c.dangel.run

art direction on cruise control…

In isolation, the art direction tasks on Dungeon Siege were fairly light but given the number of tasks to juggle there was always plenty to do. In publishing you are typically covering multiple projects at the same time and I was reviewing artwork every day for Dungeon Siege, Asheron’s Call 2, Nightcaster, Psychonauts, Symphony of Light, the Raven and Rex project, and performing due diligence visits to multiple studios around the world. As our studio’s portfolio grew I eventually got to hire two assistant Art Directors, but I digress.



My main contribution to Dugeon Siege involved reviewing assets against the schedule to verify they were making progress while keeping the quality bar high. But I also provided specific critiques of the main characters (Farm Boy and Farm Girl) to Chris Taylor, reviewed marketing assets with MS marketing on a quarterly basis, gathered screenshots for ad construction on demand, brainstormed with their UI artist (John Gronquist) to bring more “life” to the interface, worked on their game map, and built an entire font based on the original Dungeon Siege logo-type. I even went so far as to create a .TTF for the display face.





release date: 2002

Incubating Greatness…

I spent about a year as the Creative Director on a small team positioned inside of Microsoft’s incubation group. Our charter was to seed some creative games, targeted at kids, that took advantage of the Windows operating system and the features unique to personal computers (i.e. hard drive + ubiquitous mouse and keyboard). I was in charge of art, sound, and game design on the two titles started. I was also responsible for pitching new IP for development…it was exciting and rewarding but ultimately the projects ran out of steam as it is simply very difficult to make a compelling business case for kids PC games.



Notes:
Novo in conjunction with Amaze Entertainment
Kooligans, codename Spanky, with Breakaway Games

outline my role as creative director
-coaching visuals to ensure cohesion and consistency
-reviewing gameplay systems to make sure games are easy to grasp and fun to play

the constant state of change

Lured by the charisma of Scott Wallin and Ron Gilbert (creator of Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and S.C.U.M), I left a fortune in Microsoft stock options to join the company that just released Total Annihilation. The game was a critical success, the studio was growing, and the opportunity looked to be fantastic.



Only hours after setting up office I found myself immersed deeply in conversations with Ron about where to take Total Annihilation and future Cavedog games on-line. I was so excited! I slid right in to a project called Boneyards and helped construct an interface around the Galactic War expansion for Total Annihilation. With the help of rookie artist/designer Brad Rebh we were able to design the entire interface in a couple weeks. I built this Macromedia Director prototype in about a week. (note: the file is an executable for windows only. We were not allowed to use rollovers so navigation may seem very quaint by today’s standards.)



The next project was TA: Kingdoms. I took a leadership role in designing the Darien Crusades, the persistent metagame for Kingdoms. I sketched out high-level objectives as well as interface design and worked closely with programmer David Satnik to refine the mechanics into an algorithm for determining contested spaces and escalating victory conditions. The idea was to move from the Galactic War’s point-node map to more of a Risk-like map and it was a challenge. As the interface needs for Boneyards were substantial I found myself taking on more and more of the main game interface to ensure consistency. I ended up making a lot of gold buttons for that game.


I also spearheaded the effort to re-balance the game for multiplayer. It was immediately clear that the single player balance, which worked very well for mission-based play, was easily exploited in multiplayer contests. With the help of two online-focused designers (JC Connors and Brandon Franklin) I worked through significant challenges to provide an even playing field for the four different sides. This effort carried through to the quickly released Iron Plague expansion for Kingdoms.


I worked on many other projects while at Cavedog. Some highlights: I wrote the gameplay pitch document for a Harry Potter game, assembled a production team to build the Humongous Family Entertainment Network, managed the sysop team for Boneyards and the Backyard Sports Network, designed the Boneyards website and gave the Cavedog website a face lift, I helped build some little flash applications for the Amen: the Awakening web site, and, lastly, I hold the dubious distinction of creating the last downloadable unit for Total Annihilation. Oh yea! Pretty sweet, huh?

a Before and After story…

One of the first projects I received upon my return to Microsoft was working with an external team to develop a game and build IP around what was originally an Xbox tech demo called “Two to Tango”. It featured a very butch girl named Raven and her pet robot, Rex.

Pipeworks, the developer, did a fine job of translating Rex into real-time friendly polygons but Raven still needed a make-over. The plan at the time was to make Raven a spokesmodel for Xbox so the tomboy-girl-next-door with a machine pistol wasn’t going to cut it.

We contracted Blur Studios to re-envision Raven into a cute but capable action heroine. We worked with four different concept artists on a variety of stylistic approaches and after several revisions ended up with a nice result. We maintained several of the original identifying marks but updated her look to play better for our intended audience. Unfortunately, the game never really got off the ground and the project got mothballed. So it goes.




Project Date: early 2001

The embedded flash file below is a high-level overview of my work from 1994-1999. It is intended to be narrated over as it contains a healthy mix of things I directed and things I created.

