For et par år siden tog vi alle en tur tilbage til Ron Gilberts berømte Monkey Island-serie for et nyt kapitel i historien kaldet Return to Monkey Island. Den titel blev godt modtaget, og spørgsmålet er nu, om vi skal vente yderligere 20 år på det næste spil.
Som en del af vores dækning af BCN Game Fest fangede vi kunstneren Zoe Nguyen for at tale om hendes tid med at arbejde på Return to Monkey Island under ledelse af art director Rex Crowle.
"On Return to Monkey Island, I was a game artist and Rex Crowle was the art director," forklarede hun. "That for me was an amazing experience because Rex is a really good art director and a really nice person to work with. So for me, I feel like working on that project was honestly everything that I wanted. It was everything that I had hoped for in the sense that Rex had a clear idea of what he wanted to do and a really good art bible. And so the art team could really put in more of their ideas knowing that we were all working under the same umbrella. We all speak the same language visually. And so we can basically make proposals that are more bold because we know we're not going to propose something that's completely out of scope. And especially because we were all working remotely, we only met each other once the project was released or announced, because it was also during COVID. We didn't get to meet at all. And that was really important. I really give a lot of credit to Rex and his art bible for bringing the art team together and giving us the option to think of what's going to be the fun thing instead of what's going to be the right thing."
Vi spurgte også Nguyen, om hun nogensinde ville vende tilbage til Monkey Island-serien, hvilket hun fortalte os.
"I think that the island gave us what it wanted to give us. I mean, I'm always happy to replay those games and dive back into Ron Gilbert's universe. But I mean, if I could, I would."
Ud over dette har Nguyen også erfaring med at arbejde hos Tequila Works på Rime og The Sexy Brutale. Vi spurgte hende om, hvordan det var at bringe de to indie-perler til live.
"For sure. I mean, Tequila Works is where I realised I wanted to be an art director. I really grew so much in that company. And they were a very art-driven company. So I found that, for me, the process of working on the games like Rime, like The Sexy Brutale, it really taught me how to think of style and language, how to teach a player through visuals how the world works, and also how valuable it is to include references and people from outside of the games industry to bring something fresh to the visuals."
Du kan se hele (og undertekstede) interview med Nguyen nedenfor for mere om forskelle i mobil- og pc/konsoludvikling, og hvordan hun går til værks for at skabe en Art Bible, som kreative teams kan stole på.
