant portal drew attention to the fact that the company has filed a patent for a technology that allows using AI to generate textures and other similar game assets.

Growing competencies within a team is a challenging issue, often seen as costly and not easy to approach. However, Anton Danko, the lead artist of Solitaire Cruise project at Belka Games, shares his successful experience in this matter.

The growth of competencies in the team is a sore subject. It is considered that it is expensive. And it’s not always obvious how to approach it. Anton Danko, the lead artist of the Belka Games Solitaire Cruise project, shares his successful experience in this matter.

Chinese gaming companies have started hiring artists less. In a comment to the Rest of the World portal, recruiter Leo Li said that over the past year the number of new vacancies for artists has decreased by 70%.

The artist under the nickname Relan Daevath claims that ZeniMax Online Studios used his art to create a new skin in The Elder Scrolls Online. At the same time, the studio did not ask him for permission and did not indicate authorship.

Despite the rapid growth in popularity of AI services that generate visual content at the request of users, from a legal point of view, their work (as well as the use of graphics created by them) raises many questions. I-Legal lawyers answered the most relevant of them in a special material for App2Top.

Up-and-coming game developers often use ready-made assets in their first projects. And this Argentine artist offers indie creators thousands of free models and assets for a variety of genres and styles.

Having found success in the 90s, John Carmack helped many people, including game designer American McGee. While most of them chose to forget about the money, the Alice creator eventually managed to pay off his debt.

Garth DeAngelis has stepped down from his role as a senior franchise producer at Firaxis. He spent 14 years at the company working on the XCOM series and Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

Blizzard Proletariat leadership has decided not to voluntarily recognize a workers’ union. Instead, they requested an anonymous vote as part of the election process through the National Labor Rleations Board (NLRB).