作者：Paul Culp

我们最终在6月15日公开了《Forge》这个我们正处于中间开发阶段的游戏项目。这是一款纯粹的多人游戏，虽然拥有第一人称射击游戏的华丽设计感，但是却不存在任何枪击或刷任务机制。游戏以科幻宇宙为背景，但是却又不同于传统意义的科幻游戏。

developer diary art direction(from gamasutra)

我们是与其它工作室联合开发了这款游戏，他们分别是来自南加州的初创公司Dark Vale Games以及新西兰的程序工作室Digital Confectioners。多家工作室的合作能够帮助我们更好地开发一款游戏，并且我也期待着能够在今后看到更棒的结果。如此的合作能够让那些专业工作室致力于自己所擅长的领域，而我们的工作室便擅长美工和动画。

在SuperGenius，我们最喜欢的应该就是美术设计了。在早期的游戏开发中，我们最擅长也是最开心的任务便是定义游戏外观。而在《Forge》开发项目中，我们也很荣幸接到美术设计这项工作，并且也非常享受整个工作过程。

我们的2D美术指导Adam Danger Cook负责整个美术设计过程，并且也是由他所引导的团队去定义游戏的外观。我们与Dark Vale达成协议，即在早期阶段至少投入1个月的时间去构思游戏理念并进行美术设计工作。这段时间是致力于构建游戏的大致框架，并确立游戏的美术风格，环境和角色设计的基础。不管怎样在这四周结束后，Adam团队将创造出游戏的总体风格。我想没有人会质疑我们的这种决定吧，这四周时间的投入将帮助我们塑造出《Forge》的游戏世界和角色。

我们真心感谢Dark Vale团队能够提供给我们如此丰富的素材，一开始我们便非常认可Tim Alvis（游戏邦注：Dark Vale首席技术官和首席设计师）所提出的游戏设计理念，并且也愿意立马参与其中。Tim对于游戏玩法拥有一个非常明确的愿景，并且这一愿景将推动着我们做出每一个选择。他同样也清楚我们必须摆脱老式的西欧游戏外观（即依靠于极端华丽的科幻图像）。我们也非常认可他的这一想法。所以我们便着手创造这一独特的美术风格，但也未抛弃这一游戏类型的精髓。

虽然很多游戏在一开始都坚持于这种独创想法，但是最终都倒退到早前的游戏模式中去。如果你真正投入于制作过程中，你便能够有效地避免这种情况。就像当我们拥有30或40名设计师致力于游戏开发中时，我们必须选出一个美术总监以确保所有任务的有序进行。可以说合理的任务指南是美术总监的好帮手。我们只有明确了书面任务指南后才会开始动工（即使是小型项目也是如此）。根据我们的经验，最优秀的美术设计总是始于一套合理的规则，并以此推动着设计师们遵循着这些规则而前进。很多游戏开发者都证实，约束条件更能推动人们发挥创造力，所以我们便以此明确了第一个规则：始于战斗。

始于战斗

首先，《Forge》主要玩法是战斗，这也是游戏设计的核心。一开始我们便确定自己创造的任何内容都必须具有战斗目的。这种想法将能够帮助我们更好地定义游戏中的所有人造元素，包括角色的服装以及各种建筑式样等。而所有的建筑风格将基于吓唬敌人，保护居住者或使用暴行确保居住者的安全所决定。而剩下的决定性元素便是基于功能性。建筑物的结构必须能够承受的住极限压力测试——也就是战斗。确保游戏中的墙壁，柱子和雕塑都足够巨大，并具有强大的金属支撑力。而在巨人摧毁建筑时，还必须设置大量的石砌块。使用一整颗树去建造木门，以起到加固与保护作用。如果这些建筑不能被摧毁，不能起到阻挡或保护作用，它们便不能立足于游戏世界中。

挪威与因纽特文化的结合

我们最初想要基于挪威文化开始进行创造，因为挪威文化中有出许多我们想要表达的战斗性。但是最终我们还是决定摆脱其中的部分内容。基于北欧文化也就意味着我们能够重新塑造《龙腾世纪》或《天际》中的许多游戏元素。虽然这两款游戏都拥有华丽的外表，但是却都是公众所熟悉的内容。我们团队中的某些成员曾经致力于早前微软的MMO《Mythica》的开发，但是这款游戏却因为Windows 2000/NT源码外流事件而遭遇了夭折，这也给这些成员们留下了许多遗憾。虽然这种情感影响不是最致命的，但是作为一名美工人员，我们总是全身心地投入于游戏创造中，所以当我们投入了一年或更多时间所创造的一款游戏遭遇失败，这种打击肯定是非常难受的。所以我们清楚自己必须混合一些重要的内容并选择“人迹罕至”的道路前进。

