Adventure Time - Visit to Grendel Games!
Went to the open day at Grendel Games in Leeuwarden with 3 other classmates; Alliese, Lisa, Hilâl. After the exposition at school one Stephan Caffa, CMD teacher at NHL, told me I definitely should check this studio out to find out at what level my portfolio is and maybe find opportunities there.
Why interested in game studios?
After or during my education I want to get closer to my dream job. Creating games as a Character Concept Artist and doing what I love most, making art! What's more exciting than combining all art forms into one product and bringing that to life and even let others experience it the way you intended?
My other goal is to be a freelance illustrator who sells her art as posters, T-shirts, calenders and artbooks. In order to do that and to get commissions from others I have to put myself out there. That's not easy since the world wide web is huuuge and I never feel confident about my art. Yet.
At the moment I work at a restaurant, do product photography and graphic design for companies and clubs and I truly enjoy that, but it's become something I rolled into, a side stop rather than somewhere I want to end.
I love working in a team with common interests but also enjoy my time working alone on a few things. A game studio can provide me that. I also love gaming a lot, although I don't do that often any more.
Arrival
My thought; "Get there as early as possible to avoid queues". Boooy, was I wrong! At 10:00 they opened their doors and at 10:30 we arrived and the studio at Blokhuispoort was already filled with guests. o_o We found a random Grendel guy that looked like a bigwig being ignored by everyone so we approached him. He showed us a wall with concept art for differently styled games, some old some in progress. I forgot the guy's name but he was very kind, open and humble, a bit too humble, because even though his pencil sketches on the wall looked so professional he said they were just old and bad. Between all the concept art there was a drawing his little daughter had made. The guy talked passionately and I liked every hour of that visit. ^^
If you don't know what Grendel Games is or does, please visit Grendel Games' website for more information. Basically they only create serious games, which means they're educational. Their products are made for schools, hospitals, companies... But when I asked they told me they absolutely wouldn't mind creating a game just for fun. They simply don't get those kind of requests. They do however, get request from very important people from the US and work together with the creators of Garfield for their current project. Some of the Grendel members don't like the project that much because the final art has to be 100% perfect. When they drew some scenes for their maths game the client told them the eye had to be 10% larger. I think that kind of killed the fun. Most artists don't like such limited freedom.
- Above a concept for Grendel and Blokhuispoort's new game with our feedback on memo notes.
- Below that Garfield concept art. Very 2D, unusual for Grendel who usually paint either painterly or semi 3D. The Garfield game will contain no text because translating it to English will cost more time and money and this way it will be available to a bigger target.
- To hang the bunny art there was a great idea.
Griffin Rider, a game made for temporarily disabled people, for example after a car crash, about a flying griffin and its rider (player) popping balloons in the air. This game sounded very interesting to me. They told me Grendel made this for a hospital and the player/patient ingame has to balance the griffin whilst flying. In order to perfect this game and help the patients improving their balance and confidence they had to redesign a kind of treadway so it could move up and down for balance purposes. This scared most patients because they weren't confident of walking the streets and steps themselves but this game made them determined to rehabilitate quickly and confident to walk again!
"There was a granddaughter of a patient who e-mailed and thanked me for creating this game. Because of this game the grandfather's lost hope came back again and after an accident could walk again without problems. I couldn't care less about the other games or how many sales I got. I made a difference for these two persons and that's all that matters to me." Is what the Grendel Games boss told us.
Our group reserved a spot a few weeks before the open day since that was mandatory and I sent in my portfolio on 20 April, two days after I got the message they'd decided on a deadline. Got a little panic attack. I made it in time, though! When I asked when we could show us our portfolio they told us we'd have to wait for about a half hour. Luckily, we were early enough to participate in the tour of the Blokhuispoort and hear all about their new interactive game. The main idea is that the game will be about players/visitors in the Blokhuispoort getting to know how the old inmates of this building suffered and lived there. They'll be able to see characters and prisoners through their phone (in a way a bit like Pokemon Go) and experience a bit of the awful life themselves, learning history in the process. Along the way we saw digitally drawn prisoners and photos of people from the past in the passageways and cells while our skilled tour guide explained and answered our questions with care. She couldn't tell us too much because the game hasn't been released yet. But! At the end of the tour we could leave feedback and our e-mail addresses so they can contact us in the future to test out their early version of the game before it hits the market! Can't wait!
What I really love about this game is that it's interactive and the art is simple, but I don't know how much the art will change since these were early concepts.
Portfolio Review
We had the review with our NHL group so we could all learn from it. The guy who was in charge was a nice guy and I couldn't wait to go first. Unfortunately his laptop died that moment so we used his iPad and my printed out art, problem solved. He had seen my portfolio before so he was prepared anyway. First he asked me if I was applying for a job (most people were) and I told him I wasn't but I'd like to know more about their ways, my current artistic level and internship possibilities.
I thought he was going to kill either me or my art with his harsh feedback but he didn't at all. He actually liked my art. The funny thing is, he liked everything my teachers at school do not! He said it makes sense in a way. Studios look for usable ideas for products that would sell and art schools have different goals I should learn from. I asked specifically about my early concepts and the Japanese illustrations, because people I know like those the best while I think they're just something made on the side.
Something else I noticed during the review is the difference between having had a mentor from a huge game studio teaching me the basics vs having review from an artist from a smaller game studio. Changes will have to be made soon :x
Here a list of the good and bad things about my art:
Good
- use of colours
- line work
- quick abstract concepts, done very often and important in any studio
- composition
- Japanese illustrations look very appealing (I asked him specifically about them)
Improvements
- the portfolio website needs a design update, make it look professional (paid), the preview squares make some art pieces look uninteresting until you click on them and see them full sized
- art has to be allround
- aim at smaller studios (allround jobs)
- add landscapes
- add game or app buttons you've designed
- add art from good to less good, not chronological
- Charmander isn't good enough to put in portfolio
And now..?
Sooo... My goals haven't changed much, my view and determination definitely have!
At the end of the portfolio review the Grendel guy said I'm not there yet to get hired by Grendel Games but I should try to apply some time. I should also have a portfolio check at different game studios.
If I'd apply for a collaboration job with Grendel Games I might be hired for that but he can't promise me with certainty. But there's a good chance and that's good to know!
Long term goal: Work at a game studio as a character concept artist. Preferably at Ubisoft or Guerilla Games. Maybe work as a freelance teacher on the side and have an art print shop.
Short term goal: Open an art print shop selling art prints on paper and T-shirts. Approach specific people/shops who might be willing to use my prints in their shop. Get an internship at a game studio via school or after school?
I've come to appreciate my other art better. That teachers don't like some of my art pieces doesn't mean they're bad.
And the ones I disliked a lot can be good, too. That one's harder to accept.
Below a gallery of pictures I haven't shared before. The red guy was a real eye catcher for me! The Grendel Games boss made this robot out of a kind of polymer clay and then used resin to cast and later paint it by hand. No 3D program used. :D The robot is the main character of one of their most important games 'Underground'. A game for surgeons at UMCG Groningen. They even made special Wii U surgeon controllers! The Underground game we played there had a normal Wii U controller but man, it was so difficult to play. I can't describe it well and you have to have played it yourself to understand how this game suits surgeons better than regular gamers.
What I heard from a doctor before I visited Grendel Games is that this game is well known at UMCG and really does help improve the surgeons' skills!
