Hay guys :D. I was directed to this thread by a fellow deviantArt/GB user and thought I'd just stick my head in here to say "THANK YOU SO MUCH!!111" for your guys' constant support and positive feedback :). Since the Building the Bastion is short (but sweet, hopefully!) I figured this is as good a place as any to answer any unanswered art/Bastion related questions anybody might have for me (or the team)!
Thanks again, and I'll do my best to continue creating work that is worthy of such praise :)!
Wow, Jen, your work is great! Your range of styles is also impressive. I love the art in Bastion, the saturated colors look delicious. Such a nice change from the brown/gray monotony of many games.
" Hay guys :D. I was directed to this thread by a fellow deviantArt/GB user and thought I'd just stick my head in here to say "THANK YOU SO MUCH!!111" for your guys' constant support and positive feedback :). Since the Building the Bastion is short (but sweet, hopefully!) I figured this is as good a place as any to answer any unanswered art/Bastion related questions anybody might have for me (or the team)! Thanks again, and I'll do my best to continue creating work that is worthy of such praise :)! "
Well now we just straight up have a celebrity amongst us!
Always be Creating. I love the segments you guys have on GB. It makes me sad that the release of Bastion is still so far off!
@jenzee: Awesome! Love your art, the range of styles is super impressive, and Bastion looks fantastic. I was going to comment on your DA, but I haven't logged into mine in years and don't remember the password =P. I haven't painted anything in years either, for that matter. Also, awesome choice of authors on your profile. I think George RR Martin is my favourite too.
Do you know of any of the other Supergiant people have GB accounts? I assume Greg probably does.
" The main question that's been on my mind is well, who IS that narrator guy? Is Kassavin touting some fancy vocal FX or did you guys get an A-grade VA? "
" The main question that's been on my mind is well, who IS that narrator guy? Is Kassavin touting some fancy vocal FX or did you guys get an A-grade VA? "
He's a friend of theirs iirc. "
Wow, friends in high places it seems. That guy is incredible. I'd imagine there's a TON of lines that guy has to do and they all sound great based on the footage.
What I was more interested in though was what is the guy's name? Is he a frequent voice actor?
" The main question that's been on my mind is well, who IS that narrator guy? Is Kassavin touting some fancy vocal FX or did you guys get an A-grade VA? "
He's a friend of theirs iirc. "
That's correct, the voice actor is Logan Cunningham who's a childhood friend of Amir (studio director) and Darren (audio director). I f'n wish my voice sounded like that. Not only is Logan an amazing voice actor but we're also lucky to have a lot of access to him, meaning we can record quickly and often, which helps a lot with our iteration process. We'll show the process with Logan and Darren probably the next time we do one of these video segments.
" The main question that's been on my mind is well, who IS that narrator guy? Is Kassavin touting some fancy vocal FX or did you guys get an A-grade VA? "
I should also state here, up front, before we get going, that due to the way we've decided to create ongoing programming based on Bastion and its developers--one of whom was a close coworker of ours for a lot of years--we're opting to not review Bastion when it's released. I suspect that, by the time it's finished, we'll all be a little too close to it to render an untainted verdict, so it's best to just state that now, so everyone's clear.
" I figured this is as good a place as any to answer any unanswered art/Bastion related questions anybody might have for me (or the team)!"
How did you decide on the art style of the game? Did you get influenced by the music (also audio) of Bastion or is that an aspect which gets added so far in a game making cycle that it doesn't really factor into your vision of the game.
Is it possible to ask a question to Darren Korb?
I would like to know how much information you usually get when writing music for a game (film/television)? Is it just a few bullet points sent in an email or can you go and see the game in an alpha build and get a better sense of what it is about.
Thanks Jen I look forward to the release of Bastion and hopefully it will get me loving RPGs like I was a kid again :)
No worries if you don't have time to answer these questions I know you're all busy.
@GregK said:
" That's correct, the voice actor is Logan Cunningham who's a childhood friend of Amir (studio director) and Darren (audio director). I f'n wish my voice sounded like that. Not only is Logan an amazing voice actor but we're also lucky to have a lot of access to him, meaning we can record quickly and often, which helps a lot with our iteration process. We'll show the process with Logan and Darren probably the next time we do one of these video segments. "
Haha, thanks for all the positive compliments in all their varieties, guys :). @BrickRoad said:
" Is there a difference between the goddamn batgirl and original batgirl? "
The difference is one is damned by god, and by definition, 9000x more epic (and also spontaneously becomes a Japanese game plot). If I could drop Bastion and make a game about the goddamned batgirl, I would D: (jk jk jk) !!!!!!
" The main question that's been on my mind is well, who IS that narrator guy? Is Kassavin touting some fancy vocal FX or did you guys get an A-grade VA? "
Kasavin-narrated edition for DLC! @X19 said:
" @jenzee said:
" I figured this is as good a place as any to answer any unanswered art/Bastion related questions anybody might have for me (or the team)!"
