Tetris 3D Platformer Pitch - Final Art

The second round of sketches from my previous post really resonated with the EA team, but they did notice that the tetrimino shapes had taken a little bit of a back seat to the Russian motifs. They asked us to see if we couldn't make they're presence a little more even. They definitely had a point. We needed to make sure that no matter where you looked in the game, it was obvious you were in a Tetris inspired world.

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 I love it when victories from early sketches make a come back. Tetris Snake!

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It's amazing how despite using the same template, the two sets of color ideations I got to create turned out so differently. We kept the same architecture and general shapes, but with just a color change and a few other element changes, we got something so much different. After working with a super limited palette (above) that was very beautiful and in my opinion much more Russian, we had to come up with something that felt like we were taking it in a substantially new direction, but with the same stuff. Above, we gave everything a very hard, edgy look that was supported by the limited color palette and a liberal use of black. Below, we introduced a lot of organic and verdant colors which made things feel a bit softer, although we didn't round the edges at all. We also squashed the castle a little in the wide shot and thickened up and simplified the fields of blocks. The winding river adds a lot of playfulness too. Naturally, the playful child-like character adds a lot more levity than the animal spirit character from above.

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I would have never seen this assignment coming when I first started at Brain Zoo nor would I expect to get one like this again soon. We had so much freedom and support from EA, it was great. They also gave us an inordinate amount of time to develop this stuff from what I'm used to, but the end results speak for themselves. I should also add that while I usually act as the sole art director, this time I worked very closely with the project lead, Tony Vasquez. He really pushed me to break away from typical genre conventions so that the Tetris elements didn't feel tacked on and kept reminding us to try the unexpected. Since the project was so blue sky, he also really helped me to refine my ideas so that it wasn't just a smorgasbord of concepts in each piece. Despite all the visual elements, you can see a clear destination in each piece. Congrats to all involved!