Vicious Circle

I was the Head of Game Development at Rooster Teeth where I ran the Games Department and served as Creative Director for all our products. We shipped several games (digital & tabletop) but my proudest work was on Vicious Circle.
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With an extremely tight budget and schedule, I built a talented team of developers and together we shipped an awesome indie game with a truly unique tone and aesthetic. As Creative Director it was my job to create a “franchise” that could not only work as a game but also expand into an animated series or feature film. I had an absolute blast creating a colorful cast of characters and a vast, gritty world for them to explore. I explored several different styles for Art Direction, but eventually landed on a combination of Retro Futurism and Space Age design with lots of inspiration from 50-60s sci-fi pulp comics.
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As with any creative production, it is a TEAM effort where everyone has a finger or toe in everyone else’s work. We were an extremely collaborative group always bouncing ideas off each other and trying to find the best idea for the game’s unique design. My voice was in just about every creative decision we made, but I could not have done it without the talented art team that surrounded me. I'm only sharing a small subset of the massive art collection that went into the final product so please go check out their amazing work at their portfolio links below.
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https://www.artstation.com/ageoftheatom
https://www.artstation.com/markelmilanes
https://www.artstation.com/ramondtorres
https://www.artstation.com/gula
https://www.artstation.com/ed209
https://www.artstation.com/joshwhitmire
https://www.artstation.com/jpselfanimator
https://www.artstation.com/cliffstokes
https://www.artstation.com/nicholas_silveira
http://www.chaseshields.com/

Painting by Joshua Guglielmo with some extra grunge and color balancing by me. I also created the Vicious Circle logo and branding.

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, Concept Design by Joshua Guglielmo, pose by Chase Shields, rigging by Nicholas Silveira

The original design for Blitz was way more cyberpunk, but we eventually reworked him to fit within our "retro future" style.
Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, Concept Design by Joshua Guglielmo

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, Concept Design by Joshua Guglielmo

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, 3D model & texture by Josh Whitmire, paintover by Joshua Guglielmo, pose by JP Self, rigging by Nicholas Silveira

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, Concept Design and paintover by Joshua Guglielmo, 3D model & texture Eddie Munoz, pose by Chase Shields, rigging by Nicholas Silveira

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, concept design by CG Bot, and 3D model by Josh Whitmire

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, Concept Design by Joshua Guglielmo

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, 3D model & texture Eddie Munoz, concept design and paintover by Joshua Guglielmo, rigging by Nicholas Silveira

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, Concept Design and paintover by Joshua Guglielmo, 3D model & texture Eddie Munoz, pose by JP Self, rigging by Nicholas Silveira

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, 3D models and textures by Markel Milanes, Ramond Torres, Bryan Shannon, VFX by Clif Stokes, and tech art/lighting by Nicholas Silveira

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, character model and textures by Josh Whitmire, pose by JP Self, rigging by Nicholas Silveira
Environment models and textures by Markel Milanes, Ramond Torres, Bryan Shannon, VFX by Clif Stokes and tech art/lighting by N

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, 3D models and textures by Markel Milanes, Ramond Torres, Bryan Shannon, VFX by Clif Stokes and tech art/lighting by Nicholas Silveira

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, 3D models and textures by Markel Milanes, Ramond Torres, Bryan Shannon, VFX by Clif Stokes and tech art by Nicholas Silveira

Art Direction by Michael P. Hadwin, Concept Design by Joshua Guglielmo.

Check out the 3D model by Markel Milanes here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1eb1X