我们在地图上画出了北半球区块，然后列出了这条线以上所有可行的文化，包括俄罗斯，蒙古，凯尔特，因纽特以及挪威。这些文化都是我们在首次美术设计中的重要素材。对此我们进行了各种尝试，但是每一次都会出现两种相同的文化，即古老的挪威和因纽特文化。而关于这两种文化的结合也能够创造出一些有趣的内容。如维京文化总是突和建筑物的基础上添加一些独特的部落装备，如羽毛，战时伪油漆，图腾以及毛皮等。虽然并非所有的这些元素都是因纽特文化的重要组成部分，但是不得不说的是，强调部落口音能够帮助我们有效地突出《Forge》中萨满教（游戏邦注：北美因纽特人所信仰的宗教）野蛮的特性，并作为战斗情感的补充物。当我们突出战时伪油漆以及羽毛装扮时，游戏中的一切将会显得更加原始更加野蛮。并且很快地，我们还添加了部落口音去突出尖叫的战士以及血流成河的战场。如此看来这两种文化的确能够有效地结合在一起。

免责声明：我想说的是，不论我们是参考因纽特文化还是挪威文化，我们也只是部分涉及古老的因纽特和挪威文化，所以游戏中是一半历史一半想象。而最后我们希望通过自己的研究以及对于原有文化的重新构造创造起只属于我们自己的科幻世界。就像我们所了解的，应该没有哪个原始部落会骑着美洲豹去迎接战斗。而我们也将以此去重塑这个“新世界”。

Forge(from technologytell.com)

角色

“轮廓！轮廓！轮廓！”这便是我们的战斗口号（只要听起来不会太柔弱）。《Forge》的本质便是要求每个角色必须拥有自己独特的轮廓，使玩家能够在远处便快速认出他们。战场上总是充满各种混乱，而唯一能够帮助我们区分不同玩家的方法便是外形上的差异。作为设计师，我们并不希望使用名牌，但是我们也不敢保证多人游戏中是否可以脱离名牌。所以对于每个角色的塑造我们都是从轮廓展开。

Adam和他的团队针对于每个角色的轮廓都进行了多次尝试。而在每次尝试后他们都会挑选出最好的4个进行下一步的完善（即色调完善）。随后我们便需要开始琢磨角色的服装和铠甲的细节。区分角色的类别也能够帮助我们更好地进行创造。基于一些预先明确的特征，如尺寸和形状而区分不同角色的类别。例如“Warden”是一个防御型且如“坦克”般强大的角色，所以越大越吓人越好。而因为“Assassin”总是需要进行各种秘密行动，我们便需要确保其体形的娇小，并且让她在一些阴暗，缩放的建筑间潜行，在屋顶上和茂密的树林中追踪猎物。“她的装备都很可爱，她还需要像熊的牙齿那般大小的鞋子。”我们的工作就像是服装设计师，只不过我们面对的是游戏中老练的“杀手”而不是光鲜亮丽的演员。

女性角色的优势

我们必须在开发初期想办法避开现代游戏中的陈腔滥调。即强大的角色通常代表男性，而女性角色一般都是身穿各种较为暴露的盔甲而以此凸显身材。所以我们团队便决定创造出强大的女性“Warden”和“Assassin”，并确保这些女性角色不仅具有乐趣，同时还具有真正的力量。好吧，我不敢保证她们的力量能有多强大，但是一定不会像我们在《Maxim》杂志封面上所看到的性感女郎那样。巧合的是，维京文化中也有关于“盾女”的描述——历史上一位强大女性的化身（我们只能通过想象去形成这一形象）。一旦我们开始进行角色设计，我们便能明确这一决定是正确的。虽然我们还需要谨慎面对那些想要看到身着暴露的女性角色的玩家们，但是我们还是认为大多数玩家（不过是男性还是女性）都更想看到强大的女性角色。

