Stolen Designer Diary #2

First spotted as a mention on blue52's Web site in August 2003, Stolen is a stealth-based action game that's scheduled for release on the PC, the PlayStation 2, and the Xbox in March. Details of the game's storyline, which will see you assuming the role of a professional thief named Anya Romanov, are still being kept under wraps, but that doesn't prevent art director Jaid Mindang talking about Hollywood scriptwriters, pizza boxes, Dizzie Gillespie, and Stolen's art style in our second Stolen designer diary.

The Stolen Renaissance

By Jaid Mindang
Art Director, Blue52

Stolen's art style has been described as impeccable, consistent, economical, and dark.

I'm in charge of the art department, whether that's across several teams, as has been the case in our past, or just the one team, as we are currently. I was traditionally trained in animation, including drawn cell animation, Claymation, and puppet animation, although ironically, not computer animation. Little was I to know at the time that my career was to be more influenced by the time I spent pumping coins into the R-type cabinet in our student union bar than by the time I spent slaving over a light box or fashioning psychotic animals from clay. Animation would still be my discipline of choice, but for the fact that I've stepped aside to make way for the youngbloods on the team. That's what I tell everyone, and the fact that the last time I used a 3D package in anger was when 3D Studio R4 was current and ran in DOS has absolutely nothing to do with it. If you say otherwise, you're fired.

Well normally, of course, an art director would oversee the creation of a new and unique art style for the game and make sure that that style is adequately conveyed to the team creating the art assets. The art director would also police the creation of those assets with jackboots and a riding crop. Thankfully for me, most of that was well in hand by the time I got involved on the project, so for Stolen it was a "simple" case of trying to instill good working practices, such as regular art team meetings and documentary evidence of decisions made and problems solved, so that even during the development process we could learn from our own mistakes. I say "simple," but perhaps a more accurate turn of phrase would be "nigh on impossible." Nonetheless, the art style of the game is generally impeccable, consistent, and (eventually) even economical, in order to run on the PS2. I've even been inclined to ignore a few of the tackier touches, such as a row of portraits in one room with most of the art team's faces on them. It has been a fact of Stolen for a couple of years that I myself have been cast as one of the fat, lazy, doughnut-munching guards that you encounter initially. I'm sure this is in no small part due to the enjoyment this must continue to give the team when testing the combat system.

It's hard to believe that Stolen originally had a colorful cartoon look.

On Stolen, the art style has progressed in an unusual way since development started. Normally, the art style on a project develops as the team finds its feet and gets better at what it's doing as a cohesive unit. At blue52 we try to allow for that and factor it in. I don't believe it's realistic to expect a team to churn out its best stuff the first time, nor then would it be wise to restrict the team to delivering work only matching the quality of its first tentative efforts for the remaining duration of the project. However, that's never really actually been an issue with Stolen. Initially it started as quite a cartoony-looking game, with bright colors and hand-painted looking textures, then quickly underwent a renaissance once the design started taking shape and we realized that the target market would expect and appreciate a more realistic and immersive environment in order to maintain the sense of tension required for a stealth action game. However, since the demands on the underlying technology driving the real-time lighting and shadowing have been so high, the technology was a fair way behind the art production for some considerable time, giving the art team ample time to hone and refine the style of Stolen well in advance of our engine being able to deliver that look at a reasonable frame rate on a PS2.