Week 7.......Game Art Directors o__O

One thing I found particularly interesting about the lead environmental artists talk, apart from the technicalities of making a game, was the actual end part, where we heard about the actual positions available within the company.
It is a bit embarrassing to say, but I hadn’t thought that far ahead :P I knew I want a job involving creativity and problem solving, but I had no idea of what jobs were there to offer!

So after last week’s blog, it came as a surprise to me that the Game Designer isn’t actually the head guy, the Game Art Director is, now I figured that there will always be a higher up pocking there poor little staff about with a stick, but after reading through one of the links I found that in fact it’s the Director that did what I thought was delivered by the Game Designer.

But ignoring my ignorance, I found myself feeling drawn to such a job, it scares me a bit to think that so much responsibility would rest on these 3ds Max weary shoulders :P but the broad talent that’s required, and high calibre at that, made me motivated and gave me vigour, I don’t know if I have vision as of yet, but I am not exactly about to walk straight into a job like that now am I so we shall see.
It seems though that the actual title “Game Art Director” is in fact a bit of a grey area, like most things in the Game Industry nothings a definite. The title is more commonly used in Japan, and titles like “Executive Producer” or even “Producer” / “Designer” are more known titles over here in the West......Executive does sound rather good though :P

Like Film Directors there in charge of the overall visualisation of the work, the composition and overall feel, but they also do provide content towards the game, Shigeru Miyamoto is credited as the “creator” of characters like, Mario, Link and even Donkey Kong but after the talk with Ben Mathis, it seems these directors are ill placed in their position, being friends of a higher up, who only make decisions to certify their “rank” in the team.........the bastards!!!
It kind of ruins the whole creative aspect of the game if you impose yourself upon the designers, I agree they need to keep it to their “vision” but you need to be open minded an try things out, but the catch 22 of the situation is the fact that experimentation is a big NO, as any failure can cause bust in any major titles, which I guess is why the inventive games are always started but eh small guy, who is then devoured by the company once it’s a success. A recent example is the latest expansion provided by the Valve team. The Orange Box has one game in particular that has caught everyone off guard, Portal, which itself was started off as a user made mod for Half Life