Big Plans

As new members joined the Civilization V team it became important for me develop a consistent vision and direction for the game external to the art director. Often this is handled by having a few extremely successful concept images; a mix of ideal screen shots and inspiration images. Usually a team gets tired of looking at the same image over and over again and being told to make their art more like it.

I needed goals that the team could agree on, which would provide context for success and failure. I also wanted artists on the team to be able to argue for their decisions in a way that could win others over, while making the game better in the process.

Here’s the list I developed and tried my best to follow:

This list includes a concept painting of the Oracle by Erik Ehoff. Erik created some key images which captured the romanticized view of history we wanted to explore. 

I will be taking a look at each goal in more detail, evaluating how successful each goal was, not just in its own achievement, but also as a way of making a better Civilization title.