The artistic design of Edmund McMillen
Edmund McMillen is the creator of the critically acclaimed super meat boy (10/10 on steam), the binding of Isaac, gish, aether and the end is nigh just to name a few.
originally starting out as a simple flash game creator on newgrounds, Edmund’s unique sense of both artistic and game design, worldless story telling and his love for experimenting with different styles of game-play (most if not all of his individual games have unique game-play mechanics) have captivated many a gamer, including myself. personally i think the way his games play and feel and have a fair sense of integrated, organic difficulty is really something to be admired and learnt from what id really like to talk about is how he managed to turn the drawings hes been doing for almost all his life into a playable form of media, the example ill be using is the binding of Isaac.
Binding of Isaac was one of the first games of Edmund’s i ever saw and as a 16 year old it horrified but intrigued me, what with a common theme in his art being to mix revulsion with a crude kind of cuteness in all of the character designs. his simple but effective designs and gruesome colour pallets and textures translate well into the selected art direction of pixel art mixed with soft, digital art backgrounds, this of course being from Binding of Isaac: rebirth because the original featured digitally drawn sprites, although i slightly prefer those sprites his art skill in rebirth had vastly improved since the original, McMillen also has a brilliant sense of symbolism in that every enemy has a history and direct reference to something like childbirth or old testament biblical jargon etc.
to outline it i love Edmund’s work because of how much painstaking effort and attention he puts in to designing characters and environments and translating them into games effectively, myself being a tradition artist i strongly aspire to design unique games featuring all my original character and world designs and id certainly love to make games like that some day.
Indie games currently in development i’m hopeful for
Praey for the Gods
Praey for the gods is a shadow of the colossus inspired game title set to release in 2018 for PS4, Xbox one, Steam and Android that was funded by kickstarter and developed in Unity by No Matter studios. its an action-adventure game featuring survival game mechanics wherein you as a lone warrior must uncover the mystery behind a never ending winter whilst trying to survive in a harsh, desolate environment and killing the gigantic, hostile creatures that live out on the bleak frozen island. they have a solid idea, a good art direction and are taking inspiration form a team ICO classic so this game if produced and put together well could really be something very special.
Fe
Fe is another upcoming game set for 2018, wherein you play as a small fox like creature trying to maintain balance of its forest home. the game itself centres around interaction with nature, exploration and stealth in a world packed with secrets and wonder as you try to reclaim the forest from ‘the silent ones’ strange alien-like beings that are disrupting the balance of nature all packaged in a stunningly beautiful art style and utilising a 3D platformer like control scheme. athough its being published by EA i really hope that Zoink (the developers of the game) pull together a wonderful experience somewhat reminiscent of the very well received Ori and the blind forest.
Bibliography
-Swirsky, J. and Pajot, L. (2017).A still image of edmund from indie game: the movie. [image] Available at: http://img7.gram.pl/thumb/20130213112058.jpg [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
–Indie game: the movie. (2017). [film] Directed by J. Swirsky and L. Pajot. Canada: Blinkworks.
– Newgrounds.com. (2017). Bluebaby. [online] Available at: https://bluebaby.newgrounds.com/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
-McMillen, E. (2017). The Binding of Isaac Artbook. [online] The Binding of Isaac Wiki. Available at: http://bindingofisaac.wikia.com/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Artbook [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
-Praeyforthegods.com. (2017). Praey for the Gods. [online] Available at: http://www.praeyforthegods.com/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
-No Matter Studios (2017). A screenshot from Praey forthe Gods’ reveal trailer. [image] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzDl2THyF4w [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
-The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Wiki. (2017). Gurdy. [online] Available at: http://the-boi-rebirth.wikia.com/wiki/Gurdy#Gallery [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
-Zoink (2017). Production image of Fe. [image] Available at: http://www.zam.com/article/648/whats-going-on-with-ea-originals-and-fe [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
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