On the Graphics of Chains of Fury

Right now, the game’s visuals are its biggest selling point.

I’ll be honest—I know nothing about graphics, and I never will. I’m a lost cause. Not only am I partially colorblind, but I also have zero sense of aesthetics.

Now, taste can be refined over time, and I’ve been working on that. But genetics? Those limits are hard to overcome.

Somehow, though, Chains of Fury ended up with great visuals. You could joke that it’s because I stayed far away from the art direction.

Knowing my weaknesses, I made building a strong art team a priority in the early days of the company—back when it was just me and Adrian.

I made some hiring mistakes, but eventually, we assembled a group of incredibly talented artists. One key addition was Johanna, who defined the artistic vision for Chains of Fury.

I respect Asia (Johanna) not just for her skill, but as a person. Her feedback helped me improve my own understanding, and she did titanic work shaping the game’s art style. She expertly guided first Mateusz Woliński (3D) and later Mateusz Kaczoruk (2D).

After two years under her direction, the project reached a point where Chmura (Mateusz, our 2D artist) could take the reins within the framework she established.

Here’s where my love for comics came in handy. I’d bring my favorites—Lobo, Hellboy—to Joanna and say, “This is the vibe I want.” She’d take that inspiration and make it her own. Ironically, I don’t even think she likes that art style much.

Meanwhile, Mateusz Kaczoruk (“Chmurzasty”) is a hardcore comic fan. I suspect the only reason he tolerated us at times was because we were making a game close to his heart. Our endless debates about comics, anime, and cool visuals kept the team bonded.

At some point, budget cuts forced us to downsize to just Chmura. Did the project need three artists? Absolutely. That we pulled it off with fewer is a testament to skill and sheer effort.

Ideally, a team should have multiple artists—they thrive on mutual feedback. I wish we could’ve had them working side by side in an office, but finances (and COVID) made that impossible. Still, artists work differently (and better, in my opinion) when they can riff off each other spontaneously rather than waiting for scheduled calls.

Our biggest struggle was merging 2D and 3D seamlessly while balancing destructibility, modularity, and visual polish. We didn’t quite hit the high‐contrast lighting Johanna originally envisioned—partly due to engine limitations and our lack of a dedicated VFX or technical artist. Today, I’d tackle it differently. But over time, we all picked up pieces of those roles.

We took inspiration from Void Bastards art style but we had to come up with our own solution due to dynamic nature of the environment and the gameplay choices. However I highly recommend the GDC talk of the team behind Void Bastards.

Chmura ended up mastering both 2D and 3D. He designed eight levels in Blender, helped with testing, animated characters—honestly, by the last two years, he could’ve made the game solo if he’d known a bit of programming (even visual scripting).

This structure let me step back and avoid micromanaging—which, I think, helped the game in the end.

None of this would’ve been possible without the talent and dedication of these artists.