Jelly Fish Named Azad and Marbles Blasted To XP
by Nauris Krauze · 03/20/2007 (5:13 am) · 10 comments
Talk about schizophrenic blog titles ;)
As I've said before, life of a mercenary is pretty cool in that you get to work on such different stuff. There's also that "freedom" bit although I find it kind of vague. It's true that as a freelancer you can always choose whether to work or not, but on the other hand, its like choosing whether to eat or not. What you can though, is choosing what kinds of project to work on without having to break a work relationship i.e. - leave your job for another just because your current employer has decided to tie themselves for the next year to a project that doesnt really interest you.
Which reminds me of a recent feature on Gamasutra about free agency. Quite an interesting read, if you havent checked it out yet. Clickity click here.
So I've been working on very different stuff for the last year. One, for example, was Marble Blast GUI reskin for Hasbro's PC based NetJet game system .
Plastic Games subcontracted me to spice up the original's GUI a little and also make it a bit more "kid-centric" since thats the target audience for NetJet.
The basis was original Marble Blast:
and in the end it was turned into this:
And then again, I could also work on concept art for sureal sci-fi shooter-adventure Galaxy Rage where player travels stars with jelly fish-like organic space ship named Azad, hunt for treasures happens in landscapes that seem to be pulled out of incoherent dreams and ship's mission control and news-filter computer has a crush on the main hero.
Here are some sketches for the ship's bridge, showing the evolution of concept. It was supposed to be organic in nature and we came up with an idea that it's floating in a swamp-like environment, with its very own mini ecosystem.
I was provided list of elements that should be on the bridge as well as things that player will have to do there and a basic layout done in Google Sketch that I used as the starting point.
I have to say that I cant wait to see it in action :)
Hmm.. did I mention in my title that .plan is image-heavy? Ah well :) Just to make it all worse for those on dial-up - here are couple of personal thingummies, not meant for anything specific.
As I've said before, life of a mercenary is pretty cool in that you get to work on such different stuff. There's also that "freedom" bit although I find it kind of vague. It's true that as a freelancer you can always choose whether to work or not, but on the other hand, its like choosing whether to eat or not. What you can though, is choosing what kinds of project to work on without having to break a work relationship i.e. - leave your job for another just because your current employer has decided to tie themselves for the next year to a project that doesnt really interest you.
Which reminds me of a recent feature on Gamasutra about free agency. Quite an interesting read, if you havent checked it out yet. Clickity click here.
So I've been working on very different stuff for the last year. One, for example, was Marble Blast GUI reskin for Hasbro's PC based NetJet game system .
Plastic Games subcontracted me to spice up the original's GUI a little and also make it a bit more "kid-centric" since thats the target audience for NetJet.
The basis was original Marble Blast:
and in the end it was turned into this:
And then again, I could also work on concept art for sureal sci-fi shooter-adventure Galaxy Rage where player travels stars with jelly fish-like organic space ship named Azad, hunt for treasures happens in landscapes that seem to be pulled out of incoherent dreams and ship's mission control and news-filter computer has a crush on the main hero.
Here are some sketches for the ship's bridge, showing the evolution of concept. It was supposed to be organic in nature and we came up with an idea that it's floating in a swamp-like environment, with its very own mini ecosystem.
I was provided list of elements that should be on the bridge as well as things that player will have to do there and a basic layout done in Google Sketch that I used as the starting point.
I have to say that I cant wait to see it in action :)
Hmm.. did I mention in my title that .plan is image-heavy? Ah well :) Just to make it all worse for those on dial-up - here are couple of personal thingummies, not meant for anything specific.
About the author
Nauris Krauze is 2D designer/illustrator with 10 years experience in game development. Currently art director at 3Nstudio, working on games for social networks, occasionally doing some contract work. Portfolio: http://3nstudio.com/nauris/
#2
03/20/2007 (6:35 am)
I am glad someone talked about NetJet! you did great work Nauris 
#3
03/20/2007 (7:53 am)
Wow, that's some incredible work! 
#5
03/20/2007 (9:38 am)
Very imaginative and lush art, great stuff. 
#6
03/20/2007 (10:23 am)
Wow, loving the art indeed, fantastic stuff!
#7
03/20/2007 (11:21 am)
Great looking art. I was thinking up a world for our next MMO that would be entirely organic from the weapons, to the ships/vehicles to the buildings and so on.
#8
T.
03/20/2007 (6:27 pm)
Dude. Those last two. SunBurn. Look at the old marauder concept, then look at the last pic. T.
#9
@Eric, I have found that basically, you just have to schedule a bit differently when you`re freelancing to avoid long periods of no work at all. That leads to hunger and hunger leads taking the first job that comes your way, which is a slippery road to ride.
@Anthony, thanks man, that was a nice gig, with nice people :)
@Tom, hmm.. these were more fairy-tale-ish, than post-nuclear. About the marauder- I just have a fetish for spiky things, I guess :)
03/21/2007 (1:40 am)
Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments, thanks a lot.@Eric, I have found that basically, you just have to schedule a bit differently when you`re freelancing to avoid long periods of no work at all. That leads to hunger and hunger leads taking the first job that comes your way, which is a slippery road to ride.
@Anthony, thanks man, that was a nice gig, with nice people :)
@Tom, hmm.. these were more fairy-tale-ish, than post-nuclear. About the marauder- I just have a fetish for spiky things, I guess :)
#10
03/21/2007 (7:44 am)
Nice artwork for Ichiro, glad that's working out too.
Associate Eric Elwell