也就是说在我们的游戏中不会出现穿着过膝长靴，迷你裙和网眼袜的性感女性角色。“Warden”是一个非常高达且威猛的女战士，任何人在痛打她前时都要三思。理想看来，《Forge》应该是一款能够吸引各种性别玩家的PVP游戏。

每一个好角色都要故事做衬托

SuperGenius的创造团队便首先明确了游戏中所有内容的背景故事。虽然我们不一定需要在游戏中真正体现出每一个故事，但是我们至少需要明确它们的存在。任何事物的历史都是关于它存在的原因。不管是柱子，墙壁，还是墓碑都有自己的故事——参杂了“地点”，“原因”和“过程”。而结果则是一种有形元素，能为任何事物的存在添加一定的可信性。

“Assassin”的设计便是一个典型的例子。尽管我们并未在游戏中明确强调这些内容，但是我们却将“Assassin”描述成一个来自遥远的北方（体现出浓厚的部落文化）的形象。在“Assassin”的家乡，捕鲸刀是最普通的武器，而动物毛皮也是他们用于制作衣服和住宅的主要材料。所以在游戏中“Assassin”总是身穿皮草并更频繁（比起其他战士）地出现在部落中。Adam通过在“Assassin”的脸部绘制一个骷髅形状的图案，而以此凸显他们部落的审美观点。“Assassin”的确看起来很凶猛，而如果我们知道她是来自寒冷的北极也就能够理解游戏的这一设定了。背景故事可以将我们的角色从一个二维层面提升到一个“有血有肉”的真实人类形象——也拥有自己的家乡和亲人。

建筑，动物和图腾

比起角色设计，创造《Forge》的建筑外观更具有挑战性。Dark Vale想要创造出由大量巨石所堆积起来的建筑，但是古因纽特人并不会使用石头建筑房屋；虽然维京人会这么做，但是他们的建筑却达不到我们想要的壮丽与庞大。虽然我们找不到明确的历史影像可以作为参考，但是这至少可以说明没有人尝试过我们现在的创想。我们知道游戏中的建筑必须比现实中的来得巨大，而为此我们就需要从头开始“构建”这些建筑。最终我们跨越了多种文化，并且我们也希望以此减少那些重视历史观点的玩家们的抱怨。

我们在开发早期的一大突破便是突出了贯穿于这些文化中的动物，或者是动物形象——以此突出游戏的性质。即当游戏中的建筑开始趋向于欧洲化时，我们便添加了凶猛的动物雕塑和动物图腾，以此将整体感觉再次拉回我们想要的野蛮，暴力的时代中。

图案

我曾经致力于众多科幻游戏的开发过程，并且也玩过无数这类型游戏，但是在过去几年我开始注意到一个独特元素，即游戏中的装饰性图案。认真注意的话我们将会发现几乎每一款科幻游戏都拥有相同的拱桥和柱子。就像任何欧洲或希腊的柱子和拱桥看起来都是一样的，都拥有极其相似的装饰性图案。但是当几年前我致力于《Ultima Online》的创造时我注意到了这一问题所在。作为设计师，我们总是想要尽可能地去装饰柱子，所以我们便会在谷歌上进行搜索，并找到相关的装饰性界限（无论来自于书籍还是免费的适量图像）。我们可以随时使用这些图像去装饰游戏中的内容，但是这却是一种非常“懒惰”的做法。对于使用这种偷懒方法的自己我总是感到极端自责，所以我们便在《Forge》中尽可能避免这一方法。

我们的概念设计师Chuck Lukacs是位非常顶尖的设计师兼作家，同时他也是一所艺术学院的传统艺术讲师。与我们不同的是，他总是会利用大量业余时间在制作木雕，而不是玩游戏。他不仅是名让人极端佩服的数字设计师，同时也是我们所熟悉的传统设计师。而在我们的项目中，他的主要工作便是创造图案，包括水平图案，拱形图案，垂直图案，直角图案等等。他是我们的“图案之王”。

我们是围绕着“狼”，“熊”和“乌鸦”（神话中最早出现的一些动物形象）进行设置。在我们完成每一种动物的图案设置前，这三种动物便是最佳对象。我们将会把这些图案保存在图像库中，并提供给环境设计师进行参考。拥有专属的图案不仅能够帮助我们明确游戏的美术方向，也能为我们节省不少时间。所以在我们的项目中，没有一名设计师会再去谷歌图像中搜索图案，取而代之的是他们会打开我们专属的图像库而选取最佳图案。在这一开发中间段，我想我可以很自信地说道，一切的进展正如我们预想的那样顺利。

