Mutant Chronicles

While I was working at Sony back in '95 in London I briefly visited Bill Pearson's model shop at Shepperton Studios, he was model supervisor on Alien, Outland, Moon, etc. They were working on early development of a Mutant Chronicles film to be directed by Steve Norrington (who popped into the studio briefly, all grungy with dreads). I did a few sketches for an escape shuttle and a flagship galleon.

Universe - the second game I worked on

After Curse of Enchantia I pitched Core Design my own idea based on a film script I'd been working on, they generously approved me to adapt it into a space opera point-and-click adventure game. So I designed and co-wrote the second game I worked on, which was a pretty lucky break so early in my career. As well as doing all the backgrounds and cover art.

                                   Poster:

                                   Box cover:

                                 Some backgrounds:

Dragonstone

The second cover illustration I did for Core Design.

                                Original:

 

                                Box cover:

                                  Alternative cover sketch:

Curse of Enchantia - first game I worked on

Here's another bit of reminiscing...
When I was starting out trying to be a freelancer, I'd done a few book covers and video covers (yes, I said video covers, VHS things that used to be rented once upon a time) but even though I was signed with an agency in London I hadn't done much work. I saw an ad in an Amiga mag for a game by Core Design it was a cool bit of airbrushed cover art for a new game called Thunderhawk. I contacted them and sent them some samples. Core were in Derby not far from me in Nottingham, so they called me in for an interview. They wanted me to do a whole load of hand painted backgrounds to be scanned in. I said great, could I work from home freelance. They said no and threatened to tell my landlord I'd turned down a full time job. Terrified, I accepted my first ever real job and got sucked into the games industry. I then learned that this was going to be a point-and-click adventure game, in the style of an established genre including (already) classics such as King's Quest, Monkey Island, Space Quest and the like.
Back then there was not much in the way of "game design", much less "concept art". I was shown extremely brief paragraphs or diagrams of each scene/puzzle and given full latitude to make up pretty much whatever I wanted. It was a lot of fun, although I found myself questioning some of the gameplay choices. I was told thanks for your input now get back to doing art, something I'd get used to for the rest of my career. ;)
The game was originally called "Lenoria" I think, but I wasn't sure what that would convey to a potential audience so I suggested Enchantia. The boss liked it and went with Curse of Enchantia.
(I also later named Killzone by accident, but that's another story).

The game turned out... well it got a mixed reception. But eventually became "famous"  - or infamous- when Yahtzee Croshaw reviewed it, the very first game he ever owned on the Amiga:

Yahtzee's Curse of Enchantia review 

Original wraparound artwork:

Poster / box cover art. (Did the hand-drawn & airbrushed title graphic myself):

A few backgrounds:

Throwback Thriday - My very first video game cover

My very first video game cover, ever! I had done a cool title in perspective but they slapped their horrible one on instead.

http://rmohr.deviantart.com/art/Hell-Raiser-658552519

Old Games Workshop Stuff

A long time ago I lived in Nottingham for ten years, where Games Workshop are based. I did some work for them, I posted a little retrospective on that stuff:

http://rmohr.deviantart.com/

 Eldar Attack

  Imperial Galleon

Imperial Warship

Warhammer 40k Building Facade

Tyranid Attack - White Dwarf illustration

Tyranid Fleet - White Dwarf illustration

Ramming Assault on Eldar - White Dwarf illustration


The Palatine -  White Dwarf double spread illustration


Space Fleet - box cover art (I did the view of the battle out the porthole)

Space Fleet box art used for White Dwarf cover

Space Hulk - when Games Workshop were first contemplating their own anthology comic.

"Of Men And Monsters!"

Continuing my chronology of old work, here's another ancient one from my early days as a freelance comic book illustrator with Sarah Brown Agency, London.  Paperback edition of William Tenn's classic alien invasion novel. (Now easily confused with pop band "Of Monsters and Men")

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4zyQ1
 

                                        Original painting:

                                        https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4zyQ1

                                             1989 Gollancz edition

                       My cover was chosen by author Willian Tenn, aka Philip Klass,
                       for the NESFA Press collection of short stories Here Comes Civilization Vol. II 
                       https://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Civilization





                                      

DeviantArt page

I started a DeviantArt page a while back, I'd heard it's one way to build a bit of a following and I plan to be more annoyingly self-promoting this year. Didn't do much with it, but I think I'll go back and post a chronology of past work and then some stuff from newer projects. So if you have a DA page then follow me:

rmohr.deviantart.com

New Blog, New Year 2017

Some of you may have noticed my posts stopped on my previous blog a while back. The reason was that when Google merged with Blogger I found I was not able to log in any more with my old e-mail and there was no means of getting any technical support. So in the end I've decided to just start a new one. And with that, here's my first post, a pic from a Patreon project I'm planning to do this year.

Stay tuned...

www.facebook.com/Heionarch