Made Man

Studio:
Silverback Studios

Publisher:
Mastertronic / Aspyre

Platform
Xbox, PS2, PC,

Role:
Lead Artist

AN ORIGINAL production by Acclaim Studios Manchester, this game was initially titled Interview With A Made Man. Silverback Studios acquired, the rights following the collapse of Acclaim and eventually completed the project.

As a start-up studio with minimal resources this project was in every sense a budget title, but it was tremendous fun to work on. The game follows the career of Mafioso Joey Verola across several decades and numerous locations. From the jungles of Vietnam and the swamps of Carolina, to Little Italy and the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the environments provided an ever-changing backdrop to the twisting narrative.

As Lead Artist on the project I was responsible for every aspect of art production including scheduling and data budgeting. I also made major contributions to environment art on The Nightclub, The Motel, The Arena, and the Triad Dojo.

Without the backing of a major publisher the game was never to see great commercial success but I am very proud of this title.

We were fortunate with some of these scenes in that the studio was based in Piccadilly in Manchester UK, an area which looks enough like old New York that it sometimes doubles for it in movies.

Game Environments

Assignment:
Art Direction
Schedule Management
Level Design
Environment Modelling
Environment Texturing
Object Placement
Lighting

The game was very narrative driven and spans the 1960s to the 1980s. The great variety of environments made for a very interesting project to work on but caused a major headache for production, as many objects could not be shared between levels.

The game was rendered with an in-house portal engine and the designers and artists worked very hard to give the game an open, real world feel rather than a simplistic layout of corridors.

Nightclub Mission

Made Man Screenshot - Night Club

Ambushed!

Joey Verola and Philly battle their way out of the nightclub. The original idea was based on the club in Carlito’s Way but I wanted something more in the style of a '70s cop show.
To get some animation into the scene I used projected textures of the ceiling fan blades onto the floor.

Made Man Screenshot - Night Club

Wireframe Model

Wireframe model of the nightclub environment showing the high density of vertices. The scenes were lit using the radiosity plugin in 3dsMax and a relatively high number of vertices were needed to hold the colours.

Made Man Screenshot - Night Club

Shoot-out At The Bar

Made Man Screenshot - Night Club

Shoot-out At The Bar - wireframe

South Carolina - Cigarette Run

Made Man Screenshot - South Carolina

Alleyway

Joey begins his criminal career smuggling cigarettes.

Made Man Screenshot - Motel Corridor

Abandoned Motel

Joey battles rednecks in an abandoned motel.
Love that wallpaper.

New York Arena

Made Man Screenshot - Arena Corridor Made Man Screenshot - Arena Corridor

Arena Corridors

In this mission Joey raids the box office during a rock concert.
This location was inspired by stadium rock shows of the 1970's and a feature we wanted to show was the curving corridors under the arena seating. Getting curved corridors to work with the rectangular structure of the portal engine required careful planning.

Triad Dojo

Made Man Screenshot - Dojo Reception

Dojo Reception

Joey enters the lair of Jade Li.
This location was a run down office building which had been taken over by Triad leader Jade Li as an operations headquarters.

Made Man Screenshot - Dojo Reception

Dojo Reception

... and battles with yet more mobsters...

Made Man Screenshot - Dojo Museum Entrance

Dojo Museum Entrance

As Joey penetrates further into the hideout the setting becomes more opulent and the influence of the Triad gang more apparent.

Made Man Screenshot - Dojo Museum

Dojo Museum

Joey takes his revenge on Jade's prized collection.