Summer Project B - Extra Punctuation (The Escapist Magazine)

Both article A and B will feature the same intro, so if you read one, no need to go through the other...

For those of you who do not know, for the summer project I decided to do editorial illustrations, but with a TWIST. I wanted to create responses on subject matter close to my heart, so decided to do some internet scouting and picked two journo's who focus on video games - 1. Rob Fahey of GI.biz and 2. Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw with Extra Punctuation.

The reason I picked two, and these two specifically? They wite articles on both sides of the games industry coin: Fahey's articles lean towards the business matters, the who's who of the industry, but doesnt always stick to games-JUST-games. Yahtzee's editorials veer towards games as art, whether it be as light hearted as reminiscing about the quality of older games, or trolling the failings of modern companies.

So now, with 4 responses per person, I feel this is enough to finish up and concentrate wholly on the new project. Onward!

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Project B focuses on the Extra Punctuation responses, I will link the original article as the title, give a short description of the article, and then two images - one of the response illustration, and the second a quick knock up in PhotoShop of how it would look.

1. On Difficulty Levels

Yahtzee discusses the concept of difficulty levels in games, and so I wade in to the discussion with a poignant little ditty about the music game genre - sure, they are great fun, hard as nails on the upper difficulties... but its still not a real guitar is it?

2.  On Kinect and Playstation Move

In response to the motion control tornado ripping through the industry, Yahtzee recognises they are a gimmick. I recognise they could lead to a WHOLE NEW REALM of possibilities... Apologies for my poor typography, I should have just stolen some Clip Art from Word.

3. On Super Mario Galaxy 2

Yahtzee defends Mario, stopping at this sequel... I create an image riffing off of the CoD Black Ops cover - a series perhaps past its time, at the very least being milked for all its worth.

4. On Arty 2D Platformers

A discussion about why this genre is so successful - that WE are the children wandering a dangerous land. In response, I did a fairly straightforward group shot of three of the protagonists mentioned in the article, on a very grey street. Could probably do with more people clustering around.

Whilst not the most inventive of the images shown, this image was one of the first times I used brush textures, so was a bit of a challenge in itself.