The Birth of a Startup
Superteam Games was incorporated in June 2021, led by CEO Jerome Collin. Early prototypes by fellow Founders and engineering rockstars Sam Sheth, Michael Saperstein, and Andre Taube paved the way for fun, arcade-style gameplay and proved the viability of shipping synchronous 4v4 on multiple platforms.
The Road to Alpha
I joined the team on September 13, 2021 as the Senior Art Director to define visuals for STG Football. We replaced the beloved orange pillboy from early prototypes and created the company's corporate branding and website.
My tasks for the duration of the project included:
- Hiring a multidisciplinary art team, inc outsourcing.
- Designing and implementing all game UI.
- Designing a data driven pipeline to render & deliver virtual goods to Users.
Due to the size of the team and the nature of startups, I had the opportunity to wear a lot of hats.
Life in Animation
BTS Mocap Promo by Michael Tran
Terry Sanderson and Scot Cota brought life into STG Football. While there was some experimentation done with hand animation in early cycles, the product transitioned to Motion Capture for better fidelity.
Character Art was an ongoing process with multiple iterations tied to game design. STG Football's input centric style of gameplay meant that the camera had to be far away and player scale greatly exaggerated. Driven by some sort of magic math, the characters ended up being 9' tall on the field with regular sized legs. Zuno Liu managed the incredible work provided by Rocksalt Interactive. Then, he prepped the models for animation by rigging and ensured the uniforms were compliant with our partner, the NFL Players Association.
Character Scale and Style Tests
STG's Solitary Stadium
In addition to characters, Zuno and I worked with Rocksalt to define the look of the stadium. Due to the team's desire to serve a wide range of end devices and a necessity to maintain a single pipeline, we ultimately settled on Unity's Built in Render Pipeline. We utilized Unity's native Post Processing Stack for a cinematic look that still maintained 60fps on low end devices.
Stadium Concept Art and Development Screenshots
STG Football in it's Final Form.
Over the Top Arcade Fun
Over the top visual effects was one of the product's market differentiators. Users equipped End Zone celebrations and Character Effects as one of many ways to flex their customizations during cinematics. This also became an avenue for community engagement.
VFX integration and video by Terry Sanderson
Gameplay driven effects, such as skill procs, had to be small and quick yet legible. These spritesheets were rendered out of After Effects and implemented within a 2d canvas anchored to the 3D character's root position.
Sprites by Tim Tang & Teresa Yau
