Where do we go from here?

Senior Studio is finally over for myself and the rest of Team Grind. After wandering in the desert for 40 years we finally found our destination. We were able to pull together all our hard work and implement it in a build. The game shows a lot of promise and with a little more work it could finally be the game we intended it to be. As the Art Director I now have the time to sit down and look at ways to improve the visuals of The Grind. 

Having already briefly spoken to the team on the subject, we've all agreed the characters need to be reworked. We had effectively 8 weeks to churn out 4 characters and 4 enemies. This is quite the task for a two man character modeling team. The characters are pretty rough and need some more polish. Some of the characters even need to be redesigned. But for once I finally have the time to show these characters the love they deserve. 

Once the characters have been reworked I will move on to the environments and then the UI. It's important to get this game looking spectacular as we move forward on it. Currently we are aiming to enter The Grind into next years E3 Student games competition, as well as any other indie/student games competitions that pop up in between that time. 

Now I leave you with the fruits of our labor. The Grind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxTOY6iAT-o

A New Direction

     It's been a while since my last post. I've been working diligently on The Grind. Over the last 10 weeks The Grind has gone through numerous changes, including a complete rework of the art direction. We've decided on going for a more stylized cartoon/illustration inspired look. Our new direction not only goes better with the comedic theme of our game but also looks a lot better at the average view distance. We've also decided to scrap the use of normal maps.
     Overall our new direction has received mostly positive feedback and for the first time the whole art team has a clear idea of where we are going. I will be posting more often in the next few weeks, and will have numerous art samples to share. Until next time!

-James