Project art direction: do it yourself

What the talk is about

Vira Velychko explains how small teams and indie studios without formal art direction can bring order to a project's art. She outlines five typical problems. First, not knowing the audience: describe it, research it, formulate your own offer and test it. Second, miscommunication between artists and the rest of the team: use a go-between person, a clear written brief (art type, description, references, usage conditions, sizes, technical limits, deadlines), concrete feedback and a check where the artist retells the task. Then come artists being detached from the game industry, draining brainstorms that should be limited by time and topic, and a lack of style consistency, which calls for a design document, a shared pipeline and a final review by the lead artist. Useful for leads, producers and artists in small teams.