Almost every evening here on Kotaku, I run a feature called “Fine Art”. It is, as the tagline says, “a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios.” This post in particular, though, is going to attempt the impossible, and try and pick out a few pieces I think were the best for 2014.
Rounding up work like this in a “year in review” style is tough for concept art, though, because it’s a tricky field. The best pieces being drawn right now are for games that won’t be out for years. We likely won’t see them until then, either.
So I’ll settle for the same compromise I did last year: below you’ll find the best art for games that were released in 2014. The art wasn’t drawn in 2014, but hey, we’ve gotta draw the line somewhere.
I’ll focus on one piece from each game. If you really must know which game was my “favourite” in terms of art, though, it was Destiny. I mean, just look at this stuff.
DESTINY by Jesse van Dijk
Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios.
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10 responses to “The Best Video Game Concept Art Of 2014*”
Since it looks as though the system has dropped a bunch of the titles, the names and games (as copy-pasted from the US site) are:
DESTINY by Jesse van Dijk, SUNSET OVERDRIVE by Julien Renoult, THE BANNER SAGA by Arnie Jorgensen, FAR CRY 4 by Donglu Yu, ASSASSINS CREED UNITY by Gilles Beloeil, THE LAST OF US: LEFT BEHIND by John Sweeney, DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION by Matt Rhodes, BAYONETTA 2 by Mari Shimazaki, ALIEN ISOLATION by Callum Alexander Watt, TITANFALL by Tu Bui, THIEF by Mathieu Latour-Duhaime.
Destiny concept art makes me sad.
Absolutely. It’s a reminder of what could have been. I want to play that game! The game based on that concept art, not what we got. The art screams “EPIC FANTASY SPACE OPERA!!!”, the game whimpers “loot cave bro”. (Assuming that’s what you meant :P)
Yes, that’s what I meant. The concept art looks like they found a stash of unpublished Ralph McQuarrie SF art for Star Wars and similar.
I still have a bunch of concept art backgrounds on my phone from pre-launch hype days.
It’s really, really pretty. And it hints at something just so much… more.
I want that game.
GOD it just makes me want to grab a bunch of those devs and sit in them in a giant imax theatre and play them Destiny’s epic score along side these rich, stark, lush, vivid, haunting vistas… then finish up with a twenty second clip of some dudebros nattering at each other through in-game chat while getting murdered by a pack of wizards in one of the moon temples, full of LOL and respawning and dancing, with a final couple seconds clip of their latest ad, with that fucking inane hunter. Show the fuckers what they have done.
Agreed almost completely. Your description is missing the ghostly hologram of Paul McCartney.
Gee wizz that Destiny art is something special. Sigh.
That DA:I concept art is really out of place. Looks like something off of deviantart.
I kinda love it. When you know the characters involved, it’s very… descriptive, and apt.
I’ve played DA:I, I just don’t think the style is very good.