Steven Desykes
MCR VOICE
Art lead at Pixelbomb Games Pixelbomb Games is a Manchester indie games developer. Our studio was founded in 2011 as a small collective of developers looking to do one thing: make awesome games. Since then we’ve grown into a strong team of designers and developers, driven by beautiful visuals, challenging mechanics and adrenaline-inducing experiences.
I got my computer arts degree at Abertay University and then I worked hard at improving my portfolio, applying for jobs in the industry. I eventually got my break working as a junior environment artist at TT Games and then, after almost six years, I decided I wanted to expand my skills further and I am now excited to be the art lead at Pixelbomb Games.
Beyond Flesh and Blood is a third person shooter set in a war-torn, post-apocalyptic Manchester. The game is set two hundred years in the future after mankind has evacuated to a space station known as the ‘Tree of Life, and is trying to re-colonise the Earth. The player controls various mechs (called Tactical Combat Frames) to traverse the ravaged Manchester streets and defeat dangerous inhabitants. The game is starting to come together quite quickly and it’s looking great. We are hoping to release the game in autumn 2015.
Manchester is a very creative city with a lot of cultural diversity. There aren’t a lot of big games companies in the North of England, and the games industry can be very competitive for work, so it’s great to see more indie games companies setting up here, creating more job opportunities. Being part of Manchester’s rapidlygrowing digital community is something I’m very proud of and with the infrastructure that is now in place, I think there’s scope for Manchester to emerge as a key player in the games industry.
We chose Manchester as the location partly due to the lack of games set in the United Kingdom - most of which are set in London. But also with Pixelbomb Games being based in Manchester, and the city having such a wealth of fantastic architecture and locations, it seemed like the most logical choice for the game’s setting. For anyone who has visited or lived in Manchester, they may recognise some locations such as the iconic Beetham Tower, Great Northern Warehouse and Manchester’s Town Hall in Albert Square.
Growing up I have been interested by the strange and the surreal and some of my favourite artists Salvador Dali, Roger Dean and H.R.Giger - are great examples of this. Also from a young age I have been fascinated by Japanese animation and studios such as Studio Ghibli and Studio 4°C have inspired me greatly with their use of colours and imaginative designs. I have been inspired by a lot of concept artists and illustrators such as James Paick, Marko Djurdjevic and Dave Rapoza but my list of artistic inspirations is ever expanding as I’m always finding new artists that impress me.
Manchester has such a great wealth of interesting and diverse styles of architecture and we have looked at what we considered to be quite iconic buildings to develop the visual style of the city; from the Tudor designs of Sinclair’s Oyster bar and the Old Wellington Inn, the Victorian neo-gothic designs of the Town Hall and John Rylands Library; to the more modern, glass designs of Urbis and the Manchester Civil Justice Centre to name just a few examples. It’s this variety of architecture that has been one of the main inspirations when designing the visuals in Beyond Flesh and Blood and something we felt was important to keep in order to get the feel of Manchester when creating a futuristic version of the city.
There are some great places in Manchester for people to draw inspiration from. Just walking around the city alone can help when developing artistic ideas. I find the Manchester Art Gallery a great place to be inspired, as it has a great collection of paintings and sculptures. Manchester is such a lively, fun, cultural and creative city with plenty to do. I’m a big fan of Oriental cuisine so I would definitely recommend going to Chinatown; I really like sushi and would especially recommend the Wasabi restaurants. When I’ve a bit of free time I occasionally like to unwind with a beer, so I would suggest a visit to the Port Street Beer House which has an incredible selection to choose from.
For more information: pixelbombgames.com | @gamespixelbomb @visit_mcr | visitmanchester.com
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