Mmmmm crazy gamer art that inspired the actual games. Into The Pixel “is an exploration and celebration of the art of the video game, curated by interactive industry veterans and experts from the art establishment.” This year it showed at E3 in santa monica, then the Toronto Film Festival, and its currently showing at E for All in LA. I went through the last few years, and even out of those these three still amuse/inspire me the most. Then again… i do have a thing for the crazy artsy games (i.e. Rabbids! Dewey! Viva Piñata! Katamari! etc…). What’s really interesting about these piece are that they are often pre-video game (or during) development, and are made my the art directors and designers working on the games. For example this Rabbids one is by Florent Sacre, the Art Director for Rayman Raving Rabbids. Dewey one is by Shigechy. And the Viva Piñata piece is by Ryan Stevenson - “a veteran of Rare projects like It’s Mister Pants! and Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge, [he] made his name as the concept artist behind the vibrant and unmistakable Viva Piñata.”

On a sidenote: while researching i discovered the IGN Raving Rabbids blog from before the game came out, with some incredible behinds the scenes imagery and hilarious shots of the game makers and their rabbids… so some peeks at that below as well as full sized images of the crops above.

Tags: art - video game