Sleeping Dogs
3rd Person Action Open World Game
Responsible for primarily environment concept art, I helped visualize this game’s backdrop; the city of Hong Kong. Focusing on capturing a characterized version of the very celebrated city in Hong Kong action cinema films of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, I combined my childhood experiences with the team’s love of that genre of film. Considerations to authenticity, believability, and true to the culture of Hong Kong, I created the numerous visually contrasting areas of the city.
From the crowded and claustrophobic streets and alleyways of North Point to the shimmering skyscrapers of Central, I worked simultaneously on critical story moments catering to specific game and level design needs, but also on general open world areas specific to purely gameplay mechanics. I also worked closely with a small strike team spearheading the game’s opening experience; a blended combination of in-game cinematics, introduction to the game’s primary game mechanics, and establishing the game’s core motivation for the central characters.
“Welcome To Hong Kong”
Creating the Opening Mission
Storyboarding Opening Cinematic
Working with the Art Director, Writers, and Lead Mission Designer, I storyboarded the opening NIS cinematic to intro the game’s tone, references and inspirations, hit the right story beats, and tutorializing the initial core game mechanics. I created an animatic, working with audio designers to stub in voice acting, music, and ambience to help build ideas, and also plan the rest of the production of the NIS in an effective and cost efficient way.
Concepting Key Moments
The mission focused on key moments featuring the initial core mechanics of; running/movement, parkour of climbing and jumping, I designed presentation around these elements in unique ways not found in the rest of the game. Making sure to emphasize the game’s cinematic inspirations, and working with the environment artists, we found ways to achieve the visuals we were looking for with the engine’s and hardware limitations.
Planning Mission Flow
Working with the Lead Mission Designer, we made sure that the linearity of the level block out did not limit the imagination of the player in what they saw beyond the collision boundaries. Additionally, understanding the pacing and timing of each key event in the mission helped plan where to introduce twists and turns, as well as verticality to help with line of sight, bespoke cinematic cameras, and subsequently the mission’s climax and ending.
“Stuart is one of the very few concept artists that has a very unique passion for games and game design. He has great sensibilities when it comes down to what games are, their target audience and acceptance of the fact that not all games will satisfy the needs of all players. Because of that I relied on him to exchange design ideas and evaluate the design decisions of the project. Over the past couple of years I've seen Stuart grow as a concept artist, from what I thought was a really good one, to an exceptionally talented one instead. He has demonstrated his abilities to share his work ethics and knowledge with his peers, making him a great asset to have in any art team. I can only say that I hope to have the pleasure of working with him again in the future.”
Raul Figueroa Cruz
Design Director at Microsoft/The Coalition
(Worked together on Sleeping Dogs)