Art director for Heavenly Sword returns to work on Hellblade
Heavenly Sword's art director, Hugues Giboire, has returned to Ninja Theory and will be heading up the art team on the firm's current project, Hellblade.
In a post on the official Hellblade website, it was announced Giboire had returned to lead the team due to the departures of art director Stuart Adcock and senior character artist Claire Blustin. Both are now pursuing careers outside of games.
"In the case of art leadership, we have welcomed back returning Ninja Hugues Giboire," reads the post. "Hugues rejoins Ninja Theory after several years having previously been art director on Heavenly Sword.
"In the case of character art, our search for a new character artist continues."
The latest update on Hellblade development was via a video diary which provides a look at character design back in January.
Ninja Theory plans to release Hellblade on PC and PlayStation 4, and it’s possible that mod support will be offered for PC users at some point.
“I think PC offers us a level of freedom that we haven’t had before,” he said. “We’re looking at everything we do on this project and figuring out better ways of doing things compared to how the traditional AAA console model works.
“And consoles are following suit with PC, but I think they’re years behind what things like Steam are doing.”
Antoniades said Hellblade may possibly support 4K resolution along with mod support. The studio also wants players to get their hands on the game, so a PC beta could be part the game’s near future.
“If we want to do an open beta right now, it’s a little bit trickier to do that [on consoles]than on PC,” he continued. “Playtesting is a huge thing for us. Usability testing, getting people hands-on to try things out, get feedback, then roll that back in and improve the game… it’s always been essential for us to do that.
“Not every publisher has let us, because of the secrecy that goes into consoles and publisher-based businesses.”
The full interview with Antoniades is featured in the latest issue of PC Gamer which goes on sale January 15.
Thanks, Siliconera.