The Importance and Challenges of an Art Direction

A well defined art direction has multiple parts to it, including style, theme, color palette, etc. Having all these work together in a cohesive manner can really make the difference when trying to create an impacting and engaging visual experience. This is true for all forms of entertainment like movies, games, and even music.

So why is a solid art direction so pivotal to the game development process? Imagine an art team without a proper art direction to set the foundation for the project. You’d spend more time resolving issues then producing art! Each day would bring multiple revisions and artists arguing over who should change what so everything looks consistent. If these key aspects of the art, like character, clothing, or environmental style, aren’t figured out from the start you’ll either be drastically slowed down, playing catch up, or have a vastly inconsistent looking game. So obviously you can see the benefits of having a solid art direction and how doing so would help alleviate a lot of problems or delays during production.

Now for the challenging part: figuring out your art direction. It takes a lot of time and effort to really nail down your idea of the game on paper, especially if it’s going to have a really unique look. Just having a description doesn’t always cut it. Sometimes you need to find certain references or develop diverse concept art to help convey your style. This process is usually done during preproduction and does require a bit of research into what other people have done and what worked and what didn’t. Also if it is something difficult and never done before that makes it that much harder.

From my own experience on working on NORA we definitely ran into a lot of issues in the beginning when there was little to no art direction established. Once I became the art lead, my first goal was to figure this out and provide a proper vision to move forward on. This process was not necessarily an overnight thing and took some time to figure out but in the end it was worth it and we now a definitive vision and style that we are proud of and can continue to refine moving forward. We definitely can’t wait to show you this game and hope that you love the art style and direction as much as we do.

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By Jared Frenzel, Art Lead for GravTech Games