interview between Pingame Journal and Greg Freres
March 31, 2012--Greg Freres' Wizard Of Oz final playfield art!
GREG: Welcome to the long-awaited WB-approved playfield art for the Wizard of Oz. I've read so many posts over the past couple months and understood the pain y'all were going through. I was inspired by many of your posts when you first saw the castle playfield so thanks for helping me get through the last stages of the design process. I am still not used to having so many people be so aware of a project...it's been a bit unnerving to say the least.
When we first started the project there were two major elements that I used as the springboard - the fact that we were going to use "hand-drawn" artwork and the idea that the playfield was somehow divided between the Good Witch/Bad Witch sides of the storyline. And when Joe's design started coming to life and there really was a nice division between the two sides this was a great starting point to think about how the art would also be divided. I'll have more to say in the near future about all the background that went into the steps I took to get this where it is today but one of the things when dealing with a license is working within the constraints and limitations they provide. With that said, I can honestly say this is a combination of hand-drawn and photo related elements to remain true to the licensor's requests. My goal was to create as much visual unity or continuity between the design elements so the end result was one flowing piece of art. The great thing about this playfield is the organic layout that Joe has created with the myriad of shots. Since my last commercial game, Revenge from Mars, I had become accustomed to working with the "fan" style layout which can be somewhat easier for an artist to work with. I think my work on WNBJM was a good warm up for this layout because, it too was more organic in its design approach.
One of the visual anchors for this layout, the spiraling Yellow Brick Road, was one of the first elements I created to get the design process started. Interestingly enough, the placement of the Wicked Witch at the bottom came along later in the development but it made sense immediately because of the Ruby Slipper Flippers. She's gotta' get those shoes! Now that the suspense is over, I hope you enjoy the look and feel of this piece. Don't forget you are only looking at one piece of the puzzle - there are a lot more visuals that make a playfield a cohesive unit and I too can't wait to see all of Matt's dimensional elements push this over the top. Once the game is together we are sure the entire package will become an entertaining trip down the Yellow Brick Road. Cheers, Greg.
