Chris Hecker’s SpyParty is getting a host of new character art from former EA/Maxis senior artist John Cimino.
Cimino, who turned down a position at Zynga last year to work on Hecker’s game, has brought a more refined style to the characters, a crowd of bourgeois partygoers.
SpyParty is a two-player, psychologically-focused game, in which one player tried to disguise themselves amongst the NPCs and the other tries to snipe him or her—only getting one shot to do so.
Hecker, who plans for the final game to have between 20-30 characters with environments to suit the cast, praised the new art style, telling Joystiq,
“We really wanted the art style to reflect the same level of subtlety that the gameplay has. I didn't want it to be too realistic or too exaggerated, and I think we hit it on this really nice, call it naturalistic or illustrative – they look like illustrations. I'm super excited."
Hecker also told Kotaku that because SpyParty covers more mature subject matters, he wanted the art to reflect that, saying he didn’t want the cast to look like “space marines” but instead like “stylish people in normal clothes doing interesting, emotionally-intimate things like flirting with each other or having a drink and talking."
"Pulling the trigger is a big deal in my game, so it [the art] needs to be age-appropriate. And the gameplay itself in my game is more mature. It's more psychological. It's more about behavior. If the cast reflects that, then so be it,” he said
One item on the team’s to-do list will be changing the names of the characters from the ones currently held by the beta prototypes, to “show respect” for the new designs.
But the game still has a ways to go until completion. SpyParty’s team consists of two, and implementing a new animation system does not promise to be an easy task.
“Gameplay is by far the top priority," says Hecker. "If for whatever mystical reason I can't change the art at all without totally fucking up the gameplay, I will ship the current art," Hecker says. "I do not think that will be necessary though. I think that we can make a beautiful game both design-wise and visually."
In the meantime, the SpyParty beta costs $15 and will unlock the final game when it releases.
Via: Eurogamer
