GameOfKings

You’ve been a member of Redbubble now for over 2 years and we know enough about you so let’s get stuck into the questions shall we? How did you get involved with the Game of Kings?

I was invited after the design crew was put together by Simon. It was on the recommendation of Glen Smith and Scott Robinson who I’ve done so much work with and they knew instinctively that this is something I would jump at the chance to be involved with.

Mind you, at this point in time they didn’t how or why (neither did I at that stage) but I’m glad they did because after a few chats with Simon I cottoned on that his scope was far bigger than I first thought they would try to achieve and that was when I was hooked.

This was going to be on an epic scale and had the potential to be a multi media bonanza, something I had wanted to achieve with Monk Rock. Simon didn’t think quick collaboration – he wanted to throw it into the air and see how far it could spread out in all directions.
It was obvious from the get go that it was going to work when a forum was set up and people started throwing ideas around like a pie fight.
The best way to describe it was like having ten people standing around a ping pong table and just bouncing the ball from one paddle to another building up momentum.
A lot of the designs, character traits and narratives came from these early days and the project grew from there.

What’s been your experience being part of the project to date, and how do think it will be received?

I don’t know how it’ll be received to be honest, initial reaction has been good and a few t shirts have been sold but as far as I’m concerned this is only the beginning. In fact it’s Phase
One of many yet to come.
As for my experience, I can say it has been fantastic and enlightening and came along when I really needed an artistic challenge in my life.

But getting back to the original question

When I got invited in to be part of this project I thought it was the most brilliant concept and from the start I wanted to do the most exciting things we could possibly do and that was all I could ask for.

That’s what it’s always been about, really enjoying and getting genuinely
excited about the possibilities. Not necessarily achieving anything of my own ambitions just going into it with that sense of wonder and imagining what it could be if we got it right.

How much have you enjoyed helping create characters – have they been fun/interesting/tricky for any reason?

The fun part was the expectation, I had no idea what to write so I began by doing some descriptions and sort of faux biographies of each piece while still retaining some semblance to the board piece it represents – how it moves and interacts with other pieces, and as I did this some of the guys were running with these ideas for their pieces.

As the pieces started to appear as works in progress I started to build a narrative around what the artists had created. I didn’t want it the other way round – and I made it clear –I would write the story around their art. This way the 8 different styles represented by the artists weren’t bound by any story boundaries.

The story itself has a beginning, an ending with two possible outcomes and a long thin spine running between the two so that there is lots of room to move with narrative. The story itself could be summed up as two armies meet, battle, who wins? So rather than think up some long winded fantasy epic, the narrative is told in vignettes that reveal the characters, their worlds and what is happening in small bites.

When you first see the characters you get this feeling of majestic splendour and you may be mistaken to think that they came from one of those dense fantasy novels that always seem to come in trilogies, I wanted it to be a little less serious under the surface.

I decided to throw in a fair bit of left-of-centre weirdness to keep it interesting. I suppose this is to be expected because this is how I write and the style is close to my heart. So if you needed a reference point it is waving a big salute to Terry Pratchett.

After a few of these vignettes started appearing and I got some positive feedback I thought why not tell the story in other ways and that is how the animations came to be. It’s funny how a 10 second short can say so much about one character. I hope these can be spread all through the pieces as they are released. All up it’s been a hoot, I love sending them off to Simon willy nilly just to get his reaction.

That of course is one of the beautiful things about this collaboration it’s all about creating and pushing the envelope. Going back to the Black Army, thanks to Simon’s genius and creative style the Black Army was easy to write for because it was a dystopian society and everyone did what the King said. Easy. But this doesn’t mean they don’t have their own little chinks in their armour.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

This is only going to get better. With this sort talent to work with this whole collaboration is going to rock big time. I feel totally honoured to be part of it.

Also if you keep an eye on the Group Blog you’ll see some of the works in progress and discarded artworks and get an idea of how high these guys set the bench mark.

Oh yeah and check out Monk Rock it’s fun and includes art from some of the guys here in an earlier lifetime.