Gamasutra, Larry Ahern, and Jenova Chen
One of the only visual arts sessions I ever went to at the Game Developer's Conference was one years ago given by Larry Ahern, the art lead on the Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3). He was great and explained that he chose 2D on purpose of 3D, that he undertook the herculean task of doing the line art for ALL the backgrounds in the entire game himself for consistency's sake, and that following the rules of classical composition guaranteed he would at least end up with things that "didn't totally suck."
And now, gamasutra interviewed Larry about his company. It sure sounds a lot like what Grassroots Gamemaster talks about. The people in Larry's circle are all contractors who come together for projects but don't all work in the same "factory." I'm getting used to the idea.
Meanwhile Jenova Chen is doing his own thing in this other interview. I will officially state that Jenova Chen has beaten me. He really is making things of his choosing, things that the rest of the industry isn't so good at making. Most of all, he really seems to lead a band of programmers and developers to implement his vision. Bravo, Jenova Chen.
--Sirlin


May 26th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I have an intense jealousy of people who can manage to work on games while I get to repair computers. Breaking into the industry while you live in Miami, FL: impossible.