Big GRIN
The mystic project codenamed Fortress developed by GRIN was actually a Final Fantasy game (or maybe, based on FF setting). Creators of Bionic Commando, Sweden developer is out of business now with more than 250 employee lost their jobs. I saw a big art dump at Kotaku with sketches and concepts from Fortress and some of the pieces are quite recent (July 2009). ConceptArt.Org website also have an art dump thread with ex-employee posting stuff from GRIN’s projects, including Bionic Commando and Fortress.
Two guys Martin Bergquist and Tony Holmsten started their own freelance illustration/design business presenting a portfolio with Fortress stuff as well. I’ve seen some art dumps at deviantart (arcipello, tonyholmsten) and such things are quite common when big company collapse.
Well losing jobs isn’t that great and I feel sorry for the guys. At the same time I think it’s naturally following from the fact that lots of videogame developers doing the same things. How many times you were fighting against the SWAT guys in futuristic settings? To survive on market and attract players you need something fresh and different.
loosing your job is a terrible thing but I hope some good comes from the losses, maybe some time to reflect on what they did wrong. Yes, to survive on the market you pretty much have to blow peoples minds, subject matter and story must be near perfect, all you can do is work harder. Its just to competitive out there. Brilliant Work though, Vibrant and Bold, reminds me of mirror’s edge(game). Judging from the work I see here, those guy will be working in weeks. Good inspiration though, I Saw the dump on CA, and the pieces with the Vibrant colours are motivating. Awesome!!!!!
These guys made some great concept art! I like what they do with trees and rocks.