The Making of an LRG Release, Pt. 3: The Art of the Game
The Making of an LRG Release, Pt. 3: The Art of the Game
Art as in Art Department, of course.
Rumor has it that some materials related to the revised Sonic X Shadow Generations should be arriving at the LRG Cave soon. Expect exciting updates once they arrive! In the meantime, however, we don’t want to leave you with no weekend reading material. So we’re continuing our ongoing look inside the concept-to-shelf process of creating an LRG release such as—yes!—Sonic X Shadow Generations. This time, we’re checking in with Kenny Adams from the Art team to learn more about the visual development of a game.
Limited Run Games:
So, you’re with the Art team. What does that entail?
Kenny Adams:
We see things from ideation to print. We meet with our partners and discuss what their needs are, get the SKU plan [project overview] from Production, and go through that list to create assets with the templates that were provided. This could range from making a standard cover to designing a Collector's Edition box. Usually, once we get a design that we're happy with, it goes to an internal review—our team taking a look at it, seeing if we like it, and asking if there's anything that we could do better. Then it goes into partner review, when we bring in the developers for their sign-off. And once that is approved, it goes into proofreading, where we have one to two proofreaders give it a look over and make sure that the copy's correct. Then, we send that on to production. That’s the process across standard editions, Collector’s Editions, soundtracks, you name it.
LRG:
So your role is designing packaging, but also other stuff?
KA:
Packaging design, but it could be... we wear multiple hats and we've done things for Marketing as well. The [social and shop] banners go through the same process. When we have mockups ready, we show them to our partners. And once they’re in a good spot, they approve it, we move on, and then it goes on to Marketing for our storefronts and websites.
LRG:
In addition to the outer packaging for a game, how much of the contents of a standard edition do you design? Say, the disc design or the manual. How about Collector's Editions?
KA:
I've been here going on four years now. Initially, we touched everything from the covers to the discs to the manuals. It's been a bumpy road, but we're getting there in terms of ironing everything out. It used to be that manuals had no page limit, and my first manual was Gotta Protectors, and that was something upwards of 20 or 30 pages. It was a fun experience. It was a lot of learning, but we ultimately pared down because we wanted to get things out out faster. We started to [outsource] certain things like manuals, but it's not for lack of wanting to do manuals. And if someone on our team wanted to be involved in a manual that they really cared about, we could! But in order to get things out to customers faster, we like to work with contract for that.
LRG:
You mentioned ideation. Are you involved in the creative process of figuring out what's going to be in a package, or are you handed a list of things and then it's sort of up to you to figure it out?
KA:
It's been a combination of both. Primarily, it's handed down, but there was a case with Virtua Fighter 2 where I am a huge fighting game buff. I fired up my copy, got to the end stage, and started researching Judgment 6 and Dural and all that stuff, to piece together lore and items that could go into the CE. I was able to come up with a pitch deck for that. That was awesome. And sometimes we get to do that if we're knowledgeable enough about a property. Most of the time, I think for sake of just smooth operations, our producers will meet and come up with an itemized list of what would be ideal in a CE. It could change down the road—I’ve heard that Art wants to be more involved with that process, but we'll see.
LRG:
It makes sense to be involved in things that you understand. I feel like that's kind of been a company-wide thing, like, “Oh, this person knows something, bring them in.” How often do partners come to you and say, “Here's what we want, give this exact thing to us?” Does that ever happen?
KA:
Sometimes, yeah, it does, but we're given a good bit of creative freedom. It depends on how big the partner is. If it's a AAA developer where this is their baby and they don't want to deviate—if they've already done say, a standard edition that's already gone to print, they'll literally hand us the file and say, “Do not change this. Just literally change this from PS4 to PS5 and make sure that it adheres to PS5 guidelines.” But I would say that about 70% of the time we're able to do as we please. 30% of the time, it's very strict and we have to basically one-to-one on whatever it is that we're working on.
LRG:
You mentioned brand guidelines. What's your relationship with those?
KA:
It depends. So with some partners, they're very adamant that their branding has to be printed with this Pantone, or that CMYK value, or positioned like this, or no bigger than x. So it depends. We don't get many brand guidelines, but usually the general rule of thumb is that the bigger the partner, the more likely it is that they’re going to have brand guidelines. They want to make sure that things are consistent. That was the case with one of my favorite projects that we've worked on—the publisher was very straightforward and very upfront with all the guidelines that they gave us for that. It was very clear that if LRG made a mistake, we could refer to the brand guidelines. All these values and itemizations are here so we can learn from our mistakes and fix. But by and large, in my personal experience, we do get them, but not as often as people might think.
LRG:
Going back to Collectors' Editions, a lot of the things that we put in CEs are dimensional—they have solidity to them—like plushes or statues or figurines. But there are a lot of flat, printed elements. Do you have a big role in designing those or is that largely handed over to other people?
KA:
We have a 3D artist, David Brassoie, does a lot of the ideating for 3D models to hand over to our partners, and they usually go through the same process that our 2D assets do. So that gets the same treatment as soundtracks, standard editions, things of that nature.
LRG:
Looking back over the past four years that you've been here, you mentioned Virtua Fighter. Are there any other projects where you look at it and you're like, “I really brought something to this. I'm really proud of what I did here”?
KA:
LRG:
What about that one was so remarkable for you?
KA:
I was a big fan of that game when Microsoft and Tango shadow-dropped it. I played it. I absolutely loved it. I didn't think that LRG was going to get it! And then our former CEO Josh Fairhurst announced that we were getting it, and I fanboyed. I asked to be on that project day one, and while I didn't have a hand in everything, I had a hand in a good chunk of things in that collection. Especially the Smidge box. I literally made that completely by hand, vectored everything, and drew it, of course, with the exception of the screenshots and everything on the back. But I literally found art from, I think Art Station, from the official artist, that had a turnaround of Smidge. I tried to use that as a reference point and say, “Could this become a box? Could this work?” And thankfully it did.
LRG:
OK, final question. If LRG could land any project, what would your dream project be?
KA:
I've always wanted a Tekken collection. I even made a mockup for it. I've always wanted a Tekken collection that featured Tekken 1 through Tag Tournament—specifically those, because all of them were based off of the arcade cabinet that the PlayStation architecture was supposed to be on, albeit with way more power. All of those, technically, through Carbon, could be a reality. I've always wanted just that collection with rollback net code, being a huge fighting game fan. A lot of people in the Tekken community have really wanted that. But that's one of my personal favorites... either that or a WipeOut or Ridge Racer collection, something in a similar vein. Ridge Racer 1 through 4 or a WipeOut 1 through 3. All for same reasons.
Check out more Sonic X Shadow Generations news and updates here.