Cadenza Interactive - Creative Lead, Lead Environmental/Level Artist
Retrovirus is a six degrees of freedom shooter which sends players into the depths of a computer on a search and destroy mission against an invasive virus.
March 2010 - Launch January 31, 2013 on Steam, Gamestop, Desura, Amazon, Humble Store
RetrovirusGame.com OR Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/227800
RetrovirusGame.com OR Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/227800
World Building and Level Design Responsibilities
- Personally responsible for the bulk (95%+) of the environmental artwork and digital asset development
- 3D models/props, initial rigging & animations, and materials development.
- Blocked out initial level layouts & environments (campaign and multiplayer)
- Setup scene compositions, applied geometry, placed props, setup lighting, and created particle effects.
- Responsible for matching final game aesthetics (style, mood, lighting, atmosphere) to concept artwork.
- Performed level optimizations that contributed directly to performance gains.
Artwork Responsibilities
Environmental Artwork
- Personally responsible for the bulk (95%+) of the environmental artwork and digital asset development
- 3D models/props, initial rigging & animations, and materials development.
- Developed all environmental prop 'surfaces' and assets used to theme the 8-12 hour campaign/multiplayer
- 10 unique environments ranging from the Green Hills of the user's Desktop to the blue BIOS caverns.
- Collaborated with creative team to ensure a cohesive vision and professional presentation for all assets.
- Developed and optimized the majority of particle effects.
- Shipped assets on time over the course of the production schedule.
- Hosted weekly art and technical asset reviews.
- Managed all environmental, level, particle, and material/ texture assets using subversion/source control.
- Assisted integrating animations, models and other assets into our projects and toolsets.
- Hosted monthly game design meetings, observed testing sessions and performed analysis of feedback.
- Managed/prioritized art related bug lists.
- Implemented actionable next-steps for integrating art related suggestions, critiques, community feedback
- Helped identify, hire and mentor new artists in the Retrovirus art style.
Art Development Pipeline
- Worked with programmers to streamline digital content workflows using our in-house toolset
- Familiar with the dynamics of working collaboratively and iteratively using the SCRUM process
- Worked in support of programmers who implemented tools needed to optimize the art workflow.
- Actively suggested tool enhancements and improvements for our toolset.
Texture & Materials Development
- Developed hundreds of material textures for environmental use.
- Generated texture maps from high-poly source content.
- Developed UI/Menu texture assets.
Character & Enemies
- Designed and created all friendly and corrupted bots
- Generated all retopologized character assets.
- UV mapped all character assets and developed textures for each using Mudbox & Photoshop. (Diffuse, Normal, AO, Emissive, Height, Specular)
Cinematic & Video Responsibilities
- Developed all Cinematic, Paragon Editor Series Videos, and game Release Trailers
Additional Responsibilities
- Developed assets used for marketing/promotions, business documents/presentations
- Developed Steam assets (storefront, promotions, trading cards,etc)
- Produced, recorded and edited the YouTube Retrovirus Editor Series & Retrovirus Trailer.
- Generated the Retrovirus editor wiki documentation for Steam Workshop
- Actively engaged in project specific forums providing help to the community.