Welcome. . . to upping your game

Okay, I have to admit something. I’ve never played The Legend of Zelda. I know, it’s a disgrace. The equivalent of having never listened to The Beatles, or kind of knowing my mother’s birthday… I’m ashamed.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate what an iconic character Link is. The first pixel person, in fact, that came to mind when thinking about reimagining a classic game character for the cover. Artist Even Mehl Amundsen was the perfect artist for the job, making old Linky poos his very own. Check out how he did it on page 56.

Now that you’ve got your copy, I hope you enjoy the free Ebook of amazing game art that comes with it (see page 29), filled with 18 workshops for you to pore over. That’s after you get through the awesome stuff in these pages. Eliott Lilly makes you take an art test… no wait, come back! Don’t you know that ‘test’ has the same number of letters as ‘game’? (I know!!) Plus, following Eliott’s workshop on page 68 is not only fun, but will also set you right for when you have to prove your skills to hiring studios.

There are plenty of other insightful workshops in here too, but a highlight for me was speaking to Geoffrey Ernault about his entry into art. Temporarily blinded as a kid, his dad talked him through the Star Wars films, while the artist created his own imagery. On page 40 you can see the work he’s now creating as a pro… Right! Time to fire up ‘ The Nintendo’ to play ‘Link’. He’s a legend, after all.