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One of our sensational ongoing projects is the full-cycle development on the NFT game, Gamma4. This explosive sci-fi adventure sees players gathering and collecting heroes and their components. A turn-based game, players must create the ultimate team by swapping and blending the best elements of their greatest heroes. From the vicious Marauders and warped Mutants to the ramshackle tech of the Goblins and futuristic development of the Atari, players have a host of heroes and factions to compose their perfect team.
The project had big beginnings and great aspirations, the potential in the project for a gaming experience was fantastic. We started with a smaller team to develop the basics of its gameplay and its style. Around this stage our teams delved into experimenting with the UI, four basic characters, and a single scenario to explore how we might execute it. Since then, the team and the project has grown substantially.
Our lead 2D artist for the project was responsible for developing the visual art style. As any artist does, he had his own methods and inspirations. Those with a keen eye for anime and manga might notice a dose of inspiration in the game’s design from Akira Toriyama and Osamu Tezuka. These two names have created series’ that have inspired and entertained billions over the years! And our senior 2D artist had loved their work since he was a child.
Other names like David Petersen and Bryan Lee influenced his style more as he grew up and developed his skills. Our teams believe that inspiration, growth, and constant learning are key in developing their skillsets.
Sources of inspiration aside, our talented and expert artists developed a handful of styles for our client to choose from. As you can see, it grows in realism and harder lines of depth as it progresses. Our client ended up deciding on the ‘B’ variant, with some minor shape changes and alterations. We’re proud to say with our stellar artistic development, the discover of style and art was a quick one!
We had almost complete freedom with the art design and style. This meant that a lot of the big decisions lay on our team, something they took seriously. Luckily, the minds of the client and our team meshed fantastically! The styles we developed were the same flavour the client had always enjoyed which meant a smooth and efficient working cycle.
The difficulty with art styles in gaming is ensuring a pleasing look but also one that functions as needed and is pleasing to your target audience. Knowing your audience is important as there’s a plethora of different tastes to cater for. And in functionality, it’s important for artists to keep in mind how they might be animated or how they’ll look if their equipment and gadgets change!
Creating NFT art and characters for games is still a new concept in the industry. So, developing characters for this game revolving around limb and body customisation meant a lot of thought and pre-planning for our artists. This led our artists to developing characters as whole elements and then into cutting them into individual pieces.
Typically, this was done by making each piece its own layer. This meant that animation in Unity would be easier to do. Our artists would cut and directly animate the pieces in After Effects. The lead 2D artist and lead technical artist said they learned a lot of new things over the course of this process.
The creative freedom mixed with this requirement meant creating our own limits and criteria for new characters and items. This is in pursuit of the final pieces looking incredible while also fulfilling technical needs.
At Magic Media we are veterans of the gaming, tech and entertainment industries, offering comprehensive services including game development, VFX, animation and full art services! Our main goal is to provide a one-stop solution for any project. We love nothing more than collaborating with creative minds, so drop us a line and let’s talk!
