Jen Zee
| Jen Zee | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 💼 Occupation | Artist |
| Known for | Art director for Supergiant Games |
Jen Zee is an American artist and the art director for Supergiant Games. She joined Supergiant Games in March 2010 as a contractor on Bastion and was quickly brought on as the full time art director for the company. Her art has received positive accolades from critics, and for her work on Hades, she received numerous awards, including the 2020 BAFTA Games Award for Artistic Achievement.
Career
Early work at Supergiant Games
Zee was inspired to become an artist by Tetsuya Nomura's character art for Final Fantasy VII at an early age.[1] Before moving to work at Supergiant Games, Zee worked for Gaia Online in her first job and made isometric environmental designs.[1][2] She joined Supergiant in March 2010 as the company's third employee, initially as a temporary contractor, to work on Supergiant's first game, Bastion.[1][3] After seeing Zee's work where she drew "The Bastion" for the game, the two co-founders at Supergiant immediately asked her to join the project full time.[1] Zee later called it "serendipitous" as she was considering a career change anyways, and took the position as Supergiant's art director.[1] Her artwork for Bastion often went straight into the game, and she later described the work as "super empowering" because of the ownership she was given.[1] Reviews for Bastion repeatedly praised the game's striking visuals.[4][5][6] GameRant's Andrew Dyce said, "The hand-painted artwork of Jen Zee certainly doesn't disappoint, breathing into the game a style that may immediately conjure up images of a childhood fairy tale."[4]
Zee described her work on Supergiant's next game, Transistor, as a love-letter to William Waterhouse and Gustav Klimt along with other classical work, while intentionally eschewing Cyberpunk aesthetics despite the game's storyline and content.[7] Her work on designing the main character Red took time and coordination with the story team, which landed on having Red's companion be a sentient sword.[7] Again, critical reception praised the game's visuals.[8][9] The Mary Sue's Becky Chambers singled out Zee and the game's composer Darren Korb, saying, "Art director Jen Zee and composer Darren Korb deserve heaps of praise for the world they conjured here."[10]
For SuperGiant's third game, Pyre, Zee noted that was inspired by pen-and-ink artists at the time of the game, but wasn't able to incorporate them into the design.[11] Zee noted that they were "sick of doing worlds where there was only one person" in the inspiration for her work on the game.[12] Reviews again reacted positively to Pyre's art, and in an article for Gamasutra, Cherish Socro called Zee "one of the major stars of the company" when describing Pyre.[13][14][15]
Hades
In her artwork for Hades, Zee said she was inspired by the work of Mike Mignola and Fred Taylor, a 19th century poster artist.[11] With a larger team than she previously had on earlier games, Zee oversaw the artistic concept for the game, along with its character and environmental designs, while members of her team handled other pieces.[11] They originally made the game with a painterly aesthetic, but changed to a pen-and-ink look after the narrative changed in post-production.[11] The Guardian's Keza MacDonald noted that "social media has gone mad" for Zee's character portraits which he described as "beautiful."[16] Game Designer Greg Kasavin said that the reason the characters in the game were so attractive in the game was "Because Jen Zee" and credited Zee's respect for the classical tradition as being key to honoring the source material and the expression of Zee as an artist.[17]
On top of the awards that the game itself has garnered, Zee has been nominated for and received numerous accolades for her own work on the game. Zee received the 2020 BAFTA Games Award for Artistic Achievement for the work of her and her art team.[18][19] At the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, Zee was nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction" and received awards in four other categories where she was specifically credited as part of the larger development team, including for Best Game.[20]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Wallace, Kimberley (2023-04-16). "The Story Behind Supergiant Games' Bastion". Game Informer. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Jayne, Jeremy (2023-12-19). The Making of Bastion – Documentary (Documentary). Noclip. Event occurs at 11:13. Retrieved 2023-03-16 – via YouTube.
- ↑ Sarkar, Samit (2012-04-13). "A 4-week-old Bastion looked ugly but played beautifully". Destructoid. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Dyce, Andrew (2011-07-20). "'Bastion' Review". Game Rant. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Miller, Greg (2011-08-22). "Bastion Review". IGN. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ McGee, Maxwell (2011-07-19). "Bastion Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Hansen, Steven (2014-05-22). "Transistor's sword was a briefcase at one point". Destructoid. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Sliva, Marty (2014-05-20). "Transistor Review". IGN. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Donlan, Christian (2014-05-20). "Transistor review". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Chambers, Becky (2014-05-23). "Video Game Review: Transistor Supergiant Games". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 MCV Editors (2021-06-09). "Behind the art of Hades: "We value artistic integrity and excellence in artistic craft at Supergiant, however we're first and foremost a game design-led team."". MCV. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Wallace, Kimberley (2021-04-30). "The Story Behind Supergiant Games' Pyre". Game Informer. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Socro, Cherish (2017-12-21). "A Detailed Look into Pyre". Game Developer. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Hafer, Leana (2017-07-25). "Pyre Review". IGN. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Khaw, Cassandra (2017-07-24). "Pyre review". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ MacDonald, Keza (2020-10-01). "Hades review: a sexy, scintillating sojourn in the Greek underworld". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Parrish, Ash (2020-10-01). "Why Everyone's Horny For Hades". Kotaku. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ "Hades - Artistic Achievement". BAFTA. 2021-03-02. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Rosario, Alexandra Del (2021-03-25). "BAFTA Games Awards: Supergiant Games' 'Hades' Takes Home Top Prize – Complete Winners List". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
- ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2021-04-22). "Hades wins Game of the Year at DICE Awards 2021". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
External links
This article "Jen Zee" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Jen Zee. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
|
This page exists already on Wikipedia. |