For a full-size version click on this link. It will open up in a new window.

corey dangel

corey@jellopolis.com | 425.881.1208

qualifications

15 years of game development experience, mostly in the role of Art Director. Strong leadership, motivation, and communication skills. Good critical eye. Good team player.

experience

Sony Online Entertainment : Bellevue, WA : 2005 – 2009

Art Director | the Agency. 2/05 – 5/09. Provided creative visual direction for critically anticipated multiplatform action MMO. Established the Agency IP from the ground up including: overall art style; locales and feature attractions; memorable heroes and villains; cool gadgets, traps, and weapons. Hired and managed a team of 45 artists producing thousands of assets. Developed marketing materials, acted as on-camera spokesman for the game, and pitched in where needed.

Microsoft Corporation : Redmond, WA : 2000 – 2005
Creative Director | Kids’ Games Studio. 3/04 – 2/05. Responsible for all creative elements of Microsoft’s kids’ games portfolio. Directed game design, story development, and art style on two simultaneous projects.

Art Director | Mythica. 11/01 – 2/04. Built and managed a team of 30 artists to create innovative action/fantasy MMO for Windows. Established art style; developed worlds, characters, creatures, lighting; developed marketing materials; coordinated outsourcing.

Lead Art Director | RAT Studio. 4/00 – 11/01. Supervised artistic direction for multiple PC and Xbox titles. Notable projects include: Dungeon Siege, Asheron’s Call 2, Psychonauts, and Tork. Managed two publishing art directors and one support artist. Performed due diligence on dozens of companies.

Humongous Entertainment : Bothell, WA : 1998 – 2000
Lead Online Producer | Humongous Entertainment. 11/99 – 2000. Directed development teams (artists, game designers, programmers, and sysops) on multiple projects. These include maintaining Backyard Sports Online, Boneyards for TA and TA: Kingdoms, and creating the development plan and designs for the Humongous Family Network, including a suite of family oriented games and a family-oriented MMO. Worked with Ron Gilbert on various game designs.

Art Project Manager | Cavedog. 10/98 – 11/99. Supervised and directed art, design, and online teams. Projects included Boneyards for Total Annihilation ’99, TA: Kingdoms, Boneyards for TA: Kingdoms, the Darien Crusades Metagame, multiplayer game balance for TA: Kingdoms and the Iron Plague, Cavedog website, and Flash micro-games.

Microsoft Corporation : Redmond, WA : 1994 – 1998
Art Director | NetGames Division. 1/96 – 10/98. Managed and directed design of Internet Gaming Zone (www.zone.com). Developed the Zone identity. Managed 8 employees. Shipped Zone 1.0 through Zone 4.0, card and board games, UltraCorps, FighterAce, Asheron’s Call, and Mind Aerobics with Alexey Pajitnov. Awarded US Patent #6102796.

Art Director | MS Games. 6/95 – 12/95. Managed and directed 20 artists across three divisions (Sports, Simulations, Action Arcade & Strategy). Projects included MS Soccer, Full Court Press, Return of Arcade, Flight Sim, and many prototypes.

Design Lead | MS Sports. 10/94 – 6/95. Managed and directed a team of 8 artists working on MS Complete Basketball ’94-’95, MS Complete Baseball ’95, MS Sports Daily, Sports content for MSN 1.0, and several prototypes.

CDFX: graphic design : Seattle, WA : 1988 – 1994
Owner/Principal Designer. Packaging design for music industry. Graphic design for MS Sports (9/93). Designed Microsoft’s first subscription online title…the Baseball Daily.

education

Western Washington University : Bellingham, WA : 1986 – 1989
Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication

references

Matt Wilson, Director of Development, Sony Online Entertainment: mwilson@soe.sony.com
Ed Fries, former Vice President, Microsoft Game Studios: contact info available on request
please check the letters of recommendation on my LinkedIn Profile

a long time ago…

No, seriously. Before grunge was a fad, before Curt Cobain was a household name, before the “internet” and multimedia, way back in the late 80s I started doing freelance design work under the moniker CDFX. Armed with a Macintosh barely powerful enough to control a modern microwave, I set out to make a name for myself as a graphic designer.


And I did alright. Not great, but alright. I managed to do quite a bit of work in the area of album cover design and got a good bit of repeat work doing promotional materials and demo packets for local bands.


At some point I’ll post a couple of the more interesting pieces up here. I did do some work for various Pacific Northwest startups, like the Posies, Screaming Trees, and Nasty Mix Records (Sir MixaLot’s label). Though most of my work was for bands like RhinoHumpers, and Devastationwagon. You’ve heard of them? I’m impressed.


Ultimately, this experience led me to Microsoft where I ended up contracting my services to the fledgling multimedia group and ultimately landed a full-time gig as a blue card carrying MicroSerf.

The intent of this site is to cover the last 15 years of my professional life in a blog format. As the work of an Art Director is varied and complex, I feel that a text AND image friendly format allows me to speak the most clearly about my approach to design and art direction.


In addition to several years working on single player and on-line games, I’m attempting to show over 8 years worth of work on MMOs. Trying to elegantly simplify the combined effort of over 200+ man-years is no small task. But, I’ve done my best. You certainly don’t have to read everything I write but to see everything you must scroll to the bottom of each page.


Lastly, the video section continues to grow. I am gathering on-camera interviews, TV coverage, and gameplay footage in hopes of creating a thorough representation of both what I do and who I am. Don’t be surprised if the video content changes frequently :-)


enjoy