Jade Empire: A Labour Of Love

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Art - Matt Goldman, Art Director on Jade Empire

When do the first pieces of concept art emerge? Is it after the story has been fleshed out or does it begin even before that?

Matt: Exploration begins immediately. Design and art are two sides of the same coin. Both are trying to tell a story. Creating art that is liberated from any requirements (other than looking cool) can help drive the writers to look in places they might not have considered!

Where do you draw inspiration for the creations in Jade Empire?

Matt: Inspiration was drawn for a great many sources. The first task in the process was to divide the giant pile of reference into primary and secondary sources. Chinese landscape, architecture, art history and the great novels are primary sources. Movies and more recent novels that are derived from the former are secondary sources. My favorite things in particular: Song monumental landscapes, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, and Iron Monkey (1993).

Jade Empire is very much about mysticism and mythology. How does that change your approach to the art design and what are you doing to make that mythology readily apparent to gamers?

Matt:Inside my office is a rack of bronze Zhou dynasty bells. Before the day starts we burn incense and paper money to thank to our ancestors. We ring the bells and chant a few "blue dharmas", then go for a jaunty run over the clouds. I'm working on traveling by turning into a beam of light but haven't yet mastered this technique. I think it's obvious the fans will appreciate this enlightened approach.

What is the process for the character design? Is it more of a community effort where everyone has input or do you have the greater say in how the character's will look?

Matt: Characters are tricky, especially female love interests which must be all things to everyone (yikes!). Generally speaking the player characters are the ones that have the most requirements and are under the most scrutiny from the most people. The further away from "normalcy" then the more fun we can have with them. My lead character artist Rion Swanson has done an excellent job of juggling all this!

How many hours a week would you say you're working on Jade and how long have you been working on the title now?

Matt: I've been working on Jade since its inception May 2001 so that's...um....40 months. I'd say the average week over that period is 50 hours but that's not counting in the obsessive watching of kungfu movies and reading everything I can get my hands on the martial arts classes and demonstrations, dim sum, attending the Peking Opera....

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