Beta 2 Game Dev Saga - Processes and challenges of a Brazilian Game Development Studio

Part 3) A Pixel Art Zoom Out

“Most of the time, I don’t know what I’m doing,” says Bruno Perazzelli, our 2D and pixel artist right before a burst of laughter.

Do you know when people say we should often take one or two steps back to get a gist of the complete picture?

(Try to guess what part of the bigger picture you'll see farther down in this article).

For our 2D and pixel artist, that’s exactly his routine.

Like life itself, most of the time we are not able to get a real view of the macro, of what’s going on in its entirety.

For example, Bruno majored as a graphic designer. Then, he went for a master’s degree in the products field.

“I majored and after that had my master’s degree, but I never really found my way in the area I studied and dedicated so much time. I was stuck between jobs. I even worked with woodworking for a while, an area that I really like too.

“But, when I was doing my Master’s degree, I went to Porto Alegre (the capital of Rio Grande do Sul state), for a conference and stayed at Gustavo’s.

Gustavo is our tech artist. He will appear here soon.

“At that time, Gustavo used to work with The Boss. They worked for an animation studio there and invited me to hang around their neighborhood.

“I think that after they quit the studio, there was this game jam and they invited me to tag along. I guess we all just clicked.

“Then The Boss saw I could make pixel art. We did two or three more jams and that’s how I started in the game industry.

It is very common here in Brazil for artists to have these meandrous paths in their work life.

When we get to college, we use to try to go for an undergraduate degree that balances what we love with that illusion of something more concrete as a career. Which can usually end up going wrong. Or right, if you look to the bigger picture.

I asked him what the work was like in fact. What were the challenges he faced and all.

“I think my creation process is similar to yours.

“I joined Beta 2 in the middle of a project that already had its own art style set.

“It was weird in the beginning. I didn’t know how far I could go, or even if this ‘far’ I got was far enough, you know? I suppose I was lucky because in the beginning I had only to make a room for this scenario that already existed.

“I went slow, copying some parts, some small assets, and pasting it all together. Then I felt I could make something of my own.

“However, The Boss always encourages me to create. I just needed to find a comfortable spot inside this pre-defined art style.

This part led to the cabin I showed in the first article:

(By the way, that first blob of pixels is part of this one here).

I asked him about the process behind this scenario and this was his reply:

“I started with your text, then The Boss gave me some directions.

“I remember you and I talked about it too. You highlighted the fireplace and the deer’s head.

“Also, this hunting cabin is the character’s safe place, but since his passing, it was kind of abandoned by his son, who’s one of our protagonists, Edgar.

I told him his art had much more details than I had depicted on the text. No such pelts or portraits on the walls, especially because the text would be too long if I had written it.

“Well, that’s part of the teamwork, I guess. Everybody that touches it, will leave a fingerprint on it.

“I did some visual research on old hunting cabins in the woods and thought about what could fit to the directions you guys gave me about this character. So, I placed there what I thought could be part of his history, you know?

“There’s a picture of him with the dead deer right beside the fireplace. Then I thought… This guy must’ve taken a picture of it besides having its head hanging on his cabin.”

I asked him about the composition of the scene and then he said it point blank:

“Most of the time, I don’t know what I’m doing lol.

“I mean, when making pixel art, everything is done very closely.

“The head, the pelt, the pictures, the skull, the shelves, the books, and all those utensils that I don’t even know the names… everything can get really abstract when you look closely, so usually I feel that I have no idea where the art is going, but then, zoom out, and that it is!"

“Zoom in for some correction and zoom out to see the whole picture again.”

Do you also wish you could do this in real life, or is it just me?

“But I guess the most important part of the process is how the interaction will be, you know?

“I mean, we have many factors in games. We have the characters, we have the objects to interact with in the scene, and, most importantly, we have workmates and the players.

“Am I giving too many details and creating some false anticipation? Or maybe the opposite?”

I asked why the workmates are so important.

“First of all, it is teamwork. We wouldn’t be here discussing the process if we were doing it by ourselves.

“We have to make our lives easier too, I mean, I was making a lot of uneven terrain in the scenarios, steps, a small ramp… but then, talking to Lucas 2, one of the developers, he said it was a huge load of work just to make the characters go naturally over those accidents.

“Also, it is really great, you know, to talk to you guys, hear you, and when you come to me, I listen as well… I feel I’m heard. And I think all the team feels it too.”

To wrap up, I asked him why pixel art, and not some other style we see around.

“What I like the most about pixel art is that the person can imagine what it really is. I mean, if you zoom in and really look at it, it’s just a bunch of little squared dots in different colors, but, despite that, you can create a picture in our head that sometimes is much more gruesome, or, beautiful, or much more detailed than it really is. It’s incredible.

“I think it’s much similar to your area, writing. You can leave a lot of room for the reader, or in my case the player, to create their own image of what you are presenting them with. You give an idea, the mood, and they fill in the rest.

“By the way, talking about moods, have you listened the soundtrack Eduardo made? I listened to it a lot while I was at those pixels. It puts me right in the mood for the game.”

We were talking for more than an hour, and, unfortunately, there were other tasks to attend, so we had to wrap up.

I’ll leave the soundtrack for another chapter of our Game Dev Saga.

By the way, that blob of pixels in the first picture of this article is a part of the Fireplace in the cabin, in case you haven't got it.

So, artists and devs out there, how does teamwork work for you? Would you be okay with someone pointing out changes in “your” work?

Pedro Porciúncula - Narrative Designer and Head of Marketing at Beta 2 Games