Book Review: Costume Design for Video Games

A colleague at the ATCA workshops [1] this past May mentioned this book in the context of how they teach a project on video game character design in their undergraduate costume design class: Costume Design for Video Games edited by Sandy Appleoff Lyons. 

It piqued my interest, having no concept how one might design costumes in the context of video games, and at the same time having marveled at the historical detail in the character costumes as my partner played through the Assassins Creed games.

This text provides a solid overview of various aspects of the character creation process and how costume design fits into it. It's a bit shaggy, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of the process, each written by different authors who are all professionals in the field of game development. By the end of it, though, you get a solid idea of what sorts of design processes are required and how those design decisions are communicated to the rest of the game development team, what style sheets are and what sort of paperwork should accompany them, etc.

If you bring an existing knowledge of Western costume history to the book, you may find the survey of periods and cultures a bit of a review, but seeing how research and renderings translate into the paradigm of video game character design is illuminating.

A useful text for those who want to know more about the topic, and an excellent supplementary text for those teaching costume design and wishing to broaden the scope of the class beyond theatre/film.

[1] American Theatrical Costume Association, a trade organization for costume designers, makers, and historians/dramaturgs.