Peter Chan (artist)

Last updated

Peter Chan
Nationality American
Occupation(s)Freelance concept and storyboard artist, animator

Peter Chan is an American freelance concept and storyboard artist and animator for video games and films. Chan is best known for his work in several LucasArts adventure games, including Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge , Day of the Tentacle , Full Throttle , and Grim Fandango .

Contents

Career

While in grade school, Peter Chan was inspired by a Star Wars magazine to pursue a career in concept art for films. [1] After some work in the advertising industry in San Francisco, he joined LucasArts in 1991. [1] Though Chan is credited on many of LucasArts' games, he considers that for most of these, he simply provided some assistance during his lunch hours to these other projects. [2]

Chan's first major role was with Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge , where he developed the art assets based on the pre-defined character designs. [2] For Day of the Tentacle , [3] Chan worked as the lead background artist alongside lead character designer Larry Ahern. [2] This was Chan's first opportunity to develop assets from scratch, and worked with Ahern to craft Looney Tunes-inspired characters and backgrounds, emulating those of Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble. [2] LucasArts had had Jones visit their studio during development, and Jones was impressed with Chan's work and suggested he come work for Warner Bros., but Chan decided to remain at LucasArts. [2] Chan continued as the lead artist for Full Throttle . [2] [4] At this point, around 1995, Chan decided to become a freelance artist, and moved from San Francisco to San Juan Island, Washington, but worked remotely with LucasArts as the backgrounds artist for Grim Fandango , [5] [6] [7] [4] [8] using the opportunity to provide material for breaking into the film industry. [9]

Chan had been set to help provide concept art for Tim Burton's Superman Lives , but the film was ultimately scrapped. [9] Chan's first feature film as a concept artist was Antz , and worked as visual concept and storyboard artists for several other films, including Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Rio, and Monsters University . [1] Chan also continued to freelance for video games as character and concept artist, including for Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus from Sucker Punch Productions, Insecticide from Crackpot Entertainment (formed by Ahern), several Humongous Entertainment games (formed by former LucasArts lead Ron Gilbert), and many games from Double Fine Productions (formed by former LucasArts lead, Tim Schafer). [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Day of the Tentacle</i> 1993 adventure game

Day of the Tentacle, also known as Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle, is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game Maniac Mansion. The plot follows Bernard Bernoulli and his friends Hoagie and Laverne as they attempt to stop the evil Purple Tentacle - a sentient, disembodied tentacle - from taking over the world. The player takes control of the trio and solves puzzles while using time travel to explore different periods of history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucasfilm Games</span> American video game producer

Lucasfilm Games is an American video game licensor and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions, the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts. LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, including Brian Moriarty, Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.

<i>Sam & Max Hit the Road</i> 1993 video game

Sam & Max Hit the Road is a graphic adventure video game released by LucasArts during the company's adventure games era. The game was originally released for MS-DOS in 1993 and for Mac OS in 1995. A 2002 re-release included compatibility with Windows. The game is based on the comic characters of Sam and Max, the "Freelance Police", an anthropomorphic dog and "hyperkinetic rabbity thing". The characters, created by Steve Purcell, originally debuted in a 1987 comic book series. Based on the 1989 Sam & Max comic On the Road, the duo take the case of a missing bigfoot from a nearby carnival, traveling to many American culture tourist sites to solve the mystery.

<i>Full Throttle</i> (1995 video game) 1995 video game

Full Throttle is a 1995 graphic adventure video game developed by LucasArts and designed by Tim Schafer. It was Schafer's first game as project lead and head writer and designer, after having worked on other LucasArts titles including The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991), and Day of the Tentacle (1993). Set in the near future, the story follows motorcycle gang leader Ben, who must clear his name after being framed for the murder of a beloved motorcycle manufacturing mogul. A remastered version of the game was developed by Double Fine Productions and was released in April 2017 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, with later ports for iOS and Xbox One.

<i>Grim Fandango</i> 1998 video game

Grim Fandango is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static backgrounds. As with other LucasArts adventure games, the player must converse with characters and examine, collect, and use objects to solve puzzles.

<i>Monkey Island 2: LeChucks Revenge</i> 1991 adventure video game

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. A sequel to 1990's The Secret of Monkey Island, it is the second game in the Monkey Island series. It was the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine, and the first game to use the iMUSE sound system. In it, pirate Guybrush Threepwood searches for the legendary treasure of Big Whoop and again faces off against the pirate LeChuck, who is now an undead corpse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Schafer</span> American video game designer

Timothy John Schafer is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend and Broken Age, co-designer of Day of the Tentacle, and assistant designer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. He is well known in the video game industry for his storytelling and comedic writing style, and has been given both a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Game Developers Choice Awards, and a BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the industry.

