Stuart Ng is a concept artist at United Front Games.
I sat down with Stuart Ng, a local concept artist currently working at United Front Games in Vancouver. Ng has been a part of some major titles released over the years, and has some wisdom to share from his experiences.
Danielle HimbeaultHow would you describe your job to someone from outside the industry?
Stuart Ng: My job’s title is “concept artist.” I’m responsible for helping the art director, game director, designers, etc. visualize and design the art assets and experience by putting those ideas into an image or series of images. The art and design production team can take those concept images and then build the game experience around them.
DH: How long have you known you wanted to make art for a career? And when did you decide that video games were the route for you?
SN: Coincidentally, I’ve known I wanted to make art a career, and make video games since I was a kid that started to play his own Nintendo Entertainment System. As video games started to become more story oriented, I’ve become more and more convinced that video games could be a deep and meaningful medium.
DH: Can you describe the path that brought you to where you are now in your career?
SN: I started in web design, worked in that for a couple of years. But then I started my own mod for Starcraft called “Gundam Century,” which garnered a lot of interest in me as an artist and potential game developer. I started working freelance in comics as a colorist working on titles like Warlands: Age of Ice, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Transformers, Xmen, Fantastic Four, Cannon Busters, and a bunch more.
Soon after, I started at Threewave Software, a recently incorporated company that was responsible for “Capture The Flag” in Quake. They focused on developing multiplayer modes and content with other companies and publishers. This was my first real concept artist job and I got to work on both Army of Two games, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, the 2009 version of Wolfenstein, etc. I’m now at United Front Games having worked on Sleeping Dogs and Little Big Planet: Karting.
A sample of Stuart’s art from the game Sleeping Dogs. Copyright United Front Games / Square Enix
DH: What is your favorite project you’ve worked on so far, and what would be your dream project?
SN: I think one of my favorite projects is Ghostbusters: The Video Game mainly ‘cause I’m such a huge fan of Ghostbusters. I’m the most proud of the project I recently worked on because I find I’m always improving and discovering new things about art and video game development on the newest project I’m on. I think I have too many dream projects because I have so many things I want to do. However, if Guillerimo del Toro called me and asked me to work on Pacific Rim 2, I would drop everything else for that chance.
DH: How do you feel the video game industry has changed over the last few years? How do you think it could improve?
SN: The video game industry has changed fundamentally in so many different ways, one could write a very large book on it. But I think the two big ways that it has affected the industry is: 1. Who’s buying video games, and 2. How we play them. There’s so many different ways to play games in so many different places in so many different ways. The variety of people who plays games has really expanded, and therefore, lots of people who are investing in funding video game development are starting to put money in projects that we might not have previously seen before. ‘Cause of that, there’s a huge shift in what people perceive to be the “big money.”
I think the industry and its consumers has a lot of growing space, but I think the thing that people in general have to realize about video games is that there’s something for everybody. I don’t think there’s going to be one single type of video game genre or medium or platform that will dominate over everything else. People are fundamentally different, and they all want different things from their entertainment. I think there’s room for video games that appeal to niche audiences, and other video games which have broad appeal.
DH: Are you where you want to be, or do you have any plans for a future career change?
SN: I’m making video games, making art and making money while doing it. I’m a happy guy. Any future career changes will be dependent on whatever happens next.
