"I always remember the regent’s axiom: a leader, he said, is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind."
-- Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Cross-discipline collaboration
• Experience working with Intellectual Property Owners, Business Development, Product Managers, Game Designers, Developers, Marketing, QA, and Human Resources professionals
Art Direction experience
• Understand creative goals and vision of Stakeholders
• Learn about project scope, timeline, and budget
• Identify comparable products in the market
• Learn about technical capabilities/limitations of platform
• Provide recommendations for team size and composition including key roles
• Guide Junior to Principal level contributors to achieve Stakeholders' vision
• Maintain global view of Art Production
• Maintain responsibility/accountability for quality and timely delivery all final artwork.
• Maximize team moral, collaboration, creativity, and productivity
Internal Art Department Management experience
• Manage 13 Artists from varying disciplines (Generalists, Production, UI, Marketing)
• Develop Artist titles and career progression framework
• Write and deliver semi-annual performance reviews
• Determine compensation and merit increases
• Recruit, Create Interview Guidelines, Hire, and Mentor new team members
External Art Team Management experience
• Identify, negotiate terms, and train new vendors
• Write vendor contracts and production orders
• Track vendor productivity
• Lead biweekly Skype calls with international teams
• Lead individuals or teams of artists by providing direct and actionable written feedback
• Ensure external teams have style guides, tools and templates
Production Management experience
• Develop game feature budgets and production cost estimates
• Produce feature production timelines
• Identify areas for process improvement and tool development
Hands-On Art Production experience
• Create identity graphics: Title Screens and App Icons
• Create UI for new features, character designs, isometric designs, backgrounds
• Skilled digital painter, vector artist, typography and layout, graphic animation and VFX
I have experience leading in-house and offsite team members from a variety of disciplines including Concept Art, Traditional 2D Animators and Final Line Artists, 3D Generalists, Technical Artists, Visual Effects Artists, Lead Artists, Marketing Artists, and User Interface Designers. I am comfortable working with Junior Artists at the very beginning of their careers to Principal-level contributors - Masters of their craft.
My strength is recognizing and elevating team members' abilities and finding ways to bring complementary skill sets together, maximizing team moral, creativity, and productivity.
It is my job to lead Artists to achieve the Stakeholders' creative vision. A Stakeholder may be an Executive or Principal, Intellectual Property Owner, or a team collective. Regardless, it's my job to develop an understanding of the creative goals and vision, devise a plan, and bring the vision to fruition.
Visual problem solving is a process. It's not about having the right answer every time. It has more to do with asking the right questions and how well we work together to define our path forward. The process involves organization, prioritization, mutual respect, open communication among team members, and iteration. With these ingredients, teams can move toward visual goals acheiving a high level of creativity and efficiency. Rather than top-down, my style of leadership involves providing a bottom-up foundation of support and information so that team members have everything they need to succeed in their role.
As we embarked on the pre-production phase of a new game, our team collectively answered a series of questions designed to stimulate discussion, enhance understanding about the our mission and goals for the game, and move forward with a shared vision. The process and individual questions can be modified to suit any creative development - a story, a film, an advertising campaign, etc.
We started with these questions:
Our answers form the Mission Statement of our new product:
We are using the engine to build on the theme of the Modeling Agency.
There will be a great focus on collecting clothes and putting clothes together in interesting ways
A fiction built around a Modeling Agency
As the head of a Modeling Agency, the player is required to recruit models, build out a wardrobe, and then dress their models for photo shoots and ‘walk offs’ that demonstrate a player’s creativity around the particular shoot’s theme or task.
A core loop focused on clothing collection
As a player progresses, he or she opens up additional clothing items by unlocking new designers and brands that allow greater customization and self expression during photo shoots and other events.
As a constraint of the engine, progression will be defined by signing up new models. However, the main goal of signing on new models is to unlock additional clothing options.
A sophisticated and glamorous art style
Given the focus on glamour and sophistication, the art style for the clothing is meant to be more realistic, and not cartoony. The art style will likely be more streamlined / polished / mature given the move toward high fashion.
Importantly, the clothes in this game are key: they need to express the glamour of the fashion industry, and represent ‘aspirational’ outfits that are not practical in a real wardrobe but can build out a virtual one.
We are intending on building a game evokes the excitement and fast-paced nature of a Modeling Agency; we want to leverage the glamour of the industry, but de-emphasize its cut-throat nature.
Importantly, we are working within the constraints of the engine
Although we are trying to build a game that addresses the aspirations as defined, we need to work within the overall confines of our engine.
Popular Comps
X, Y, and Z
The need for self-expression; the need to nurture our inner artist
Although we are not all artists, we nevertheless all have a desire to find and create beauty in this world. We want to tap into this need to feed our inner artist and create a canvas in which players can create their own pieces of art.
The desire for social validation
We want to give each artist the opportunity to be celebrated. We want to tap into the need for validation and the pride one can feel when creating and displaying a work of art.
The desire to be set free from the limits of reality; our dreams of leading a life that is more exciting and more thrilling than our own
We are looking to build a game that captures the glamour and excitement of a world we are not a part of. We are playing on the daydreams we sometimes have for a life that is more dramatic and thrilling than the ones we lead. We want to tap into our desire to escape from a world that can feel drab or routine, from a life that feels too ordinary. Instead, we want to add color and excitement and glamour; we want players to feel like they are free from the limits of real life.
These themes are universal and apply to everyone - but for the sake of this title we are going to focus on building on the dreams / expressions that resonate more with a female audience. Stereotypically, this means more ‘glamour’ and less ‘adventure’.
