Hello everyone,
In just over two weeks (October 15) Raji: An Ancient Epic will finally launch on Steam and we hope that you are just as excited for the launch as we are!
As the launch is just around the corner we want to give you a look at the team behind the game, starting with our amazing co-founder and game artist, Shruti Ghosh.
So, Shruti very kindly put aside some time to talk about her experiences and answer a few questions about her journey so far!
Can you tell us how your journey with the Nodding Heads Team started?
It started back in college, Ian and I (Ian is another Nodding Heads Team co-founder and artist) were game art lecturers and we met Avichal who at the time was in his final year of studies.
Back then, Avichal and I were both big fans of Bastion and Transistor and we both had the vision to create a game that represents India on the global market, what's more, Avichal was (and still is) greatly inspired by the architecture of Rajasthan, which linked very well to my love of the old traditional arts of India. After we got to know each other more we began to talk about our aspirations to make a game, this was the start of the Raji project!
That said, we didn't things start right away as we always chipped away at the concept of Raji bit by bit. On my side, I drew some sketches that we then showed to our closest friends and asked them if they would be interested in playing a game set in the universe that we were making, the response was absolutely positive which really helped us push forward.
Eventually, in 2016 we left our jobs and started to work on Raji's prototype, from there, the rest is history!
Our next question tackles Shruti's preferred style of drawing!
What painting style do you like using the most, and what style did you use for Raji the most?
I love the Pahari / miniature paintings and Madhubani paintings. These paintings are so intricate, the use of color is magnificent, and the amount of detail in these small paintings is insane. They literally paint thousands of leaves on the trees and gold details on the jewelry and clothes of the kings and queens.
This form of art or mostly all traditional art forms of India are slowly diminishing hence Raji’s art style was a nod or tribute to this great art form. I wanted to capture the old worn out faded paintings on walls of palaces and temples which tell thousand-year-old stories in the paintings of Raji.
Contining with the art theme, we were curious about how long it took Shruti to complete a typical scene in Raji: An Ancient Epic
How long did it take you to draw a typical scene in Raji?
It's hard to say as art is a team effort, so any piece will be worked on by many people!
The concept art is done by Anirudh, the entire environment which you see throughout the game is mostly made by me and Shreyas, though Ian and Jalay contributed as well.
However, for the gods and goddesses avatar paintings, the line art was made by Anirudh and then it would take me roughly an hour (or more) to paint them, usually, it is a time-consuming process.
I remember the longest panel that I drew was the Durga blessing where it is blessed with all the weapons by different gods, that took quite a while as it was a huge panel.
That said I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was one of my favorite pieces to work on!
Continuing on the theme of favorites
What was your favorite drawing (for Raji) that you worked on?
I've never really thought about that!
The Durga blessing from the first level (as I mentioned in the last question) and probably the mandala of Golu’s birth would probably be my favorite as I just love the composition of it all!
Ani did a stellar job in visualizing it and I just added colors and a bit of life to it. It was a team effort between me and Anirudh and I love the final results.
More on the art but now looking on the challenges
What was the most challenging drawing that you had to tackle?
Honestly, it was all challenging as I knew that I only had limited time to complete the paintings and there were so many panels for each level. But I think that the third level story of Garuda had the most number of panels.
That piece took a lot of time and some parts were really small and had quite a bit of detail in it!
Now we move to more personal topics about Shruti and how she got into art
What was it that made you want to become an artist?
I think it was a natural choice for me. Quite early on my parents knew that Iw ould choose a career in art! My mom would always tell the story of how, when I was young, I would pick up the newspaper ads or pictures and then try to draw them myself!
I was the happiest the day they sent to learn art in a drawing school, and that was the moment that I had the biggest smile.
But choosing game art happened accidentally as I wanted to be more of a traditional artist. I love paints, paper, and pencils more than computers. But in the end, it worked out nicely!
Looking into Shruti's journey into art, we wanted to know more about her inspirations
What were your sources of inspiration for both private art and Raji related art?
Generally, I am inspired by a lot of things in life with nature being my biggest inspiration as I feel the calmest amidst trees and greenery, however, architecture also plays an important role in inspiring me creatively.
To me, India is such a vast canvas of art as every state has its own art form and history to go with it, any artist would be inspired by that.
For Raji, primarily it was the palaces and forts of Rajasthan that were the major inspiration sources, then there were also the Pahari paintings, and the Balinese mythology and culture for imagining the entire universe and style for the asura clans.
Also, our cutscenes draw inspiration from Wayang puppet shows and shadow puppetry which is used in a few parts of India to tell mythological tales. I remember that when I was a child in Bengal, outside a temple they used to tell tales of Lord Krishna and Ram, I used to love listening to them as a kid, and even now thinking about them still gives me just joy!
Bringing everything together in a nice circle, we looped back to the experience of developing Raji: An Ancient Epic
Many of us know about the roller-coaster ride that accompanied the development of Raji: An Ancient Epic. Did this affect what you drew for the game? And if it did, what part of the game would you really love to re-do?
That’s a really good and tough question. I guess the ups and downs did affect all of us in the company, and even more so for Avichal, Ian, and I, as we had the added responsibilities of running the company and making sure that everybody was paid.
Sometimes the pressure of running it all did get to me, things like running the day to day affair of the company (which wasn't easy to do) and then the daily task of making art for the game would quickly pile on. There were times that I didn't feel like painting or making an asset for a level because my mind wasn't cooperating, but I still had to do it because we were in a race against time.
I think that if we didn't have to spend six months struggling to find funding and we could have concentrated on the production of the game instead, we could have done a lot more to the art or overall game, and I could have painted more details on those avatar paintings.
Looking to the post-launch days, we were curious to know what Shruti had planned
With the launch of the game less than a month away, what are you planning to do once that happens?
Take a break definitely! We hardly spent any time with our dogs during the last year, so we want to take them for some outdoor activities or take them for a trip somewhere. I am also planning to do a few art courses from the London School of Arts so I am excited about them.
And to end things, a special question to help the budding artists out there!
There are many people that have been inspired to draw after seeing the art in Raji: An Ancient Epic, do you have any tips for those that are just starting out?
We love seeing different artists depicting Raji in their own art style! It’s really humbling to see all of the art and love that everyone is pouring into Raji.
My advice is, don't think about what you can do or can't, always keep practicing, trying new stuff, and never stop learning!
