About Chris Solarski

Chris Solarski is an artist-game designer and author specialising in the relationships between traditional art principles and video game aesthetics. His two books are widely considered essential reading, offering an art and narrative-driven game design framework for adaptive gameplay aesthetics that orchestrate the player’s physical and emotional experience in progressive ways. Chris’ first book—Drawing Basics and Video Game Art (Watson-Guptill 2012)—has been translated into Japanese and Korean and is endorsed by id Software co-founder, John Romero. His second book—Interactive Stories and Video Game Art (CRC Press 2016)—has been described as gaming’s equivalent to the screenwriting classic, Story, by Robert McKee and is endorsed by film director Marc Forster, and Assassin’s Creed founding member Stéphane Assadourian.

With the support of Pro Helvetia, Chris has given talks on interactive storytelling and game art at international venues and organisations including Disney Research, the Smithsonian’s landmark The Art of Video Games exhibition, SXSW, GDC Europe, and FMX. Chris is currently developing an indie game based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He also lectures at SAE Institute in Zurich and manages the IGDA Switzerland Chapter and co-founded the IGDA Game Art Special Interest Group (SIG).