Art Directors

At the head of the game design team, sits the art director. It’s their job to make sure the game gels together and feels like a unit in terms not only of art style and feel, but also the way gameplay is handled as to how the player interacts with the game. Both Concept art and game elements are under their control and not only does the Art director provide a creative service; as the head of a team of designers they will work with them to collaborate on certain elements and are needed to give advice and make decisions that will effect the look and feel of the resulting game, but the art director must also be an excellent businessperson as well as a manager and supervisor. An Art director will take control of a team containing a number of different people with their own strengths and weaknesses and it’s up to them to use their team to the best of their abilities so that whilst they may be away working separately they are all working towards a common, single, goal. In the end, the Art director is at least in part a little responsible for every object in the game. They’ve got to set the standard for the entire project and through people management they need to see it’s been upheld. They must juggle each in game object, thinking of it in situ as well as on it’s own, as well as considering how each will be seen by players and interacted with by game characters and objects. This coupled with the need to be in control of a group of people means the job is not only for a creatively minded person but also one with a keen head for time and person management.

Matt Carofano - Skyrim Art director (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/01/26/the-art-of-skyrim.aspx)

Art Directors also have a role in films. Though they do not have to take into consideration the budgets that a game might have - textures, tris and memory for example, they hold a similar role in that they are tasked with delivering a story to an audience in a clear, thought provoking way. They also have to tie the film together consistently. It’s all about suspending belief.

Perhaps the main difference between the art director from Films and the art director from Games is that in a game the person intended to view the content is much more invested in it; they interact and dictate how and when things happen, so the art direction must compensate for this. It’s the Game director’s job to make sure the player is going about what they should be in the game without it feeling like railroading, shepherding or treating the player like an idiot. In order to produce a game that flows and operates as a unit, the art director must exhibit all the qualities of a fine artist, a storyteller and a designer, sometimes even a psychologist. They use these skills, coupled with management at the head of a team to bind the project together. It’s qualities like this that someone wishing to be a game designer in the future should hope to cultivate.