Our specific focus on glamour will likely target a young adult female audience (22 to 35 years old). The classic dreams of an older generation may not align with our chosen theme.
We want to speak to females who look in their closet and see only ‘practical’ choices instead of exciting ones; women who yearn for a larger wardrobe but are restricted monetarily; women who love shopping, who read fashion magazines and who are fascinated by Hollywood or ‘high society’; girls who love Fashion Week and couture but may not feel confident enough to express themselves through their wardrobe currently.
The media that these women may consume include: A, B, and C. They play games like X, Y, and Z.
This game is meant to target a relatively broad female audience, with a focus on North America and Europe. Asia is not our initial focus.
A theme that conveys a glamorous and sophisticated re-imagining of the Fashion world
We want a theme that allows our players to dream about a bright future, set in a world that is exciting, fun, chic and breezy. We want to offer them an escape from the real world and from the realities and burdens of a real life.
A broad and extensive ‘palette’ and a dress-up mechanic that is complex enough to emphasize true individual expression
We want our players to be able to express their own creativity and personality in their creations. We will build enough complexity into the dress-up mechanic so that players feel like they can truly customize their looks. We will have enough breadth of choice in wardrobe to ensure that there is a style that suits each person and mood. Players will also be able to pose models in photoshoots, giving even more freedom of expression.
A mechanism to highlight players’ creations, and a way for the public to comment on or rate the work
We want our players to have their work displayed for others, and for others to appreciate and accept its variety.
An escape from their everyday lives
‘Owning’ an aspirational wardrobe allows players to escape from their world and feel like they are a part of the world of fashion. The immersion in the glamorous world of fashion represents an alternative to the real world.
Continued play builds out your wardrobe, and thus increases the number of ways you can express yourself
Obtaining new clothing on a regular basis allows for more and more combinations and new ways to personalize the game.
Prepping for walk-offs or other key events
Players will look forward to walk-offs and other PvP events and will prep in order to show their best work.
We are not trying to be a game changer, nor to be the #1 fashion game in the world, given its build constraints. However, we are part of a category with no strong leader and we believe we are differentiated by:
A clearer narrative and stronger character development than Covet Fashion
More freedom of expression in photoshoots than Covet Fashion
A more sophisticated art style and content than Campus Life
Agency is our first foray into creating two games that can be operated in tandem.
Our new game will be operated cooperatively with our existing product with regular cross-promotion between the games, as well as potentially joined content. If successful, this will set us up to pursue more expansions of our current set of live games and to grow the franchise.
Although our game is set in the Fashion world where success is driven by external appearance, we are going to build a game with a different message, where internal beauty and authenticity are the keys to success.
It is also the story of the American Dream, where anyone can make it to the top. The overall tone will be encouraging and supportive.
Agency is Jennifer Lawrence, not Victoria Beckham. Agency is Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada, not Meryl Streep.
Agency is a story from Target to Dior.
Agency is the Copley Square mall in Boston, where women shop at Zara but aspire to shop at Tory Burch, Louis Vuitton or Tiffany’s nearby.
Agency is pastel pink or blue, not dark deep red.
Agency is not pretentious or arrogant, but authentic, accessible and inclusive. Agency is chic, sophisticated, classy and sleek. Agency is fun, creative, artistic, expressive and encouraging.
We will feature mainly young women. While we will promote racial inclusion, technical constraints prevent the game from featuring plus-size or more mature models. We choose not to take an explicit stand on this broader definition of beauty.
Copyright (c) 2015 Pocket Gems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Setting clear expectations about job performance helps ensure expectations are met and fosters a work culture of professional growth. This framework provides examples of what reasonable increased expectations might look like for Artists who are new to their discipline, team members with more experience and capability, and many degrees in between. Use this framework not as a checklist but as shared language to coach yourself or those you mentor.
Artists, new to the discipline, responsible for assisting other team members with day-to-day implementation tasks and documentation. In doing so, these employees gain key and relevant knowledge of their discipline and its functional relationship within overall game development.
Artists responsible for the delivery of creative and technical productivity. Possess good analytical, technical and problem-solving abilities. Work is subject to established practices and procedures.
Senior Artists possess advanced analytical, technical and problem solving skills. Having acquired a broader view of their team function and goals, Senior Artists work proactively, independently, and collaboratively across disciplines, and in a highly organized manner to deliver high quality artwork. They suggest new procedures and tools and provide Level I Artists with creative or technical guidance.
Lead Artists possess advanced creative, technical, and organizational skills. They have a strong awareness of larger game/team objectives and player experience. Work with a large degree of independence, coordinate team members from various disciplines, and confer with Art Director on more complex assignments. Supervise Levels 1-2 team members.
Lead team of Artists and Animators who produce the art assets for the game (environments, characters, objects and effects), in conjunction with Art Director
Act as a mentor to Artists providing guidance in their specialty; how to troubleshoot issues and find solutions; estimate time/effort involved in completing an assignments
Make team support a top priority
Create clear processes for others to follow
Ensure that the art and animation team works to meet production and budget goals
Discuss team priorities and estimate how workload and schedules will need to adjust to accommodate changing priorities
Evaluate the performances of the art team members, in conjunction with Art Director
If the team is not meeting expectations, Lead must address this and motivate the team to improve visuals, communication, processes, productivity, etc.
Weed out team members who are not consistently performing or are causing conflict.
Organize regular check-ins to evaluate progress and provide feedback
Foster culture of comfort and confidence amongst team members
Artists should feel comfortable enough to come and talk about problems and know that you will be able to help them deal with it
Make recommendations for team seating structure to foster collaboration and optimize communication