Project under NDA.
The following case covers only my responsibilities within the project production.
As a Game Art Producer working on a AA title with an art style akin to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, I oversee a multidisciplinary art team of 13 talented individuals, including concept artists, 3D artists, animators, and VFX artists. The project has been in development for 14 months, with an average of 1,500 hours worked by the team per month, and we use tools such as Jira, Shotgrid, Miro, and Slack to manage and streamline our workflow.
Team and Workflow Management
My role involves managing the entire art production pipeline, ensuring that assets for landscapes, external environments, and characters are developed in line with the project’s creative vision. I coordinate between different teams to manage the art backlog, ensuring each deliverable is on track, and I communicate frequently with the client to maintain satisfaction and expectations.
Tools & Software:
Jira: Used to manage our sprints and backlog, track task progress, and ensure deadlines are met across all teams.
Shotgrid: Helps track individual asset creation, from initial concept to final implementation, while maintaining version control.
Miro: We use Miro to brainstorm, visualize complex pipelines, and collaborate on creative decisions.
Slack: Critical for daily communications, maintaining transparency, and ensuring quick turnarounds for client feedback.
Art Pipelines
Concept Art: This phase involves close collaboration between our concept artists and the design team to ensure that the visual direction aligns with both the game’s style and the client’s expectations. Our key challenge here was nailing the balance between realism and the playful, cartoon-like essence of our world. Ensuring cohesion between concept iterations required strong communication and detailed feedback sessions.
3D Modeling & Texturing: The 3D team works to translate the 2D concepts into optimized game-ready assets. Working within the constraints of a mobile-first art style, we focus heavily on polygon counts, LOD (Level of Detail) adjustments, and texture optimization. One challenge we faced early on was ensuring that assets remained visually appealing across multiple devices without sacrificing performance.
Animation: The animation pipeline focuses on character and environmental animations, ensuring that movement feels organic and fits the playful tone of the game. Implementing smooth transitions and complex animations for characters presented some technical hurdles, especially within the constraints of the game engine.
VFX: This team enhances the user experience with environmental effects, particle systems, and other visuals that add depth to the game world. A major challenge here was ensuring that the VFX didn’t overload mobile device performance, requiring us to optimize effects without losing their visual impact.
Financial and Client Management
As part of my responsibilities, I also handle the financial side of the project, tracking budgets, allocating resources, and ensuring that we remain within financial constraints. This part of my job often requires balancing creative ambitions with practical limitations, something I discuss with both the team and the client regularly.
I’ve learned to navigate complex conversations with the client about scope adjustments and budget reallocation. I also produce detailed reports on progress, budget allocation, and resource planning to provide transparency and maintain trust with the client.
Challenges & Key Learnings
Some of the challenges we’ve faced include:
Balancing creative ambition with technical and financial limitations.
Maintaining clear communication and alignment across various disciplines and teams.
Managing tricky conversations with the client regarding scope and deliverable adjustments, while ensuring client satisfaction remains a priority.
This project is still under NDA, but it’s one I’m incredibly proud to be part of. It has taught me the value of adaptability, how to manage a high volume of tasks across different disciplines, and how to maintain a cohesive vision across teams while working under tight deadlines.
This project has been a transformative experience. The combination of creative, technical, and financial challenges has allowed me to grow in handling multiple complex pipelines and managing a diverse group of artists, software, and stakeholders. While I can’t reveal all the details due to the NDA, this journey has been a major milestone in my career, teaching me invaluable lessons in game production, team collaboration, and client relations.