现在我们将全速推动制作过程，并期待着游戏世界和游戏角色的真正诞生。每一天我们都能惊喜地看到一些新内容的诞生，甚至没有一种语言能够用以表达我们在SuperGenius团队中所感受到的各种自豪感。所有员工对于《Forge》的奉献真心让人佩服。一个又一个遵循游戏理念的角色相继诞生，而我们也非常庆幸将大量时间投入于美术设计中。尽管开发时间很短，但是我们真的经历了一段非常棒的体验，并明确了一些真正吸引人却独特的理念。在Dark Vale，Digital Confectioners和SuperGenius中不仅拥有非常睿智且最有本事的元老级设计师，同时也拥有才华横溢且极具创造性的新一代设计师。我们真的非常荣幸能够与他们进行合作。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Forge Developer Diary: Art Direction

by Paul Culp

The Joy of Art Directing

Friday, June 15th, we finally announced the original project we are in the middle of development on, Forge. Forge is a pure multiplayer game that takes the best design sensibilities from First Person Shooters, but without the guns or grind. It is set in a high fantasy universe but strays away from conventions normally associated with fantasy.

We are co-developing Forge with two other studios; Southern California startup, Dark Vale Games and New Zealand programming house, Digital Confectioners. Having multiple studios partner on a game is a great way to develop and something I believe we’ll be seeing more of in the years to come. It allows specialization studios to focus on what they do best. In our case, art and animation.

At SuperGenius, there are few things we love more than pure art direction.  We are at our best and happiest when we are brought in early on to help define the look of a game.  With Forge, we have had the pleasure of art directing the whole title, and we are loving every minute of it.

Adam Danger Cook, our 2D Art Director led the charge during the art direction phase and it was his team’s work that ultimately defined the look of the game.  We agreed with Dark Vale early on that we would have at least one month devoted purely to concepts and art direction.  This would be a dedicated time for broad strokes and laying down the foundation for not only art style, but environment and character design. Whatever Adam’s team ended up with at the end of those four weeks would be our style guide.  I think everyone agrees it was one of the best decisions we made.  That four weeks gave us the world of Forge and its characters.

We definitely give credit to the team at Dark Vale for giving us such rich fodder to draw from and they have been one of the best teams we have ever worked with, hands down.  We were sold on the game design early on by Tim Alvis, Dark Vale’s CTO and Lead Designer, and knew right away that it was something we wanted to be a part of.  Tim had a very complete vision of the game play which is what powered every one of our choices moving forward.  He also knew that we needed to stand apart from the usual medieval, Western European look that most high fantasy titles fall back on.  We couldn’t agree more. We set out to develop an art style that would accomplish this while still upholding the spirit of the genre.

I know many titles begin with this in mind, but end up slipping back into the same old patterns.  It’s too easy to do once you are neck deep in production. When you have 30 or 40 artists working on a game, it can wear an art director out, trying to keep everything consistent. Well written guidelines can be an art director’s best friend. We don’t begin any work without written guidelines, even small projects, and Forge called for very specific guidelines. In our experience, the best art direction begins with a set of rules so artists’ at least have the opportunity to break them.  As any game developer will attest to, nothing brings out creativity like a good old fashioned set of constraints, so we moved forward with our first rule: begin with battle.

Beginning with Battle

Forge is about conflict, first and foremost. It is the heart of the game design.  We decided from the very beginning, everything we built was going to have its purpose in battle.  This would help us define everything man-made in the game, from costuming to architecture.  Any decorative architecture would be driven by either the need to frighten enemies, protect the occupants, or bolster the occupants with ferocity. The rest is functional. Structures need to look built to withstand the ultimate stress test; war. Walls, pillars, and statues would be huge and reinforced with metal.  Stone blocks would appear as if they were laid by giants. Wooden gates and doors would be built out of the entire tree for extra girth and protection.  If it didn’t hurt, frighten, or protect, it had no place in the game world.

Norse meets Inuit

We originally intended to draw most of our influence from Norse culture, which embodies a lot of the same battle-centric values we wanted to convey.  We were, however, dead set on standing apart from anything else out there.  Going for something fully Nordic would have meant rehashing many of the same elements used in games such as DragonAge or Skyrim.  Beautiful games, both of them, but they already exist. Some of our team members also worked on the original Mythica MMO from Microsoft, which was canceled in the early 2000’s and there might have been some pain left over from that.  Not a lot, mind you, but as an artist you get emotionally attached to the games you work on, and it can be especially devastating to lose a game you spent a year or more of your life on. We knew we need to mix things up a bit and take some roads less traveled.

