Video Game Student Leo Li Named Winner of Codename: Shifter Contest
When Toronto Film School instructor Kyle Skidmore challenged his Video Game Design & Animation students to create concept art for his new video game, he never dreamed his expectations would be so far surpassed.
Launched late last October, the Codename: Shifter Concept Contest tasked third-term students with creating a series of aquatic-themed alien ships for the a single-player, top-down shoot-’em-up Skidmore’s indie game studio, Cat Splat Studios, is currently developing – and in the span of just three weeks, no less.
“We gave them a directive to create some alien ships that could invade these various galaxies for their water resources and harvest those resources,” Skidmore said of the challenge he and his fellow TFS grads and Cat Splat founders, Hisham Ata and Matthew Douglas, issued to students.
“The results yielded some gorgeous pieces of work, especially for the time frame the students had to finish it all.”
In total, participating students were required to submit six silhouettes of at least three class of ships, two rough sketches of any ship class, and one final render of any ship class.
When the contest wrapped up in mid-November, Skidmore had the difficult task of choosing his top three winners. In the end, he recognized the entries submitted by Leo Li (first place), Manni Mahdvipour (second) and Luke Parker (third) with a cache of prizes, including Cat Splat T-shirts, Amazon gift cards, and, last but not least, a mini-internship for grand prize winner, Li.
“When I saw Leo’s work…I was, like, ‘Oh my god, this is absolutely the guy that we’re working with!’” Skidmore recalled, noting the professionalism of Li’s submission – a package that included his entire workflow.
“This was the kind of stuff that you would not even get sometimes from professionals. He 100 per cent surpassed all my expectations for student work.”
Li, who’s currently in his sixth and final term of the Video Game Design & Animation program, said he took a very research-based approach to his designs for the contest.
“Kyle gave us a lot of creative freedoms to what we were designing. The theme was aquatic, so I researched a lot of exotic marine animals on the internet to see their shapes and the way they’re designed biologically,” said the University of Toronto alum, who graduated with a degree in Computer Science before enrolling at TFS.
“It was all very unusual and interesting, so I took a lot of inspiration from that research in my designs.”
In the nine months since winning the Codename: Shifter Concept Contest, Li has continued to work with the Cat Splat team on more concept art for the game – delving into some 3D models, weaponry and character work during his internship at the start-up.
An aspiring character artist, Li said the experience of working on Codename: Shifter has proven both a rewarding and very beneficial one, skill-wise.
“It’s been very helpful, because my design and my drawing skills have improved the most with their feedback,” he said, noting that Skidmore has also been teaching him the ins and outs of the indie video game pipeline.
“I want to continue to work for Kyle as long as he allows it, but I’m also going to apply for other indie studios, just to get myself out there and get some experience in what the industry is like.”
While Skidmore said he’d love to keep him on at Cat Splat for as long as he possibly can, he’s not holding his breath that Li won’t be scooped up by another studio shortly after graduation.
“I’m honestly so impressed with him, because I graduated from the same program he’s taking now and I was the top of my class. But I never would’ve been able to put out this quality of work at the stage he’s at and also get straight As in all my classes,” Skidmore said, praising Li for both his talent and work ethic.
“It’s honestly been really impressive to work with him…I think he’s something special.”
For more information – including details about Codename: Shifter and Cat Splat Studios’ recently released mobile game Rocket Recover, go to the website here.
