Amid zombies, nazis, aliens, ninjas and/or a combination thereof, it is easy to groan at the idea of more concepts and concept art for video games. There is hope, however as traditional formulas are challenged and gaming companies are calling for innovation. Rather than focusing on demographics (Maggie from thegamechair.com has an excellent article about gender and gaming) it would be nice to see companies taking advantage of multiplayer environments and better game ideas. Games such as Spore which starts from a single evolutionary life cell into a complex civilization game and Lovecity which pushes the meaning of multiplayer altogether will expand our idea of gaming. Learning Maya has helped me understand the need for good concept art before polygon creation, and even more important - creating something that hasn't been done 1,000 times before. I'm currently working on a proposal for a multiplayer purely underwater game based on discovery/pirating/survival. In a 3D environment, it has the mathematical scale of the earth itself. On the left is one of my concept paintings done in oil for an underwater sculpture/character in the game, on the right the beginnings of the 3D build in Maya.