An environment artist is the team member responsible for how the final game looks. The environment artist’s designs form the foundation of all levels., and, eEven if they’re working on small props, the final art contributes to the player’s understanding of the world they’re entering. Being common to all genres, eEnvironment art is a popular choice for game artists practicing their craft since it’s common to all genres. Understand here in more detail what an environment artist contributes to the team, how they fit into the workflow, and what it takes to break into the industry.
What does an environment artist do in game development?
An environment artist in game development creates all the artwork for a video game outside of the characters and creatures, although the specific responsibilities vary. Environment art teams in general work on level backgrounds, props in the environment, buildings, doors, foliage, and terrain. A large team has dedicated vehicle or weapon artists, while smaller teams leave these tasks to the environment artists. The game itself, as far as the player is concerned, is their domain. What sets environment artists apart from other game artists is the close working relationship they have with level designers.
Environment artists create atmospheric and cohesive designs. The final product needs to feel like a place and not a collection of disparate art pieces, like Limbo of the Lost with its hodge podge of plagiarized assets. Even artists working on small props need to think about how they fit into the world and the other assets they appear with.; aA flushing toilet doesn’t fit in Skyrim and a castle doesn’t make sense in Cyberpunk 2077.
The role of environment art in driving the atmosphere and gameplay is clear in Ghost of Yōtei. The game sets out to evoke the story of the wandering samurai in film and anime, and the windswept hills dotted with flowers, dense forests, and diminutive villages evoke that atmosphere. What makes Ghost of Yōtei different from other samurai media is its interactivity., so the tThe variety of biomes here isn’t just set dressing, but a reward for exploration.
The environment artist works with a level designer to ensure the original design intentions transfer to a successful environment. Level designers are the members of the team who create the layout of the game. They decide the placement of points of interest, the paths that connect them, and how to modulate progress through those areas, whether blocking off paths with challenges or progression-locked prerequisites. The level designer has to think about how the environment is going to lead the player, including what colors and landmarks guide the player without holding their hand.
The environment artist realizes the level design team’s intentions, making sure the environment not only leads the player through an experience but contributes to making the world feel cohesive. A landmark in a game such as Skyrim is more than a landmark. A dilapidated tower full of bandits suggests decline and disorder in the region. A crumbling cairn built into the side of the mountain does more than draw the eyes, telling the player how the Nords bury their dead.
Environment artists work closely with level designers as early as pre-production. Bethesda, for example, puts level designers and artists in contact from the very beginning. Bethesda’s dungeons are composed entirely of arrangeable tiles, so every hallway, large room, and intersection needs to fit together seamlessly. The art team creates basic, gray blocks first for level designers to play with and figure out potential inconsistencies, situations where the shape needs to be fixed, or caveats to be noted by future designers. With the whole palette of shapes in place, the art team is confident going forward that the environment won’t break the game when replacing the placeholders with more detailed art assets.
The environment artists work on completed art and collaborate back and forth with the design team. Level designers give feedback as final artwork goes in, double checking and correcting as early as possible when the artists have misinterpreted the intention. If an early level blockout includes a wall but the final level turns that into a chain-link fence, for example, the level layout gets broken. A scene that previously blocked in the player and obstructed their view now gives them more situational awareness than intended. Getting these issues figured out early prevents costly mistakes later when recreating art means throwing out finished assets.
Environment artists use communication skills and teamwork more often than the layperson thinks. The morning tends to be held for meetings with leads or members from other teams. Game environment artists spend half their time in meetings because the field is so collaborative, with level designers and leads all having input in the process.
The needs of the game, the budget, the team size, and the timeline determine which type of game the team goes with. Considering how game art includes characters, UI, weapons, and loading screens in addition to environment art, a limited budget makes producing the artwork required challenging. 2D games are more common in constrained projects like these, as 2D assets have no issues with topology or texturing, unlike 3D ones. Indie titles such as Undertale, Balatro, and Hollow Knight have shown that solo or small teams are able to make 2D go a long way.
All art styles and mediums are available to the environment artist. Styles range from highly realistic 3D environments such as Red Dead Redemption 2, to stylized 2D like Ori and the Will of the Wisps, to traditional animation as in Cuphead or the claymation of Hylics. Any field of art is possible.
What does a video game environment designer do?
A video game environment designer doesn’t exist on game development teams, although the term is commonly searched and confused with environment artists. Environment artists are paired most closely with level designers. Other game artists are paired with a similarly named designer, like character designers with character artists, hence the confusion about whether an environment designer exists. What a level designer does is arrange the encounters and gameplay interactions in a way that engages the player and creates a desirable ebb and flow of gameplay, working closely with artists the whole way to ensure the experience matches the game’s core pillars.
What is game environment concept design?
Game environment concept design is the process of creating reference materials for game artists. Concept artists are the main source of references, as it’s their job to turn designers’ intentions into clear reference materials. The concept design process is equally as collaborative as the environment art process, starting with back and forth between the design and art team.
