Dave Zhang
@godsavant
Concept Artist & Illustrator (He/him) 🎨 Katana ZERO, DD Gaiden, Demon Bluff 🚫 No AI/NFT stuff, please. Portfolio: Links:
I really wanted to capture the game's retro-vaporwave style and quirky character designs, which you can see in these screenshots. In general, I've been trying to move away from relying on hard lineart and back to a painted look.
This morning's Secret Sauce showcase included 'John Gleep', a game I made art for! Congrats to Monthbug and @offbrand.games for the reveal. It's about a hapless alien trying to pay off space mobsters by abducting humans en masse and feeding them into a giant pachinko machine. 🛸🎰
Buuut...I spotted at least one protest sign using AI slop. 😩 C'mon, @bethesdaunion.bsky.social - Microsoft's AI pivot caused these layoffs in the first place. Using it yourselves is a surefire way to poison public goodwill, your most potent tool. PLEASE enact rules to avoid this crap in future.
Bethesda's output has defined so much of my personal gaming history, and with the loss of so much talent, they might never be able to put out games like these again. I hope they still can, but more importantly, I hope the devs affected land on their feet, either back at BGS or elsewhere.
Despite the weather, there was plenty of turnout for today's #SaveOurDevs rally at BGS Austin, meant to protest Microsoft's sweeping layoffs. Heartening to see solidarity and defiance across the game industry.
Bought my mom a Lego Botanical for Mother’s Day! After suffering the pain of stepping on my old Lego bricks for decades, now she gets to experience the zen of brick-building.
Speaking of which, I'd like to give a shout-out to @encifer.bsky.social, who drew the original DitD key art & logo that inspired me throughout. He just released a cozy cat game, Mistpaw Ravine!
These characters were absolutely adorable, although it was harder to nail down their facial proportions since they've been drawn so many times by different artists. 😅
Today marks the 1.0 release of 'Die In the Dungeon', a dice-based dungeon roguelike by ATICO. I had the pleasure of drawing some key art for it! 🐸🎲
One of the best things in games is hiding high-tier items in the starting area, letting players jump the progression curve and making replays easier. Off the top of my head, there's the Merc Suit in the attic in Stalker: SoC, the Drake Sword in Dark Souls, even the Pipe Axe in Fallout: London.
I really loved working on this one, partly b/c the game's character art itself is so charming! I had free reign to include any I wanted, and it was a real struggle to choose just three.
Art time! I drew this one for 'Demon Bluff', a single-player deduction game about rooting out the demons and minions hiding amongst innocent villagers. 😈🔪🧑🌾
Lol, Pinballz of all places… Reminds me of when Game enter CX did an episode at a tiny arcade near my apartment. Its entire claim to fame was a self-service udon vending machine.
(I just realized how bleak it was to literally see Woody, Jessie, and Buzz behind glass in a Japanese toy museum, given the plot of Toy Story 2…😔)
There's plenty of awesome non-licensed stuff, too, such as these adorable miniature rooms and plastic foods.
...Which leads to what I really came to see: this T. Rex leg from the original Jurassic Park. 🦖 The plaque says it was used in the jeep scene, but that leg was CG, not a plastic prop. I found it in this blurry production footage from on YouTube years later, but still no concrete answer to its use!
The founder of Kaiyodo was also friends with Hollywood directors like Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg and David Cronenberg, and even helped with practical effects their movies. For example, here's original props from "The Fly" and "Gremlins", safe from the abuses of the @redlettermedia.com crew!
A nearby collection of kaiju toys, all posed in adorable dioramas. I'm sure @monsterislandb.bsky.social would get a kick outta these. 😁
In case the life-size Kenshiro by the entrance wasn't a clue, Kaiyodo has a deep love of Fist of the North Star, which were some of the very first licensed toys it ever produced.
The first thing that greets you is this a wooden ship at the center of the main hall. No, I have no idea how they got this thing in here, and my Nihongo was too poor to ask. 😆
The museum itself is quite remote--a 2-hr train from Kochi City, then another fifteen-minute drive through the winding mountains of Shimanto. The museum itself is built in the repurposed gymnasium of an former elementary school.