JonnyG: How would you describe the overall process you go through to design art for a game you're working on?

Gene Kohler: Very early into a game's development, there are several art styles that are brainstormed and viewed from past games, movies, books etc.... styles including but not limited to total realism (photo-real or painted), stylized realism, cartoony, cell shaded, etc. Once the design of the game begins to form, sample assets are created that depict styles specifically for the title. From here, it will be narrowed down to one solid direction / style. This direction of course can, and often times will, be altered or tweaked during a title's development.