We took an atlas and drew a line across the northern hemisphere.  We then made a list of all the cultures we could think of above that line – Russian, Mongolian, Celtic, Inuit, and Norse.  These were the ingredients for our first stab at the art direction.  We let that stew a while, but the same two cultures came up to the surface every time – Ancient Norse and Ancient Inuit.  There was something very intriguing about the mixing of these two cultures.  The Viking side had the heavy steel and stone and leather that we’ve all called on at some point, but the Inuit side always broke through, peppering the heaviness of the Viking clothing and architecture with tribal accoutrements – feathers, war paint, totems, and fur.  Not all of these were necessarily Inuit, but the tribal accents boosted the art with a kind of shamanistic savageness that compliments the war sensibilities of Forge.  Everything looked more ferocious when accented with war paint and feathers.  Pretty soon everything had a tribal accent to it that screamed warrior, blood and battle.  The two fit together incredibly well.

As a disclaimer, we would like to add that we took massive liberties with these cultures and when we refer to Inuit, or Norse, we are really referring partly to ancient Inuit and Norse, which is half-historical and half-imagination, on our part. The last thing we want is to offend any existing tribal nations with our poorly researched, fantastical reimagining of their cultures. As far as I know, no native tribes rode panthers into battle. That might have changed the outcome of the taking of the New World. Take that guns, germs and steel! I ride a F***ing panther!

Characters

Silhouette. Silhouette.  Silhouette.  It would be our battle cry if it didn’t sound so effeminate. The nature of Forge requires each character to have a unique silhouette, so that they can be recognized quickly from a distance.  Battlefields breed confusion and one of the quickest ways to discern who-is-who is by the shape of the character coming towards you.  As artists, we were hoping to negate the need for name plates, but I don’t know if that’s possible in a multiplayer game. Every character began with an exploration of silhouette and progressed from there.

Adam and his team produced several rounds of silhouettes for each character.  After each round, the best four or so would be picked to be taken to the next level – the tonal rough.  We then moved on to costume and armor details.  Having characters divided by class helped with their creation.  Each of the classes are distinct and lend themselves to certain predetermined specifics, such as their size and shape.  The Warden, for instance, is a defensive “tank” character and needed to be big and intimidating.  The Assassin, being well, “Assassiny,” relies on stealth, and therefore needs to be smaller and built for sneaking around in the shadows, scaling buildings and stalking prey from the rooftops and the thick of the forest.  Once we had these attributes solidified, we moved onto costume design, or what my wife calls “outfits.” This is always a lot of fun. “Her outfit is cute, but I think her shoes need matching bear teeth.” It’s like being a costume designer only we get to work with seasoned killers instead of Tyra Banks.

The Strength of Female Characters

One of the calls the team made early on was to shake loose from two clichés many modern games have fallen into.  Strong characters are almost always many men, and female characters almost always wear ridiculous armor that is built more to flaunt fleshy bits than to protect from a swinging weapon.  It was strongly felt amongst the team that we could make a kick-ass female Warden and Assassin that were both fun to play and functionally clothed.  Well, not so much functional, but not something you would see on the cover of a geek Maxim, either. Coincidentally, Viking culture includes the Shield Maiden – a historical embodiment of a strong female character – which we drew on for inspiration.  Once character design got underway, it became apparent that this was the right call. We knew we risked alienating some fans who are very interested in seeing fleshy babes in fantasy lingerie, but we felt the majority of gamers, both male and female, would appreciate strong female characters that kicked ass instead of flaunting it.

That said there are no thigh high boots and no revealing cleavage.  No short shorts and fishnet mail. The Warden is a big, scary female warrior and anyone will think twice before slapping her ass. In a perfect world, Forge would be that one PVP game that appeals to all genders. We can hope.

Every Good Character Needs a Story

The creative team at SuperGenius approaches everything by addressing its back-story first.  It does not necessarily matter that the story makes it into the game, so long as it has been considered.  A thing’s history is what gives it weight and a reason to exist.  Every pillar, every wall, every gravestone has a story – a “Where?” “Why?” and “How?”  The result is a tangible element, with purpose, that lends credibility to the world it exists in.