Concept design defines the atmosphere of an environment. The layout of a level is likely to change over development, so concepts are designed for more than just the level’s physical shape. In most cases, concepts are just inspiration, a visual way of showing the team’s earliest ideas. Jonas Akerlund’s concepts with DICE show what this type of concept art looks like. His map concepts get at the feeling and atmosphere of the environment, but they don’t resemble a specific layout found in the game.
Concepts include references for specific props and environment pieces. Designers have broad ideas of what the environment needs to do. Exploding barrels need to look dangerous; destructible objects need to look breakable. Concept artists create references with the design team so the rest of the art team has a clear, visual idea of what these props ought to look like in the final game.
The process of creating a concept starts with concept artists consulting designers. Designers have already met to discuss the world’s design, the kinds of buildings and environments required, interactive elements of the world, and where the inspiration for the setting comes from. Concept artists then create several early sketches showing off the world the designers described. The concept art team brings the drawings back to the design team, who pick the ones that best represent that world and continue to iterate on those concepts.
Creating the concepts for the design team begins with research. The environment needs a cohesive style, so looking for real-world references and examples from other games gives the art team a starting point. The research lends credibility to the game world. The artist first creates a mood board, which is a collection of images that show colors, styles, images from related games, and moods. The images don’t have to be of games or even related objects. A concept artist then creates sketches based on this mood board, supplementing with references from deeper research into the environment and the kinds of objects found in it.
What are game environment references?
Game environment references are the materials environment artists look at to get the textures, surfaces, colors, and forms of their assets correct. References come from the concept artists. Concept art draws from real-life environments, games, and visual media as diverse as film, TV, paintings, and comics. References play a key role in ensuring the world is cohesive and credible.
The art director and the concept art team creates key art which makes sure the game art is consistent. Key art shows scenes from the game in the intended art style so that the rest of the team has a concrete reference point. Art leads at this point also occasionally create mood boards to show the colors and tone of the environment.
References make the artwork feel like it’s part of a world. The style of architecture within a society must be consistent, and the materials and technology must be the same. The premise of Horizon is an instructive example. The post-apocalyptic world of Horizon is populated with machines that have long outlived their creators. The setting mixes high-concept sci-fi of the distant future with early humanity’s tribal politics, as the events of the distant past have reduced humans to a primitive state. Each artist has the opportunity to mimic thousands of real tribal societies from the Earth’s past and present.
The concepts below show the Tenakth’s structures in Horizon: Forbidden West. The 3D art team doesn’t have to guess how to communicate the Tenakth’s world to the player. From the concept, they understand their physical environment and lore. The Tenakth clan’s buildings are tall and full of triangular shapes. The colors of their Marshal, blue and white, are displayed prominently at the floor level of the structure. The concept shows the materials they’re made out of: wood, thatch, and paint. The structures seem rugged and temporary. The scale is made explicit by placing people next to the entrances.
References shortcut the art process because they reduce decision-making. A beginner artist working on their own sometimes feels constrained by references, but working from scratch means more mistakes, redoing sections, and spending time figuring out what to do. Realizing a piece of artwork doesn’t fit after it’s done means the whole team is delayed while the asset gets remade. A professional production requires artwork to be made quickly, and the whole game needs to feel like it was made by one artist and not a team. References make sure the team gets it right the first time and executes on the game’s vision.
The concept art team needs references to start with before bringing the art team their work. Concept artists get their references from anywhere: Google, Pinterest, news coverage, or stock photos. AI-generated art tends to be rough for finished pieces, but it’s increasingly common to use for creating rough references.
How is game environment art created?
To create game environment art, artists take the references and use the software of their choice to create the final asset. The asset goes into the engine for its final material work, after which the artists get feedback from level designers. The final artwork incorporates the feedback in an iterative process until the level is fully polished and production-ready. Team members involved in the process include technical artists and technical level designers who make sure the assets are optimized and meet the game’s technical requirements.
3D game environment art is created in both general 3D software and asset-specific tools designed for certain types of environment artwork. Common general software includes Blender, Maya, and 3DS Max. Many environment artists start directly in Zbrush, a sculpting software which lets them mold 3D models like clay. My experience is with Maya and Zbrush, but most 3D software is capable of the same tasks. Each allows the artist to create models, rig them for animation, and texture them (the process of adding the surface colors and patterns).
Specialized tools are available for the environmental art pipeline to make natural backdrops easier to develop. Major game engines such as Unity and Unreal include terrain editing tools for molding the environment with brushes. Plants and foliage are common features of an environment, and software like SpeedTree is used instead of Maya or Blender to speed up creating natural environments.
