Agenda

Ghost of Yōtei blends the vibe of classic Westerns with that of Japanese samurai movies. That means long sightlines over vast, empty areas. Authentic Japanese visuals, but recast from the close quarters of Tsushima to the openness and incredible scale of Hokkaido, the frontier of Japan when the game takes place. Sometimes even a feeling of loneliness, alone with a sword and a horse with nobody in sight for miles in any direction.

Art Director Joanna Wang walks through how the team went from this statement of purpose to the beautiful, fully realized world of Ghost of Yōtei. She covers the definition and discovery of the key focus areas that created our target vibe and follows up with the production process the team used to deliver on the emotional promise of the game.

Takeaway

Attendees will learn how to define and maintain a clear stylized art direction, translate cultural and environmental inspirations into playable spaces, and streamline the production process for foliage, color palettes and worldbuilding, balancing artistic ambition with production realities to deliver a visually cohesive, deeply immersive world.

Intended Audience

This session is designed for game developers involved in art direction, environment art, concept design, level design and technical art who want to understand how to translate stylized visual vison into a shippable game. Especially for anyone interested in cross-culture art production work.