Declan Downs

When people talk about video games, there’s one aspect that will always go unnoticed that’s been becoming less and less relevant to the discussion of a game’s development, or in many cases, taken for granted, and that is concept art. Concept art is the work created to help design, develop and finalize locations, props, visual styles and characters for developers to use in the process of game development. Something as small as a plant will go through many variations, and after 10 ideas are sketched out and designed, only one will be further developed. It's easy to take for granted the talent and effort put into a game’s identity, especially when the work is never exposed to outside eyes. However, in some cases, that work does get the spotlight it deserves, and in turn, can inspire a player to pick up a pencil or stylus, and design their own worlds. That’s the topic of today’s blog, because we’ll be going over the galleries and artbooks featured in several titles across the Sonic s...

One of the most special aspects of SEGA, throughout the companies history is the wealth of talent, across their games, Sonic, Yakuza, Virtua Fighter, Outrun, Shenmue, Panzer Dragoon, Ristar, and much more, which as birthed generations of talent that have gone on to create their own legacy. For example, Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Mizuguchi was a employee of SEGA from 1990 to 2003, and was the head of one of SEGA’s most experimental studios, Untitled Game Artists, which were behind titles like Rez and Space Channel 5. Once the studio closed and merged with Sonic Team in 2003, Mizuguchi left SEGA and created his own studio with another employee, Q Entertainment. Q Entertainment would create a few titles, like Lumines, Meteos, Every Extend Extra, Ninety-Nine Nights, Child Of Eden and more. He would later leave Q Entertainment and founded Enhance, which would create Tetris Effect. This is one of many examples, but you get the idea. Now, imagine that idea of nurturing talent with the ability to ba...