CHRIS SOLARSKI is an artist-game designer and author of the seminal book, Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting-Edge Art Techniques for Winning Game Design (Watson-Guptill 2012), which has been translated into Japanese and Korean. Chris’ professional background—which mixes game art development at Sony Computer Entertainment and fine art figurative painting—has led him to lecture on emotions and storytelling in video games at international events including the Smithsonian Museum's landmark The Art of Video Games exhibition, SXSW, Game Developers Conference, and FMX. Chris’ personal projects at Solarski Studio continue to explore the intersections between video games, classical art and film to develop new forms of player interaction and emotionally-rich experiences in games.
The convergence of narrative in film, video games, and virtual reality will fundamentally change the entertainment industry in coming years. Chris Solarski's book gives content creators crucial insights into interactive story composition and how to adapt these concepts for transmedia storytelling. -Marc Forster, Film Director and Producer The clever thing about this book is that it bridges the worlds of game design and storytelling. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get into game design and understand what's going on beneath the surface. It reminds me of Robert McKee's Story, the classic book on screenwriting. You read it and you think: Aha, this is how storytelling works in film, it really can be explained! And you can see this book as a companion volume that is essentially doing the same thing for games. -Tom Standage, Deputy Editor and Digital Strategist of The Economist and a New York Times Bestselling Author As a gamification designer you look for inspiration from multiple sources to create behavior-change and evoke emotions that help your audience make decisions. Chris Solarski captures brilliantly how dynamic composition techniques for transmedia storytelling can assist in reaching your audience through shapes, flow, positioning and much more. -An Coppens, Chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation Ltd.