Inspirational Companies

As this project, and indeed my time at university, draws to a close I thought I would mention some of the companies that have inspired me to get in to game development and eventually to the point I am at now.

Crytek

I was first inspired by Crytek when I first got a computer especially to play Crysis as I had heard amazing things about the graphics within the game. When I finally got around to experiencing this myself I was stunned by what they had achieved and I was inspired to one day be able to produce works out art that matched this game.

Since then they have continued to astound people with the level of detail they can squeeze out of current technology and their work with CryEngine has made so many game projects possible. Having a company that is so firmly grounded in amazing art work backed up by some of the best technology in the industry makes Crytek an amazing company that will continue to innovate for many years.

After first experiencing Crysis I have always been a fan of their games, both as a gamer and an artist so I am always eager to see what they are working on next.

Epic Games

Epic has always been a major influence on my work. Unreal was one of the first PC games I ever played and although I was young I knew it was something special. I also played a lot of Unreal Tournament games throughout my childhood and was also a big fan of Gears of War. The art produced by Epic had an amazing quality to them that always caught my eye and impressed me and some of the high poly sculpting work that was produced for their games remain at the top of my inspirational images which I aspire to be as good as.

Another major factor in my love for Epic is the Unreal Engine which has been used to create some of the best games out there. I first used this engine during college and finished my first collaborative university project 'Mongols vs Ogres' in Unreal. The use of the Unreal Engine got me into the more technical side of art and originally got me looking more into coding.

Lionhead Studios

The unique fantasy art style that Lionhead has used in it's previous games such as the Black and White and Fable series was originally what caught my attention during my earlier gaming days and I found the worlds they created fascinating. I always look forward to new games being produced to see what new style they might bring to their games.

The strong fantasy focus of the art team is quite similar to my own work which has so far been primarily focused on a similar setting in both the 'Mongols vs Ogres' and 'Echoes' projects in which I was a tech artist. Whilst I would like to improve my skill set and add more variety to my work, the opportunity to continue working on my current focus would help reinforce that area of expertise and I would be able to hit the ground running.

Valve Software

Over the years Valve has created some of my favourite and most played games ranging from Half-Life to Team Fortress 2. They also created the Source Engine, the first game engine I ever used to create level designs and learn some of the more technical aspects of game creation.

I like the way that Valve runs it's company with the freedom to work on any project that they want and they generally see all of the staff as equals allowing any of the team members to voice their ideas and concerns and giving them the freedom to choose the projects Valve carries forward. It is the ideal working environment and as Valve have managed to get it to works it allows them to keep producing games that gamers want, rather than the ones that will gross highest.

Creative Assembly

As a big strategy gamer I have always looked at big RTS companies like Creative Assembly to see what is possible in this field. I have owned every Total War game they have made and it has been interesting to see how the genre has developed over time. The art work produced in the later titles like Shogun 2 and Rome 2 have surpassed what I have thought was possible due to great work by the tech team in keeping the game playable.

Getting to work on some of my favourite titles would be a great experience and being at the forefront of strategy development in the country would be an amazing experience.