Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

C H A P T E R 3
A couple of points to keep in mind are, keep your textures tileable! Don’t have extreme areas of
contrast (some game engines create strobing or flickering anomalies from a distance in the game …
quite annoying and unattractive!). Maintain some reference conceptual art for the proper color palette
to help coordinate the 3-D lighting to come later. There are tons of little details. Just maintain the
basic principles of color theory and harmony.
TM: How much of a game’s visual style is controlled by texturing?
RS: Definitely 110 percent! Let me be clear … it’s in the lighting and textures.
TM: What mistakes have you seen made in producing texture work?
RS: Repeating patterns, strobing, textures that are too saturated, textures that have too little
contrast and look washed out, the overuse of canned textures from texture CDs and texture libraries.
There is nothing really wrong with using them, as long as you can modify them to acquire the desired
effect or look. I’ve seen the same textures used in a variety of games. The truly great ones always
have their own special textures created from scratch.
TM: How does texturing, lighting, and effects come together for you in a scene?
RS: No matter how good your textures are, if the lighting is not right, they will not have the effect
desired and you’ll have created a mediocre-looking game that will only be saved by the actual structure of
the game—the gameplay (how well the game flows, its storyline, and most important … the programming
of the game engine itself). Everyone knows that these days eye candy is more than half the battle.
TM: What three tips would you offer for improving your texturing skills?
RS: Master Photoshop! Pay attention to detail, no matter how seemingly insignificant (sometimes
the smallest of scratches or grime can sell your textures and pass them off for the real thing!). Of
course, you should always have plenty of reference books, photos, and paintings, etc. I recommend
Birn and Maestri’s Digital Lighting & Rendering. This is excellent resource material without having to
understand complicated rendering algorithms and advanced-level mathematics.
TM: What are some of the team production challenges in coordinating lighting, texturing, and
effects work?
RS: Well, to be frank, I’ve not had a really difficult challenge as far as the production, coordination,
and distribution of assets for games. It all boils down to having and giving the right support to your
fellow animators, texture artists, modelers, art director, and, yes, even the programmers are invaluable
to giving you vital information, suggestions, and insight as to what can and can’t work to sell an effect
or shot in any game. Communication is vital in a team environment. Regular creative and troubleshooting
meetings are essential to maintaining the overall vision of the game—keeping it alive and
fresh, solving any glitches or issues that need to be addressed. It is during these meetings that some
of the best (and sometimes wackiest) ideas come to fruition. It’s a collective effort; that’s how great
games are made.
TM: How do you develop as an artist while working towards building games?
RS: You really can’t help but to develop and grow as an artist while working on a project. The daily
tasks and challenges that arise as you encounter artistic dead-ends will force you to reach for answers,
find solutions, to be creative and develop so-called visual cheats to make an effect work, or to sell a
shot—to give the textures or lighting the right effect. All these things allow you to grow as an artist
and as a creative individual.
TM: What specific art skills help you most in your work?
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Lighting, Texturing, Particles, Effects, and Audio