Why Galaga?
I’m Dave Inscore, an adjunct professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
I've taught an Intro to Concept Art class at MICA here in Baltimore since 2014. I've historically allowed students to bring their own ideas/IPs/pet-projects to use the class assignments to further flesh out their uniquely personal worlds. The upside is that MOST students love the flexibility to tackle personal topics that they've been itching to dig deeper into. Quite often, students use it as a testing ground for their eventual thesis (and from what I've observed, this tends to lead to more mature thinking during thesis time). The occasional downside is that some students have difficulty deciding on a topic and struggle mightily with the stress of being presented with a "blank canvas."
For this all-new advanced class, we’re changing things up a bit.
These days, we regularly see the rebirth and revision of beloved nostalgia vehicles across all entertainment industries. This occurs across games, film, and TV, and concept artists often play a significant role in that nostalgic reimagining.
The fictional idea for this semester’s class... Microsoft and Netflix have partnered with the IP owners of the beloved classic sci-fi arcade game Galaga.
A full-on Galaga IP revamp is slated for a 2027/2028 release. The revamp will be in the form of video game sequels, which include all game types: shooter, RPG, RTS, Flight Simulator, MOBA, side scroller, casual mobile, and on and on.
Galaga IP remakes are also slated in the form of movie and TV series releases by Netflix
Microsoft and Netflix have tasked their respective creative departments with exploring how they can transform Galaga from a beloved classic arcade title into a modern day cross-platform media juggernaut
The students will assume a key role in their choice of concept art teams: Netflix or Microsoft. If they choose Microsoft, they'll then choose the type of video game genre they'll focus on. If they choose Netflix, they'll choose TV/Movie and animated vs. live-action.
Reasons for this shift...
The class needs a notable differentiator to feel "advanced," and I'm personally excited to teach something new.
In an ideal world, we'd also start advertising this class via some type of external-facing blog (and thus, here it is!). The intent is to highlight student efforts while also drawing in the regular eyeballs of more of my creative industry contacts.
Galaga is a unique IP with a lot of built-in interest and a number of old-school fans. Though the 1981 pixelated graphics are so dated, it also offers almost a complete "blank canvas" concept-art playground, other than being firmly rooted in sci-fi.