Texturing the 3D model takes place in Adobe’s Substance 3D suite or 3D Coat. Substance 3D is a suite of tools available for painting textures directly on 3D models and creating materials that mimic the way real surfaces reflect light. Creating these textures in a 2D image editor like Photoshop is possible, but challenging. The 2D image needs to map on a 3D object, so getting textures right with only a 2D view is a longer and less accurate process.
2D game environment art is created with general image editing software such as Photoshop or Procreate. 2D games don’t have the same challenges as 3D ones, where texturing involves mapping images to a 3D object, so working directly with image editing software is more effective. The similarity of 2D game art to traditional painting and animation gives artists room to experiment and create memorable experiences, such as the 1920s-inspired hand-drawn art of Cuphead.
The final step in the environment art workflow takes place in the engine. Materials don’t always transfer correctly from Blender, Maya, or Adobe software into the engine, so applying textures to the models is done with Unreal, Unity, or whichever engine the project is built in. This stage is the opportunity to make sure the colors look right in context, there are no lighting issues, and the asset fits in the final game environment. Tech artists come in to help with optimizing the assets or baking the lighting. Tools for importing assets seamlessly into the engine are created by tech artists, who make sure they’re optimized and have refined topology so no issues with performance or lighting crop up.
The level designer plays through the level after the art has been added to make sure the process is complete. Interactive objects such as openable doors, destructible boxes, or walls with collision must be tested to make sure they work at runtime. The engine requires these assets to be set up so they recognize these interactions. Missing animations or issues with triggers are easy to identify at this stage. If the level designer has an issue with how the asset fits into the gameplay, the artist goes back to the asset to touch it up.
How to become a game environment artist?
To become a game environment artist, build a strong portfolio and start applying for jobs. Going to art school is a bonus, but it isn’t as important as a strong set of work to show employers. The ability to iterate, communicate with the team, and create finished artwork are the most important skills employers are looking for.
A portfolio is the key component to finding employment in game art. Getting the portfolio wrong is easy, and some artists have no portfolio at all. Just having a passable portfolio is enough to put a potential artist ahead of many applicants. A poor portfolio includes too much lower quality work, too much unfinished art, and too much finished art without showing the process. An effective portfolio shows the best work, and that work shows a focus on the type of art the employer is looking for. An artist applying to an environment art position with a portfolio full of characters isn’t showing the right strengths. Unfinished artwork, when it’s shown, is shown alongside the finished product to demonstrate that it’s part of a larger pipeline.
Job ads are the best source for finding out which skills are worth developing. The keywords aren’t just for show. Leadership, collaboration, texturing, modeling – these hard and soft skills listed in the job ad describe exactly what employers want. The ads mention more specific responsibilities, too, such as working with technical artists, refining open-world environments, or maintaining cohesion, readability, and atmosphere. A portfolio that shows off these specific skills along with an artistic vision stands out more. If these projects were completed as part of a team, the leadership and collaboration skills are apparent in the final results.
Game jams are one place to start with showing teamwork skills. Popular game jams such as the GMTK jam or Ludum Dare allow full teams to apply. While game jams tend to be more focused on design than art, they provide an opportunity to get projects finished in a collaborative environment.
Creating fan art for existing games shows an ability to match a studio’s style and create polished artwork for it. Game artists work within a studio’s style, not their own, so the ability to fit your style to a project is a desirable skill. Using an existing game as inspiration takes away the anxiety over how to start. Instead of an open canvas with no boundaries, the style and world are already set.
Going to art school helps but is by no means a requirement. Art school is helpful for the resume, for learning the language artists use to discuss art, for networking, and for building up a portfolio. Education develops these important skills, but learning is possible outside of an institution too. I went to Anadolu University in Türkiye, so I’m speaking from the perspective of an artist who did go the university route, but that’s not to say getting a job without a degree is impossible. The strength of the portfolio and skills are the main factors.
Maciej Kuciara is a classic example of a self-taught artist who broke into the industry. Kuciara practiced throughout the 1990s, inspired by contemporary anime and manga, and got his first game concept art job in 2003. He worked with Naughty Dog and Riot Games from there, building up his skills until he left the game industry to work on film. His credits on Avengers and the newest iteration of Ghost in the Shell show the lengths practice and talent go to preparing an artist to not only break into the industry but find great success.
How to become a game environment designer?
To become a game environment designer, focus on learning level design skills. Level designers are the ones who create an experience through the environment, since there’s no dedicated game environment designer position. The process looks similar to becoming an environment artist, as building a portfolio is the most crucial part of entering the level design field, especially since level design isn’t a degree at most institutions.
Level designers build their portfolio by joining game jams, recreating levels from favorite games, or creating new levels for an existing game. Each strategy shows important skills. A game jam project shows an ability to bring a game to a completed state, even given time constraints. Recreating levels shows a level designer is able to think critically about designs, comment and critique them, and understand how they use composition and color to guide players. Creating a new level for an existing game shows skill at creating an experience that fits in with the whole game, a crucial skill for level designers who work with a team to create a complete product.