<i>Escape from Monkey Island</i> 2000 video game

Escape from Monkey Island is an adventure game developed and released by LucasArts in 2000. It is the fourth game in the Monkey Island series, and the sequel to the 1997 videogame The Curse of Monkey Island. It is the first game in the series to use 3D graphics and the second game to use the GrimE engine, which was upgraded from its first use in Grim Fandango.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LucasArts adventure games</span> Adventure games produced by LucasArts

From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick humor, with the exceptions of Loom and The Dig. Their game design philosophy was that the player should never die or reach a complete dead-end, although there were exceptions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Grossman (game developer)</span> American video game designer

Dave Grossman is an American game programmer and game designer, most known for his work at Telltale Games and early work at LucasArts. He has also written several children's books, and a book of "guy poetry" called Ode to the Stuff in the Sink.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Purcell</span> American cartoonist and video game designer

Steven Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator, game designer and voice actor. He is the creator of the media franchise Sam & Max, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games.

iMUSE is an interactive music system used in a number of LucasArts video games. The idea behind iMUSE is to synchronize music with the visual action in a video game so that the audio continuously matches the on-screen events and transitions from one musical theme to another are done seamlessly. iMUSE was developed in the early 1990s by composers Michael Land and Peter McConnell while working at LucasArts. The iMUSE system was patented by LucasArts in 1994, after being added to the fifth version of the SCUMM game engine in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter McConnell</span> American video game composer and musician

Peter Nelson McConnell, also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician, best known for his work at LucasArts and for composing the soundtracks for every Sly Cooper game since the second installment.

<i>Sam & Max: Freelance Police</i> Unreleased 2004 video game

Sam & Max: Freelance Police was a graphic adventure video game developed by LucasArts from 2002 until its cancellation in 2004, and the final game in the company's adventure game era. Freelance Police was originally intended for release for Windows in early 2004 as a sequel to the 1993 title Sam & Max Hit the Road. The game was based on the characters Sam & Max: an anthropomorphic dog and "hyperkinetic rabbity thing" who debuted in a 1987 comic book series created by Steve Purcell. Freelance Police was announced in August 2002, and showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2003. Like its predecessor, Freelance Police was designed as a point-and-click adventure game, but used a 3D game engine in place of the SCUMM and GrimE engines used in older LucasArts adventure games. The project's development was led by Michael Stemmle, one of the original designers for Sam & Max Hit the Road, while Steve Purcell assisted in developing the game's plot and providing artistic direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graham Annable</span> Canadian cartoonist and animator

Graham Annable is a Canadian cartoonist and animator. He is the creator of Grickle, published by Alternative Comics, and one of the founders of the Hickee humor anthology. Annable has created works for the television, film, video game, and comic book industries.

<i>Rogue Leaders</i>

Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts is a book about the history of the video game developer and publisher LucasArts, by PlayStation: The Official Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Rob Smith, with a foreword by George Lucas.

Larry Ahern is an American computer game designer, writer, artist, and animator. He is best known for being the co-project leader on The Curse of Monkey Island, alongside Jonathan Ackley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jory Prum</span> American audio engineer (1975–2016)

Jory Prum, also known as Jory K. Prum, was an American audio engineer, best known for his work in film and video games. He was the owner of a recording studio located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyle Balda</span> American animator and film director

Kyle Balda is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud; Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), with Pierre Coffin; and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. He previously worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic before moving to Pixar where he worked on three of their films.

Music of <i>Grim Fandango</i> 1998 Grim Fandango video game music by Peter McConnell

The music for the video game Grim Fandango was composed and produced by Peter McConnell and published by LucasArts in 1998. The soundtrack is a mix of South American folk music, jazz, swing and big band sounds, for the game story filled with adventure and intrigue set in a unique combination of film noir and Mexican folklore's Day of the Dead. The soundtrack garnered critical acclaim and remained subject of positive reviews and inclusion in critics' rankings for the two decades after its first release. The soundtrack was praised both as a stand-alone musical experience, as well as for its outstanding contribution to the overall game experience; capturing the spirit of the game, "gluing" the story together, and becoming "integral" to the success of the game.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Chan, Peter. "Peter Chan - Bio". peterchanconceptart.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mackey, Bob (March 7, 2016). "Behind the Art of Day of the Tentacle". US Gamer . Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  3. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (October 23, 2015). "Day of the Tentacle Remastered debuts in-game screenshots". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Diederichs, Wiehahn (January 13, 2015). "Grim Fandango: remembering a gaming masterpiece". Gearburn. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  5. ↑ Birnbaum, Ian (August 31, 2014). "Grim Fandango remaster will feature live orchestra soundtrack, original art assets". PC Gamer . UK. Archived from the original on April 2, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  6. ↑ Parrish, Peter (January 27, 2015). "Grim Fandango Remastered Review". PC Invasion. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  7. ↑ Hilliard, Kyle (August 31, 2014). "Grim Fandango". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  8. ↑ Grosso, Robert (February 5, 2015). "Gaming Obscura: Grim Fandango". TechRaptor. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  9. 1 2 Mackey, Bob (August 31, 2014). "PAX Prime 2014: 10 Bone-Chilling Facts About Grim Fandango Remastered". US Gamer . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.