Why video games? Why not stay in Hollywood, or stay making fancy Italian sports cars?
TL;DRThey chose games over film or luxury design because of who they make things for, player interactivity and, for one artist, a deliberate path aimed at Star Citizen.
I would say it's who you do it for, and that was my main concern with the luxury market. So I was working for a lot of yachts, planes, politicians, billionaires around the world. The public you do a video game for is generally a very different public from the one you would do the most expensive bracelet in the world for, or an 80 million yacht for. I did a yacht that was consuming as much as the city we designed it in. So that's why. And I wanted video games, not really for video games themselves, but for Star Citizen. That's the reason I chose to go to Egosoft first, because it just made sense if I wanted to end up here, as I was a fan from a long time.
So you actually plotted a path to Star Citizen.
And I plotted a portfolio for Star Citizen.
I got into games on my university course in the first year. They have people doing 2D animation, 3D, games. So you try stuff for a whole bunch of different fields, and I dipped my feet in each of them. But video games were the one that spoke to me most, and also because I actually play games in my spare time, so obviously I care about them, so I'd like to make them good. So for me it just makes sense to be doing concept art for games. And also I hear some horror stories about how designs can go in the film or TV industry, where directors can have influence they maybe shouldn't, and it leads to some very bad things happening, is what I've heard. So I thought, let's go with games, and games have been good to me.
I would say for me it's the level of interactability that people have with what you make. It's really cool that in a video game, especially a video game like Star Citizen, a player can really look at every nook and cranny of the design, can walk around, open up all the component bays. I think it's just a lot cooler than seeing the design you made for maybe half a second in a movie, just fly by in a specific shot from a specific perspective. It's an interesting challenge. I think the end result is just more impressive though, usually.