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Art director Matt Mocarski leaves WildStar
We'd heard about recent departures, but this one is new. Former art director Matt Mocarski has apparently left Carbine Studios to work at Amazon Game Studios; no specific date for the departure has been given beyond the fact that he has already started his new job. WildStar has already seen two high-profile names leave the game post-launch, president Jeremy Gaffney and design producer Stephan Frost. We wish Mocarski the best of luck in his new workspace. [Thanks to JesLyck for the tip!]
WildStar team hosting panel and gathering at SDCC
Heading out to California for San Diego Comic Con? As long as you're out there, would you like a nice dose of WildStar entertainment? The team at Carbine Studios is hosting a panel on Friday discussing how story and narrative are developed in the game, featuring lead narrative designer Chad Moore, content director Mike Donatelli, creative director Matt Mocarski, and design producer Stephen Frost. Anyone attending the convention will want to be at the panel if you've got even the vaguest interest in the game. But what if you're in San Diego and aren't attending the con? You can still get some special face time with WildStar at the fan gathering on Friday in the Hotel Palomar. More to the point, this gathering promises to allow players a look at two new races -- in all likelihood the last two playable races that have been teased for some time. So Friday should be a good time for fans of the game in San Diego, and anyone else watching from afar. [Source: Carbine Studios press release]
Massively Exclusive: An interview with WildStar art director Matt Mocarski
WildStar doesn't look like anything else out right now. We're not just talking about the game's mechanics; the game's stylized graphics make it look distinct. There's a lot of unique visual elements in the game, from its opening cinematic to the most recent screenshots, and while you might not like the more stylized approach, you can't say that it lacks personality. This comes with its own set of challenges, though. After all, creating stylized graphics for a game means you're not just making the best-looking environments possible; you're also creating a whole new aesthetic and making environments that make sense within that style. We had a chance to ask WildStar's art director Matt Mocarski a few questions about the process of putting the game's unique look together, and he provided us some excellent insights into bringing the visuals from concept to reality. Whether you're a fan of the game in specific or stylized art in general, take a look at the full interview past the break.
Lucky fan gets a super-secret tour of WildStar's Carbine Studios
Being given a full tour of your favorite MMO studio must be a lot like finding the Golden Ticket and getting a week pass to Disney World, all rolled into one. So if you feel a little jealous that WildStar Source got to poke around Carbine Studios, it's understandable. While the writer who was given the tour said that he had to "stay silent on 99%" of what he saw, there are plenty of juicy tidbits for WildStar aficionados to tide us over for a while. Apparently the studio is covered with gorgeous screenshots and art from the game, and the team is already busy collecting fan art to post in the hallways. The author did get some hands-on time with the game, during which he spent exploring the world instead of killing the local flora and fauna: "While I did not find a secret treasure or a portal to another dimension, I did find an attention to detail in both my character and the surrounding world that made me pause, several times, in appreciation... Even while playing as a spell-wielding bunny-woman who was trapped on a fictional planet, what I found most engrossing when I got my hands on WildStar was really the humanness of it all... as corny as that may sound."
S'all about style, baby: Carbine Studios' Matt Mocarski on art and design
Nothing seems to stem the tide of dev diaries flowing out of NCSoft's Carbine Studios, and that's just fine by us. Today we have a new post from Carbine's art director Matt Mocarski regarding the visual style of their upcoming title, and which just so happens to include a sneak peek at a screenshot from the title's upcoming debut trailer (which you can see as the header to this post). According to Mocarski, the team began work on the project with a simple goal for the art: It had to be unique and iconic; something that would be instantly recognizable as belonging to Carbine's MMO. With that in mind, the artists began drawing on the collective influences of the team, specifically American and European comics and American and Japanese animation, and came together with an art style that would be unique and memorable for their future fantasy game. It took a few iterations, but eventually the team settled on what Mocarski describes as an illustrated and hand-crafted style. Judging by the still provided, we think it's going to be quite interesting to see the team's work in motion when the game premieres at Gamescom next week.
