Top 10 Video Game Concept Artists

“Souls” series (2009-)
It takes some real artistic ability to find such beauty in such deep darkness. Excluding “Dark Souls II,” Miyazaki contributed as director to every game in the series. Before FromSoftware allowed him to take over “Demon’s Souls,” the company was under the impression that the project would be a failure, but under his ambitious eye, it began one of gaming’s most famous and unique RPG franchises. The imagery is, as its title implies, dark and violent, yet strangely beautiful and mesmerizing. Every inch of the environments helps to tell the story of a fantastical, grim world unlike anything else.

“Castlevania” series (1997-)
This woman created some of gaming’s most recognizable vampires. Her unique style involves a variety of different techniques, including smudging and the use of a palette knife to give her paintings a more three-dimensional look. Needless to say, this made “Castlevania” one of the most beautiful action platformer franchises in all of video games. The franchise’s highly individual look owes to both gothic Dracula imagery and manga styles, capturing both creepiness and gracefulness in the characters and environments. What’s most impressive about her visual style is that her artistry is completely self-taught, as she received no formal training, which is the mark of a true artistic genius.

“The Last of Us” (2013), “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” (2016)
The seventh console generation saw a golden age for developer Naughty Dog, churning out the post-apocalyptic masterpiece “The Last of Us.” It’s already earned a reputation as one of the greatest games of all time, and that’s due in large part to Sweeney’s work. Like the game’s heavy subject matter, the look and feel of the game manages to balance ugliness and elegance in a ravaged world. More recently, he contributed to the finale of the “Uncharted” series, gracefully bringing the series into the current generation with some of the series’ best environments. Though he has fewer credits than most of the other artists on this list, it makes us excited for what his future holds.

“Joust” (1982), “Bubbles” (1982), “Star Rider” (1983), pinball machines
We may be stretching the definition of concept artist a bit here, but we couldn’t deny the influence this man had on video game artistry. He contributed to the aesthetic of several classic arcade games, but is more well-known for his highly influential designs for pinball machines. One of the most recognizable names in the gaming industry, his designs may be more simplistic, since he was one of the first concept artists, he still utilized innovative techniques to create imagery that is now synonymous with gaming in the ‘80s. Though he sadly passed away in 2014, he certainly left a significant mark on the history of video games.

“Street Fighter” series (1987-)
Every industry has those who have enough talent to go by a single name, and for video game concept art, that is this somewhat enigmatic figure. He’s responsible for the unique look of this classic fighting series, particularly such recognizable characters as Ryu, Alex and Akuma. In addition, he contributed to redesigns of some of the most famous Marvel characters for the “Marvel vs. Capcom” series. His skill in creating a world of his own and later integrating some already well-known characters into that universe and making them his own makes him a gaming icon.

“StarCraft” series (1988-), “Warcraft” series (1994-), “Diablo” series (1996-)
Blizzard Entertainment is the quintessential developer for some of the most noteworthy MMORPGs, and Didier was invaluable to the development of three of the greatest of all time. Though he is most famous for his fantastical images for the “World of Warcraft” series, he has shown incredible range by also creating a sci-fi universe for “StarCraft” and a darker world for “Diablo.” While he’s definitely not the sole contributor to Blizzard’s success, it’s impossible to deny that one of the biggest appeals of these games is their aesthetic prowess. Since these games have proven their ability to adapt to the improving quality of video games, we’re sure he’ll continue to provide us with more fantastic characters and landscapes for years to come.

“Dragon Quest” series (1986-), “Chrono Trigger” (1995)
Unlike most of the artists on this list, Toriyama had already established himself as a successful artist as creator of the classic manga, “Dragon Ball.” Following this incredible accomplishment, he made the move to video games to continue his career with character designs for the “Dragon Quest” series and character and environment designs for “Chrono Trigger.” His influential manga art style continued into his concept art, working on these classic RPGs. His work will be forever memorialized by a special ending to “Chrono Trigger,” in which he makes a cameo appearance with the game’s other developers. While his manga work may be what he is mostly remembered for, his contribution to video games cannot be ignored.

“Pokémon” series (1996-)
This is the man who is responsible for designing every single of the original Pokémon except Mew. Many of them are immediately recognizable to even the most casual of gamers. While he isn’t solely responsible for the many remaining Pokémon, he still has final say on all of them, and they are adapted in his style before the final product is revealed. As the art director for the entire franchise, the look of not only the video games, but also the anime, manga and films. That’s an incredible amount of work to be responsible for, but he’s hit it out of the park every time and we’re confident that won’t stop anytime soon.

“Metal Gear” series (1987-)
After rising through the ranks of Konami, Shinkawa began work on character and environmental designs for the “Metal Gear” series before becoming art director for the Hideo Kojima-directed entries in the better known “Metal Gear Solid” branch of the franchise. He has cited many different artists as inspiration, both Eastern and Western, coincidentally including our number one pick. This has provided the series with its unique look with roots in both anime and contemporary art. His friendship with Kojima will continue with his next effort, “Death Stranding,” which will no doubt continue his unique artistic vision.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honourable mentions

Tetsuya Nomura
“Final Fantasy” series (1987-), “Kingdom Hearts” series (2002-)

Katsuya Terada
“The Legend of Zelda” series (1986-)

Keiji Inafune
“Mega Man” series (1987-), “Street Fighter” series (1987-)

Peter Chan
“Monkey Island 2” (1991), “Grim Fandango” (1998), “Psychonauts” (2005)

Shigenori Soejima
“Persona” series (1996-), “Catherine” (2011)

“Final Fantasy” series (1987-)
There are few video game series that have been more influential than the “Final Fantasy” series, and it wouldn’t be what it is without this brilliant artist. Though his role in the series now is less major than it once was, he’s still contributed to every main instalment in the series in some capacity, including some absolutely stunning character design and artwork for the first ten games and graphic design for the first six. Few video game artists have worked on so many games that have created so many legacies, in addition to a multitude of different games. An artist of this talent and scope was an easy choice to nab first place.

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