How did you decide on the art style of the game? Did you get influenced by the music (also audio) of Bastion or is that an aspect which gets added so far in a game making cycle that it doesn't really factor into your vision of the game.
The art style for the game was actually a pretty organic process. I should mention that I wasn't hired as "the artist" from the start and there were several before me, so I technically only know part of the story here :). With regards to my involvement - I was given a lot of creative freedom and there wasn't a whole lot of thought in terms of trying to make an "original" art style. As superficial as it may sound, the goal I set for myself was pretty straight forward when it came to making Bastion art. Make it pretty! Or epic. After some consultation, earlier build gameplay videos and general art direction provided by the team, I fell into a style which I felt comfortable with, functioned within the requirements and also "felt right" on an instinctual game-art level. And yes, during the process I was totally listening to one of the earlier tracks on loop which Darren had composed awhile back :). Of course, being creatures of influence what "felt right" was informed in large part by my experience playing 2D games in the past, though I'm not sure I consciously acknowledged this fact during the process. Basically, when I was asked to create a "2d hand painted, isometric world for an RPG", my thoughts immediately went to older 2D/2.5D games I respected greatly such as Phantasy Star 3, Shining Force, WC2, Tales of Phantasia, FFT, Baldur's Gate, Castlevania SoTN etc - and I thought to myself "What would they do if given the chance to create their work in STARTLING HD!?" It is also probably worth mentioning that I previously worked as an environment artist at Gaia Online for their MMO, so the style I developed there via influences from my peers brought itself over to Bastion in a lot of ways as well. :) Anyway, the first thing I came up with basically seemed to resonate with the team, and we just kept moving forward with it! Too easy to be true, hm :)?
I also remember being a little apprehensive of the "post apocalyptic" theme, given that I had lately become extremely bored by "all brown and grey, everything looks the same" aesthetic of a lot of post-apocalyptic games at the time. What was great was when Greg, Amir and team mentioned they wanted some undertones of "post apocalyptic beauty" which were my thoughts exactly :)!
Wow, this is long. Hopefully that answered (at least part of) your question! Also, I let Darren know about your question - hopefully he can find some free time to hop on here and answer :)!
I usually just troll Giant Bomb forums, but I think I'm seriously in love with this art. The fanboy in me would love to see her take on Mickey Mouse, haha!
@jenzee: Thanks for the mind dump I love long answers :D
I have been wondering how an artist thinks when they have a new project and I got my answer.
I'm going to be cheeky and leave more questions :)
Did you ever fall into the trap when you were younger of following another artist's style to closely and feeling like what you had created wasn't you?
Do you feel your own style is still in flux (absorbing new ideas etc) or has it becoming more fixed and perfected? (Sorry if this Qs makes no sense XD)
How important is it to emulate other artists to develop your own style? Do you approach it by trying to do an exact copy of another artist's picture or do you just take what grabs you (technique/colour etc) from that picture and try to make something new from those aspects.
If Darren has time to answer my question that would be great thanks.
" I figured this is as good a place as any to answer any unanswered art/Bastion related questions anybody might have for me (or the team)!"
How did you decide on the art style of the game? Did you get influenced by the music (also audio) of Bastion or is that an aspect which gets added so far in a game making cycle that it doesn't really factor into your vision of the game.
Is it possible to ask a question to Darren Korb?
I would like to know how much information you usually get when writing music for a game (film/television)? Is it just a few bullet points sent in an email or can you go and see the game in an alpha build and get a better sense of what it is about.
Thanks Jen I look forward to the release of Bastion and hopefully it will get me loving RPGs like I was a kid again :)
No worries if you don't have time to answer these questions I know you're all busy.
@GregK said:
" That's correct, the voice actor is Logan Cunningham who's a childhood friend of Amir (studio director) and Darren (audio director). I f'n wish my voice sounded like that. Not only is Logan an amazing voice actor but we're also lucky to have a lot of access to him, meaning we can record quickly and often, which helps a lot with our iteration process. We'll show the process with Logan and Darren probably the next time we do one of these video segments. "
I look forward to that. "
Hey, this is Darren.
To answer your question, it really varies a ton from project to project. For Bastion, I was lucky enough to get in on the project really early, so the information I'd get would be pretty limited, but that gave me a lot of freedom to experiment with the tone of the piece and figure out a musical palate that would lend itself to the world. For other projects, sometimes I have to compose to picture that's already been edited, and sometimes it'll just be "make something that sounds like Coldplay" (which happens a lot...), and everything in between. Bastion is actually the first game I've worked on professionally, so I don't have much of a reference in that department, but I know that the music usually comes into the process when it's pretty far along, and that the way I've been able to work on Bastion is a bit of an anomaly. Hope that answers your question!
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