It’s no secret that the art department here at Gods Unchained spends an enormous amount of time and energy producing top-quality art for the game. In this segment, Art Director, Christiaan Gerritsen, gives you an inside glance at the visual process our artists use to bring your cards to life. Today we’ll be showcasing BeastFury Shaman drawn by the incredible Yan Kyohara.
“Art for Gods Unchained is created following a developed process, which begins with the design team methodically deciding which new cards should be added to the game. The decision for adding a new card is complex, and must fit the set in balanced and complementary ways. Once the game team finalizes the spec for a new card, I begin working on the art.
My job as Art Director is to lead the artistic process to ensure that: 1) cards reflect the properties assigned to them by design, and 2) cards compliment the lore and style of the game.
My job as Art Director is to lead the artistic process to ensure that: 1) cards reflect the properties assigned to them by design, and 2) cards compliment the lore and style of the game.
I start by coming up with a working name and short ‘brief’ that describes the art. After finalizing the prompt, I’ll assign the card to one of our artists based on their various strengths and styles. I handpick the exact artist I know will be able to nail that specific card design.
Upon receiving the brief, the artist will go ahead and start sketching and painting. From there it’s a back and forth process between artist and director. At this stage, my role is to provide feedback and advice to ensure the artwork is going to convey the intended vision. After some time of going back and forth, the artwork is finalized. At this point, the artist arranges it in the card frame and sends me the final cropped version for the game along with an uncropped version for our records.
BeastFury Shaman started out as a spell, but changed to a creature throughout the design process. The brief I gave Yan Kyohara was: “a druid warrior with a burning spectral green panther head snarling behind him. Green jungle background.”
Christiaan Gerritsen
Yan describes his own process working on the card:
“When conceiving the Beastfury Shaman card, I tried to bring more personality to the common tropes around the theme. I did some sketches to explore the possible features for the character and ended up with a more easygoing, young and funny kind of Shaman, which is my personal twist for the trope. It was a pleasure working on this card for Fuel Games!”
Yan Kyohara
Here are the sketches he used to narrow in on the final product:
There’s even an alternate universe where BeastFury Shaman has a cape! The hero we needed, but not the one we deserved…
We were blown away with how this card turned out, and can’t wait to share progress pics of other cards with you.
Yan Kyohar’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yankyohara/?hl=pt-br