Art Lead Work
I have experience as an art lead on numerous titles with Big Fish Casino. This experience includes directing and giving feedback to outsource studios, who provided final renderings and animations. The challenges and opportunities working on these projects stemmed from working within tight constraints of the previous titles, meeting short deadlines, and balancing multiple projects concurrently.
Additionally, I contributed as a lead artist/animator on several featured products, such as mini-games and original slot content.
The goal of this project was to make a Thanksgiving-themed reskin of an existing slot machine with a metamorphic feature where three characters grow in size.
Thanksgiving is already a challenging slot machine theme to make interesting, and the added gameplay constraints posed extra hurdles. I decided to theme the game around a Thanksgiving parade, with balloon mascots that expand to build anticipation.
Left: My original concept for the machine.
Above: The turkey balloon metamorphic growth stages and some of the symbols illustrated from 1518. Right; Final screenshot.
I knew that this slot machine would have a summer theme, and an expanding symbol with a character on it. That concept lent itself to a vintage pinup aesthetic, which I embraced.
To enhance the summer vibe, I set the game in 1950s Palm Springs, capturing its heyday as a celebrity vacation hotspot. The art showcases a playful mid-century kitsch style, with plenty of terrazzo textures, while the Hollywood celebrity theme infuses the game with aspirational glamour and luxury that slot players love.
Final renderings by 1518
This Halloween game is a reskinned slot machine featuring a prize wheel mechanic. I envisioned a circus/haunted carnival theme and transformed the prize wheel to resemble a circus knife-throwing wheel. Players responded positively, enjoying both the mechanic and the unique theme.
I created the original concept and drawings for this machine, and Present Creative handled the final renderings.
Images on the left are from my original concept sketches. Rightmost image is a mock of the final artwork.
Examples of some of the two dozen titles I oversaw as art lead:
I also led the design and development of several featured mini-games for Big Fish Casino, including the pachinko-style “Droppin’ Fortunes” and the picker game “Chance!”. Tokens collected during regular gameplay granted players access to a picker-style bonus game, where successful choices unlocked increasingly valuable prize tiers.
Working closely with UI/UX and game designer Patrick Khachi, I created storyboards, animatics, gameplay flows, and original mascot characters. I defined the asset pipeline, produced detailed build documentation for art and engineering teams, and directly contributed illustration and animation assets to the final products.
To align with player preferences, Chance! was initially themed around a fortune-teller motif, leveraging the proven appeal of “lucky” theme, and was designed for flexible reskins to support seasonal events. Our initial launch featured a holiday theme with a Mrs. Claus character.
Storyboards created for Chance! minigame
Animatic created for Chance! minigame
Original mascot design to fit the tarot theme
Set of mascot character designs that were part of focus group testing.
The first iteration of Chance! was Christmas themed, here is an art mockup I created.
Later an infinity mode was added to Chance!, these storyboards were created to show the new sequence
The Dino Diner themed Chance! Final art by Matt Burchstead.
Mock-up and styleboard for a pachinko-style feature, Droppin' Fortunes!
Final art mock-up for the pachinko-style feature, Droppin' Fortunes!