Developer profile Howard Lyon SGW
From Stargate Worlds Wiki (SGW)
HL: Hi am Howard Lyon and I'm the Art Director on Stargate worlds.
HL: Dan Elggrin contacted me about, I guess it was a year about and asked me to do some background concepts for the game at that time I was working as a freelance illustrator.
Carl Coss (Lead Animator): I've know Howard for 10 years and we've worked together a bunch of different studio's, we had a studio of our own for a little while there, that was good times.
HL: And I did a poster, I painted that poster for SGW for some marketing stuff and then I painted an interior and then they asked me to do a 3-D object, and at that point Dan Elggrin ask me to come in and ask me if i would be interested in taking a position at Cheyenne Mountain.
CC: His sense of colour is just spot on it amazing, and that like what I love about his stuff the most is how the colours play off each other, and how the saturation just really intense just that kinda stuff.
Nick Heitzman (Assistant Art Director): He's native to Arizona and I'm not, so I move here, they have scorpions here and my kids love to hunt scorpions but we hadn't really figured out how a good way to so, and Howard recommended this cool flash light you can get, that has three different setting of basically black light (aka UV) so now that we have that, armed with that we are now able to mimic what Howard does regularly which is each evening go out with the black light and watch these scorpions glow and smash them with sticks, if it wasn't for Howard we would proberly be still just banging around in the dark.
CC: He loves babies, brushes his teeth regularly, and the time I've known him he's never once killed a man (laughter in the background) well .... no never.
HL: one of my favourite things about Stargate it that each gate that you go threw is completely different world (picture of Abydos) it maybe you go threw and its very high tech /sci-fi you know out there, a thousand years from our own technology or could be you go into a very medi-evil village, where they have a cathedral and you timber homes or a completely different completely alien world from anything that where you'st to, so artistically there are no limits as to what you can do and what you can introduce into the stargate world.
HL: Most of the time that I've spent here I try to spend it painting and doing concepting, I find that as an Art Director that the easiest way to direct is to actually provide an example, I don't always get the chance to do that from meeting, scheduling and organization but most of the time that's what I try and do, but when am not doing that, you know when I can I'll offer input and help two members of the team fortunately we have very talented team and I don't often have too, leave my desk to give feedback, because things go pretty smooth from the get go.
HL: I guess with any group of artists, allot of the times you're gunna have visions that differ and it's my job to try and look like that the game was done by one artist, I think that the most challenging part of the job it is trying to figure out how to let individuals grow in there artistic development and to really encourage that, but at the same time try to apply a singular vision to the game, you know for the visuals, you wonder a little bit am I just imposing my personal opions or am I doing what's best for the game, and I always try and do what's best for the game.
HL: A Game development cycle is allot like working on a painting, where you start out with alot times a written description of what you want from the illustration, and then you do a concept for it, in game's you have game design document and then you have the concept around, and there's allot of energy and allot of excitement right at that 1st stage, and then you're deciding the colours and the look and the feel, the whole middle part of the process both on a painting and a game development is really the meticulous part of game development, the meticulous and sometimes tedious part of doing a painting you know where you've painted the 1st few bricks and that was fun deciding what they where gunna look like and now you have a thousand more to paint, to make the finish of the painting, what am looking forward to most is after we exit that part of the process, its where you get to tweak and you get to polish and you get to you know get that last 10% really, brings up the quality of the game and the look of the game and I always look forwards to anticipating that part of development, whither it be a painting or being in game development.
CC: He brings experience, and efficiency but also just an amazing look you now that sort of potential for really classic looking game.
HL: I always find myself growing because I get to know people a little bit better and I interact with people and I really enjoy working with people, you know the people I find I work with here are fascinating and fun, so I've always found when I come out of a experience or an opportunity like this, that where I have allot of grow and in other area's artistically, because of the variety of worlds that Stargate provides, it provides allot of opportunity's for artistic growth, where I am given the opportunity to really push myself and do things I might not normally have painted I might not normally thought of to work on.
Transcribed by FreejackeR. Source of Transcript : Stargate Worlds - Dev Profile: Howard Lyon [1]
(FreejackeR - I would like to thank Cheyenne Mountain for there insight to the Developers Cheers please continue to do so we all enjoy them)
