The Meet the Team column is back, and today we have a special guest, one of the originals, as they say: Anikó (Coreoca), the talented lead artist of NeocoreGames. 

Before the interview questions, let’s introduce her with her own self portrait!

Where does your nickname come from?

In real life, nobody calls me that, but I as a child, I had the name “Magóca”, and “Coreoca” is a clumsy English translation. Some 20 years ago, I came up with the name “Neocore” derived from this :)

What did you do before NeocoreGames? Where do you come from?

It’s been a while! When I was 15, a friend of a friend, Balázs Kiss (Kisbé) wanted to transfer from a Franciscan high school in Esztergom to the Kisképző [Secondary School of Visual Arts] in Budapest. I have never heard about such a thing, I have never visited the capital, I knew nothing about the world. But I loved drawing. So, I have decided to leave Nagykanizsa. Balázs eventually stayed in Esztergom, together with the other founders of NeocoreGames, in the same class, mostly. I have known all of them at this point, we used to play tabletop RPGs in the summers.

This was followed by a year of college in Budapest, then I moved in with my friends who would later become leaders of NeocoreGames. Soon after this, I had a baby with one of them, she is currently also working with us!

I did not have many jobs before this, I have briefly worked at Philos (the first game development company in Hungary), and I made cover art for a few Alien and Predator books.

And then [in 2005], we founded the NeocoreGames company.

Can you tell us about your job at NeocoreGames?

I’m a graphic artist, and everything I know about game development I have learned by myself, at home, one step at a time, always focusing on what was needed. Looking back at the archives, it’s so funny, the first terrain that we made… it’s so ugly!

So much has changed over time. Like texturing. I’m working with Substance 3D Painter now, it makes things very easy, like child’s play, texturing is quick, fun, almost relaxing (especially with big, complex terrains). But this wasn’t always the case.

Before NeocoreGames, at Philos I had to paint with acrylic while others were using Photoshop, I didn’t know why this was, but anyway, I did the task. It wasn’t too bad when it came to a simple wall, I had the UV maps printed out on paper! I took them home and I re-made everything on tracing paper and painted the unfolding walls of the buildings… thinking back now, it’s so unbelievable. The problem was that I couldn’t paint tiled textures by hand flawlessly :D I’m smiling now, but I took it really hard when I was fired.

Here, at NeocoreGames I could finally use Photoshop which I have learned to use here. In graphics school, I loved my teachers, but they only wanted us to use filters. In 2005, we developed my favorite tool, the EDITOR, officially known as CoreTech. Among many other things, this allows us to paint onto 3D models directly with Wacom. I know this is very common nowadays, but at the time this was huge. And I really loved it.

So, most of my work consists of texturing, terrain, various art, GUI elements, character portraits, loading screens, etc.

What are some of the recurring challenges in your division?

This is hard to grasp… I don’t think of anything as a challenge. We could say, I like it when something is difficult. Sometimes it bothers me when my work is dependent on others, mostly because of the development of the editor. It has a tool for painting terrains that I have been using it for years, I also keep testing it, and the developers make changes based on my experience with it. Whenever there are such big changes, obviously, problems arise. But this is natural, so ultimately this is not a big deal.

Do you have any interesting stories about development?

Well, I can’t think of anything from work, maybe some stories that would imply that I’m evil :)

Any hobbies, something that you are proud of? Tell us something cool about yourself!

A few years ago, I would have replied that I’m proud to be working whenever I can, as I love it. But for a while there wasn’t really anything else. Now we have a more relaxed schedule. I learned how to drive, so when we’re not in the office, I’m driving around all day, and I love it! Nowadays I also make time for sport. I wake up at 5:15 every morning and go to exercise, to a place that has a large terrace, doing this for an hour in the morning, getting fresh air, wonderful. Then I go home, and from there, to the office, usually on a bicycle. Every evening, we ride to Dunakeszi and back, which is 38 kms in total. I’m not saying I’m proud of this, I’m prouder that my husband (Pozs, one of the leaders of Neocore) is coming with me, and maybe he loves it too (nobody knows for sure). I got a bicycle for his birthday exactly a year ago, at that time he found the whole thing stupid :) That’s progress, I think!

My other hobby is drawing, obviously, digitally. I have an Ipad, I take it with me everywhere, and draw whatever comes to mind, if I have the time, maybe between two courses in a restaurant. This is very different to what I’m doing for work, most people would say they’re sad. I have a somewhat abandoned Instagram account for these drawings.

Thank you!