Hello and welcome to our series of developer interviews. First of all goes Christian, who works as a freelancer with our UX and UI.
Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you end up working with games?
Games have always been an important part of my life and I have always loved to create things. But somehow I didn’t see games as a career and ended up working in advertising and graphic design – keeping game making as an inspiring hobby. Fast forward 16 years. I spent a lot of time making things for companies that will fit their brand and create the right kind of experience for their customers. Meanwhile, nights and weekends were spent making video games, flash games, apps, tabletop roleplaying games and board games. In 2019 I decided I wanted to work full time with games – as a specialist for others as well as developing my own.
Can you tell us about some of the earlier games you have worked on?
I would say that one of my favorite game projects going back is a tabletop roleplaying game that I co-created, art directed and published. The game is called Operation: Fallen Reich and is a game about occult mysteries set in the shadows of World War II – basically X-files with Wooster and Jeeves (www.fallen.se). But when I’m not helping out on Songs of Conquest I am also working on my own video game called CULT Patrol -- check that out here: www.cultpatrol.com
Cursors. Sometime clean and simple, sometimes textured and chunky. It varies depending on what part of the game you are looking at.
What’s a typical day of work at Lavapotion like?
I spend all my days in Photoshop and Slack. Talk with David about UX and UI stuff. Share some progress with the team. Get feedback. Listen. Polish. Export. Evaluate in game. Update. Drink coffee and water and usually take a short run over lunch.
Do you have any favourite designs that you are particularly proud of?
Stone and typography. I love stone textures in games and it has been hard working on the stone textures of the UI in this game since we have such an expressive and beautiful pixel art style in the game. So I’m not saying that it makes me proud, but it makes me happy. The other thing is typography, I’m a systemic visual designer at heart and a big part of my preferred tool set is typography. I’m proud of our ambition when it comes to typography in this game but there’s more work to be done.
Oh, that lovely stone work. So many iterations, so many discussions. So much stone. Also, did I accidentally show a tiny part of the battle view? Why, yes I did.
What is your current focus right now?
The thing that keeps me busy right now is how we best can get the feel for each faction in the UI and still have a common UI for the game. If you are playing a Rana Wielder I want the UI to help you feel in command of that specific faction and culture.
Are there any other games out there that you are inspired by when working on SoC?
I love fantasy as a genre. But I’m also a minimalist graphic designer. These things do not always go together. When working on Songs of Conquest I really wanted to create a modern game, a modern fantasy game. I have looked at many games as a reference for this project but Diablo 3, Age of Wonder 3, Armello and Divinity Original Sin 2 are some of the most visited games.
The banners of our faction represent an area where the UI work almost turns into pure 2D illustration.
A lot of people read our blogposts, comment on Twitter and discuss the game on Discord. Has our communications with the fanbase affected your work in any way?
Through my experience working with branding and visual design I’m very used to working in a collaborative process. Be that with my colleagues or with a client. I usually have a clear vision very early on of where I want to go. But I also know that everything can be better and I don’t have all the answers myself. I like to listen to everyone, it gives me cognitive fuel.
Finally, is there something you’d like to add?
The most important thing in life is to be kind and generous. Take care.