Simon Wood at BAFTA
Not strictly Mac-related, but I was invited to the BAFTA Games “Production Design Masterclass” last night. The talk was given by Simon Wood of Team Bondi, production designer for L. A. Noire. He covered various topics, from his own background and philosophy of the work he does, to the balance between spending time creating something versus ensuring it gets seen, and touches briefly on things like having to pander to executives (for example, having to create new costumes for the lead character at the last minute), and to the medium itself (such as having to place everything in a room far back from the door to allow for what the camera can see as opposed to what the character can see), as well as the limitations of developing for consoles.
Some pertinent quotes:
Everything in a game’s environment should be justified. From furniture to mountains, everything should be there for a reason.
The guy who hires creatives has seen almost everything – to get a job, be original and persistent.
All in all, it was a fascinating tour through recreating Los Angeles of the 1940s, as well as the production of a mainstream game, and hopefully BAFTA Games will continue organising events like this.
I’ve posted the audio below, unfortunately you won’t be able to see the numerous visual (and at times, hilarious) material presented (and the audio is less than stellar, but for some reason BAFTA Themselves didn’t appear to record the event), but at least you’ll be able to hear the speech (and following Q&A) in its entirety.