How You Could Become Video Game Concept Artist

OXM investigates the world of videogame concept artists – and discovers how you could become videogame concept artists one yourself

- Adam Bryant

When you think of videogame concept art, if you ever do at all, it’s probably just as something nice to look at in an art book, magazine feature, or unlockables gallery. Rarely do we stop to consider just how important a part of the process of development these drawings and paintings truly are.

As we explore and engross ourselves in expansive fantasy realms and fight our way through science fiction space operas and actionpacked adventure games it’s easy to take it all these worlds for granted. But without concept artists working to infuse the first breaths of life into these vistas, quite simply, none of the games we love would exist at all. As Darren Bacon, concept art lead on Halo Infinite, puts it: “Concept is the tip of the spear in the game development process, driving the conversations and proposals that ultimately help give shape to ideas so teams can confidently move forward in consensus.” In other words, they get everyone on the same page.

The videogames business has become one of the biggest industries around, not just by the sheer volume of cash it rakes in, but also by the amount of people it employs, which in the last 30 years has grown exponentially. Advancements in technology have allowed game worlds to become larger with a higher fidelity of detail, which means that the need for concept artists is at all-time high.

That means greater specialisation too. Where once a concept artist would have been a jack-of-all-trades, drawing whatever was required, now one may be solely responsible for creating weapon designs, or environments, or character and monster designs. But despite such a broadening of the field, with so many roles up for grabs, it’s still a hugely competitive field.

All in the mind