How’s that for Over the Top?

During the Pre-Production of Civilization Revolution it was hard to avoid the term  Next-Gen when discussing creating content for consoles. There was a strong desire to re-invent the idea of Civilization for the consoles. The XBox360 had just launched, and Nintnedo’s upcoming wasn't known as the Wii, but the Revolution. I imagined playing a game of Civilization on a round globe, and knew that screenshot of this would instantly stand apart from what we’d done in the past.

There were thoughts to reuse the leaders developed for Civilization IV early on. Even though the plan was to update them with new animations and textures it seemed obvious something else needed to change in their presentation. Usually when a map is up on your TV, you’re watching the news. This idea was the birth of Gandhi, the weatherman!

Here’s an approach to the tech tree that ended up not being used. I was interested in the seamless zoom with each icon hinting at a world filled with information, the visual interface encouraging you to get lost in exploration.

I was tasked with adding character to the way that cities grow. Inspired by the building animations in SimGolf I added a lot of squash and stretch into the structures as well as experimenting with bricks dropping from the heavens and city walls that behaved like rubber bands.

The game prototype started to give players exotic gifts from around the globe. Messages were sent explaining that Courtesans, Jugglers, Acrobats, and even Dancing Bears were now awaiting you in your throne room. In an oddly revisionist moment, Sid Meier has gone on record saying that certain things are best left to the imagination. Here’s proof he hasn't always felt that way.

It was also important to explore the early experiences of the game, making the choice of civilization, world size, and difficulty level exciting. I imagined the collection of playable leaders made of different materials, denoting your achievements in the game. I also couldn't get away from over the top musical cues.

How I learned to Love Prototyping!

A few years after joining Firaxis, I was given a chance to work on a new game prototype with a small team and a new designer, Soren Johnson. This was an amazing experience, and shaped the way I approached working on games as an artist. The game that was developed is one of the best games I’ve ever played. Unfortunately, the game that the publisher was more excited about developing was Civilization IV. It’s understandable, and it really was a blast taking those lessons learned and applying them to a highly esteemed franchise.

My role on that project was as the animation lead. I focused exclusively on the “in-game” animations,  while the excellent Ed Lynch handled the leader characters. The first character I worked on was this early prototype for the warrior.

Plans for the units changed shortly after playing the land battle component of Pirates. Sid Meier included groups of units in the turn-based portion of his game, and we realized we could improve the battles in Civilization IV by doing likewise. These animations were developed to help visualize how the various match-ups could look, as well as handling some tricky combinations.

I continued animating the units, including the inevitable surprises that get added to make a good game great. The last few months of production were extreme in many ways. I was tired at the end, but it was an amazing experience seeing every prototype decision come to life during those last months of production!

I am a digital artist without an online portfolio...

Until now. This blog will be a space for me to share work that I’ve been involved with over the years, and a way for me to continue to push myself as an artist involved in making games.