VideoGame Development = Amazing

Having recently took a break from the usual stuff I had friends over for the weekend to play some early 90's videogames. It was really just my attempt to show them things that I couldn't years ago as a kid. They were impressed with the level of ideas and creativity the old games had over over today's releases which do not have the technological limits that were on game creators back then. I think this stems from a complete beleif I have in that limitation does force us to be creative.

Above: A game that has more going in it for the first 5 minutes

than modern games today have per hour of theirs.

Some may not know this but I originally planned to take a game design course before I went on to do Illustration at Stockport instead. The reason I opted out of this is because I knew my path to this sort of dream job lies elsewhere, I am in my heart an artist so that's why I am an illustrator, illustrators can do many things and I can think of some such as Yoji Shinkawa, Ayame Kojima and the creator of Tomb Raider's Lara Croft  (Toby Gard) along with Kev Crossley (who I interviewed in a previous post, herehttp://artofjimfitton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/kev-crossley-interview.html). These are all illustrators who have helped in the art direction and iconic visuals of the videogames they worked on.

Also a thing to note is how these things have their own visual language, look at Scott Pilgrim vs. The World to see how videogame tropes come into movies (aswell as comic book tropes).

So after a gaming session with friends I tried to list and research nearby game developer companies/studios in my hometown of Manchester, UK. I could only think of 4 and the closest of them I can get to by a bus ride is the indie company 'SmashMouth Games' http://www.smashmouthgames.com/Webpages/Home/Home.html. It's a company that has been successful for developing games for the Android platform and education for future game developer employees. I'm gonna be keeping my eye on how these companies grow or diminish in the chances of gaining a career opportunity. In the meantime I gotta get back to my illustration work!

Below: This visually strong and beautiful videogame dominated my childhood.