Understanding Game Art Practice Beyond Technical Expertise: A Qualitative Study

By Dave Hawey, Ph.D., Professor at NAD-UQAC and Head of the Praxis Laboratory

2025-05-09

Article no. 7, pages 1 to 12, published in Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG '25) by the Association for Computing Machinery.

FDG’25 Best Paper Award: Best Paper Award 2025 for Foundations of Digital Games Conference (April 15-18, 2025, Graz, Austria).

Abstract

Although they contribute a great deal to what players see on the screen, there is a marked absence in the literature of direct studies of artists working in digital game development. This is why we stress the need to understand game art practice in real-world industry settings, and particularly professional practice beyond technical expertise. Referring to design theory (i.e., Schön and others), professional artistry/knowledge in game art practice is understood as design-like process and skills. This qualitative study is based on ethnographic results from our doctoral research that have not yet been published in English. Cross-synthesis of three case studies is reported (each case comprises one experienced artist shadowed in a Montréal indie game studio during preproduction, between 2016-2018). Findings give insights on the ‘design-like’ professional artistry of game art practice, in terms of complex situations, common point of view on game experience and development, and core skillset. Referring to the theme of the conference, the findings point to ways of stimulating the growth of game art students’ design-like professional artistry in terms of interdisciplinary and sustainable collaboration in game development. Specifically, they strengthen the importance of humanistic skills (e.g. collaborative, ethical), combined with creative and technical ones, in professional practice of game art.

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