A notable demonstration of this point is the Assassin’s design.  While this is not something emphasized in the game at all, we pictured the Assassin from the far north, where civilization is more tribal-based and they live off of the land. The Assassin comes from a place where whaling knives are a common weapon and animal skins are the base material for most clothing and domiciles. The Assassin is decked out in animal furs and appears a bit more tribal than her fellow warriors. Adam applied face paint to her in the shape of a skull and it cemented her aesthetic in the tribal realm.  She looks fierce, as if she just came out of an Arctic winter and she is completely believable – like something out of a National Geographic.  I love that about her.  Back-story elevates our characters from two dimensional avatars into living, breathing people who you can relate to and root for.

Architecture, Animals and Totems

Creating the look of Forge’s architecture was a bit more challenging than designing its characters.  Dark Vale liked the idea of having lots of giant stone structures, but ancient Inuit did not build with stone, and while the Vikings did in many cases, their buildings were nowhere near as grand and monolithic as we wanted. There was no historical imagery to draw from for reference, really. At least nothing that fit the aesthetic of the game world we were intent on making.  We knew the architecture had to be monolithic and larger than life, but to achieve this we had to make it up completely from scratch.  The end result crosses many cultures but doesn’t settle on any particular one. We are hoping this will reduce complaints from historically minded gamers.

One of the early breakthroughs we had was that this culture worshiped animals, or more specifically, animal familiars, which is appropriate considering the nature of the game.  Whenever a building started looking a little too European, we decorated it with fierce animal statues and animal motifs. It always brought it back to that savage, battle-centric place where we wanted to be.

Motifs

After working on quite a few high fantasy titles, not to mention playing them, there is one particular element I come across and over the years it has started to get to me – decorative motifs. It seems the same arches and pillars show up in every fantasy game. You know the ones I’m talking about. They look like any European or Greek pillars and arches, and they all have a very similar decorative swirly motif. I noticed this while working on Ultima Online years back.   As an artist, you are stuck wanting to decorate a pillar, so you search Google images and find decorative borders, either for books or free vector images.  They work perfectly for embossing stone work.  They are ready-to-go medieval motifs.  It works, but it’s lazy.  Being guilty of this myself, I am always quick to spot it in games I am playing and I think, “hah, you too huh?”  This is something we wanted to avoid with Forge.

One of our concept artists, Chuck Lukacs, on top of being an incredible artist and author, is a teacher of traditional art at a nearby art college.  He spends his spare time doing wood carvings and engravings instead of playing games like the rest of us. He’s not only an amazing digital artist, but one of the most accomplished traditional artists I know.  We put him to work for several weeks on nothing but motifs.  Horizontal motifs, arch motifs, vertical motifs, square motifs – you name it. He is our Motif King.

We focused on sets revolving around Wolf, Bear and Crow, which was one of our early stabs at mythology.  The three animals were perfect subjects, and by the time we finished we had several sets of motifs for each animal. These motifs went into our image library and were made available for use by the environment artists.  Having custom motifs not only helped unify the art direction in the game, it also saved a lot of time in the end.  No artist had to search Google images for motifs even once.  Instead, they had only to go through our custom image library and grab a motif best suited their asset. Being in the middle of asset production at this point, I can confidently say it is working exactly how we intended. This is a technique we will definitely utilize again.

We are now moving full-speed-ahead in production and are watching the worlds and characters come to life.  Every day something new comes off the line that gets everyone excited. There are no words that can accurately describe the pride I have in the team here at SuperGenius. Their dedication to making Forge the best looking game possible is inspiring. The characters look like the concepts come to life and we owe so much of it to the time we spent art directing. Even though it was short, we made the best of that time and defined something truly compelling and unique. Between Dark Vale, Digital Confectioners, and SuperGenius, we have some of the best, brightest, and most talented veterans in the industry on this, along with a whole new generation of incredibly talented, young artists who are proving themselves worthy of a seat in game development Valhalla. We are consistently inspired, humbled and proud to be working with such incredible talent.

And of course there is the concept team, who laid the groundwork that would become Forge. Not only are they an absolute pleasure to work with, but simply amazing to watch in action. Traci, Egil, David, Chuck, Shawn, Eric and of course, Adam, who has led them all with impeccable care and creativity.（source:gamasutra）