About me

Keena

I do art

A brief insight about who I am

Game Artist | Hard Surface Artist | Graphic Designer | Unreal Engine BP Dev

First of all I like to welcome you to my site!

Here you find small visual insights of some of my previous works, which are not or no longer under NDA.
I was born on September 11th, 1987 in Berlin, Germany.
My native language is German and my second is English (AE).
I am an artist working with passion and have experiences in working with smaller teams from all around the world, where diversity is just natural.
My professional experience includes working as an artist in various functions for a more over than 15 years old MMORPG and other freelancer jobs, such as in the creation of logos, banners, visual documents, 2D as well as 3D elements and objects and much more.

Background to my actual skills

I am well practiced in using Serif Affinity Photo and Maxon Cinema 4D and able to combine my creativity with these.
Adobe Photoshop is a software that I rarely use anymore, but still have installed in case I need it.

As I am used to acquire the most knowledge and skills by myself, I am also trained in using and working with the Epic's Unreal Engine 4 & 5 as an artist and blueprint developer. I completed further educations in working with the engine to elimiate the last missing skills I had and to prepare the ground for Novana - an Unreal Engine Game Project.

Working with in-house tools and pipelines does not present any problem at all to me and is what I am generally familiar with.

My work in the world of MMORPGs

At the present time - since 2009 - I am working in a more over than 15 years old MMORPG in various divisions and functions.

It started as customer supporter in game chat and by email, later on as well as translator of InGame texts, lore and announcements, as graphic designer in 2D and 3D and also in the marketing team.   Since multi-language teams from all around the world are working together here, the text chat communication is mainly held in English.


In the last years I was responsible for the following graphical sections:

  • Development and implementation of new content in form of:
    • Items
    • Buildings
    • Armor
    • Weapons
    • Decorations and Props
  • Planning and designing of a new small town
  • Creation of graphical press releases
  • Flyers and posters
  • Illustration of patch notes
  • and more ...

So what is Novana?

Since I recently completed further educations in working with the Unreal Engine, I am currently in the starting process of working on my own game, called Novana, which will be made by gamers for gamers.
The general idea behind is actually nothing too new: It is a survival game with undeads in a post-apocalyptic world, where you can freely build your base with complex crafting, form groups with other players and NPCs, ... - a bit similar to games like 7 Days to Die, Rust, Days Gone, ...

The goal is to create a 'world', where the player can discover a bigger story behind of what happened in the past - if he/she wishes to discover -, with new and fresh ideas, with a place where a community of like-minded people can be build, where all can meet each others to play together or fight each others - if they dare. A world with diverse (AI controlled) living creatures with a realistic weather and seasons system. A world waiting to be discovered.

...But to cut a long story short here: In the end Novana will be a complex and elaborated game with lots of content and a very clear focus on what matters the most: the players!, not number-crunching with only disappointments of buying a game as an 'Early Access' title that simply costs 60 bucks without delivering goods for years. The AAA game industry has gotten into the habit of this behavior to this day, and is something very exploitative, if you ask me... But I am getting off the point.

In the meantime - and for some time now - work is going on to 'finalize' the Game Design Doc which I affectionately like to call 'The Bible'. Not because I am religious or think this is the 'Sangreal', but because it will be a guidance which shed some light into its working process to bring this project to live. So I think 'bible' is a pretty appropriate word.
So, this document will serve as a guiding light for all further work, and will surely further expand in the working processes of the coming team; and so, indeed, it will still take quite a while before the game will be ready to be played. But yeah, ... big promises easy to make, but whether our upcoming team will keep the promises made, is something only the future can tell!

When I have arousen your curiosity a little, feel free to visit the website of Novana to learn more about the project and subscribe to the newsletter to not miss any update!

Stay tuned!

Closure

This was it from me for now.
Thank you very much for your visit!

If you like to contact me for questions, to request a (collaborative) work or for anything else,
please feel free to get in touch with me and I will answer you as soon as I can!

Until then, have a nice day!


- Keena