Designing Greyven, the Dragon Slayer – Breakaway (Amazon Game Studios)

As part of the art direction and visual development team on Breakaway, Amazon Game Studios’ first major title, I had the chance to oversee and contribute to the creation of many characters, including Greyven, the Dragon Slayer.

This particular design was a great opportunity to explore the balance between heroic fantasy and gameplay clarity. From silhouette to armor detailing, every choice aimed to make Greyven feel grounded in the world of Breakaway while standing out as a bold, iconic presence on the battlefield.

Huge thanks to my amazing internal team and our talented outsourcing partners for helping bring this character to life.

More behind-the-scenes insights from Breakaway to come.

#CharacterDesign #Breakaway #AmazonGameStudios #ArtDirection #VisualDevelopment #GameArt #SimonLocheArt

Breakaway is a team battle sport where two squads of four collide in intense competition. Seize the Relic and slam it into your opponent’s base to score! Make plays with your team by passing, juking, and dunking the Relic. Crush your enemies with magic and steel. Control the arena with game-changing buildables and outplay the other team. With so many different ways to play and win, Breakaway is never the same game twice.

 

Kyra – Concept Design for Breakaway (Amazon Game Studios)

While working on Breakaway at Amazon Game Studios, one of the most rewarding aspects of leading the visual development was shaping the personality and identity of the game’s diverse cast.

Kyra, stood out early as a character whose elegance had to match her power. Her design was built around sharp silhouettes, flowing forms, and visual cues that reinforced her elemental abilities. The goal was to make her movement feel as fiery as her shooting skills, controlled, precise, and dangerous.

She evolved through several iterations, balancing stylization with readability for fast-paced gameplay.

Grateful to the team and our external partners for helping bring her to life with nuance and style.

#ConceptArt #CharacterDesign #Breakaway #AmazonGameStudios #VisualDevelopment #GameArt #SimonLocheArt

Breakaway is a team battle sport where two squads of four collide in intense competition. Seize the Relic and slam it into your opponent’s base to score! Make plays with your team by passing, juking, and dunking the Relic. Crush your enemies with magic and steel. Control the arena with game-changing buildables and outplay the other team. With so many different ways to play and win, Breakaway is never the same game twice.

Designing ‘Lava Girl’ – Breakaway (Amazon Game Studios)

One of the more experimental characters developed during my time on Breakaway at Amazon Game Studios was internally referred to as “Lava Girl.”

Her concept pushed us to explore more extreme elemental themes and bold surface treatments. The focus was on designing a character that felt sculpted from molten rock, a living fusion of heat, strength, and motion, but showing elegance and deadly charm.

Unlike some of the more armored or traditionally heroic silhouettes, Lava Girl challenged us to create a design that read instantly in motion, with glowing materials and contrasting surface textures that brought her volcanic origin to life.

Big thanks to the team for supporting the creative risks and helping develop one of the more visually dynamic prototypes on the project.

#Breakaway #AmazonGameStudios #CharacterConcept #ElementalDesign #VisualDevelopment #GameArt #SimonLocheArt

Thorgrim, the Ice Viking – Breakaway (Amazon Game Studios)

Among the many personalities I helped shape during my time as Art Director on Breakaway, Thorgrim stood out as a pure force of nature, an ice-cold juggernaut with mythic presence and brutal simplicity.

Inspired by Norse mythology and Viking archetypes, Thorgrim was designed to embody raw power and unwavering resolve. His silhouette, with the horns of a battle ram and the weight of a towering warhammer, demanded clarity and impact on the battlefield.

Every design choice, from his armor to the frost-covered hammer, was about communicating one thing: unstoppable momentum. His animations needed to feel heavy, deliberate, and dangerous, while still reading clearly in fast-paced, chaotic gameplay.

Thorgrim’s ability kit amplified that direction:

• Heavy overhead strikes, devastating knockbacks, and his signature move, Ragnarok, delivered visual weight and moment-to-moment spectacle.

• His perks encouraged aggressive, high-reward playstyles, rewarding control and timing.

• His buildables, especially the Demolition Hammer and defensive Wall, reinforced his role as both battering ram and frontline tank.

It was a pleasure bringing Thorgrim’s icy fury to life, thanks again to the talented team and collaborators who helped make this hammer-wielding Viking more than just a tank, but a memorable and mythic presence in Breakaway’s roster.

#Breakaway #AmazonGameStudios #CharacterDesign #VikingConcept #GameArt #SimonLocheArt #VisualDevelopment #GameplayDesign

Breakaway is a team battle sport where two squads of four collide in intense competition. Seize the Relic and slam it into your opponent’s base to score! Make plays with your team by passing, juking, and dunking the Relic. Crush your enemies with magic and steel. Control the arena with game-changing buildables and outplay the other team. With so many different ways to play and win, Breakaway is never the same game twice.

Breakaway - Portobello Characters: A Look at the First Art Direction

Before its first major pivot, Breakaway had a very different tone and scope. The early version of the game, known internally as Portobello, was built around a more casual and accessible experience, and visually, I wanted that to come through in every corner of the design.

The goal was to develop a lighthearted and cartoony aesthetic: no straight lines, bright and punchy colors, soft forms, and non-aggressive silhouettes. While the game still relied on a PBR (Physically Based Rendering) pipeline, the visual intent leaned more toward an illustrative, stylized finish.

During this period, I was serving as both Art Director and the sole character concept artist, which meant shaping the world while simultaneously designing its cast. It was a fast-paced but creatively rich time, and I had a lot of fun developing characters that embraced the visual playfulness we were after.

These early designs reflect a version of Breakaway that was more whimsical and expressive, a foundation that helped us define and evolve the game's identity over time.

Special thanks to Peter Han and Michael Anderson for their fantastic work translating these characters into 3D.

#Breakaway #Portobello #CharacterDesign #ConceptArt #AmazonGameStudios #StylizedArt #VisualDevelopment #SimonLocheArt

Project Bruce: A Glimpse into a Forgotten Gotham

That was the premise behind Project Bruce, an unreleased web series we developed as a passion project exploring the slow, quiet unraveling of an aging Batman in a world that had moved on without him. It was less about action and more about atmosphere, tone, and the emotional weight of a legacy fading into irrelevance.

This collaboration brought together an incredible group of artists and storytellers, including Casey McDermott (Blizzard Cinematics), Renaud Galand (Lead Character Artist on Overwatch), and many other talented contributors. I was fortunate to be involved in the art direction and concept design, helping define the look and feel of a Gotham that mirrored Bruce’s own decline.

Visually, the goal was to shift away from the heroic myth and toward something more human and fragile. The city felt heavier, colder, and more indifferent. Bruce himself was no longer a figure of fear, but a man clinging to purpose in a place that had already forgotten him.

Though the project never made it to release, it remains one of the most creatively rewarding explorations I've worked on. It allowed us to reimagine a legendary character through a completely different lens, one shaped by age, isolation, and the quiet search for meaning when the cape no longer fits.

#Batman #ProjectBruce #ConceptArt #VisualDevelopment #UnreleasedSeries #ArtDirection #SimonLocheArt #GothamRedefined

Breakaway - Killian

Art direction and visual development on the first Amazon Game Studios game: Breakaway.

The latest character produced for Breakaway. Killian, a powerful Crowd Control sorcerer.

Huge thanks to my team and my outsourcing partners.

Breakaway is a team battle sport where two squads of four collide in intense competition. Seize the Relic and slam it into your opponent’s base to score! Make plays with your team by passing, juking, and dunking the Relic. Crush your enemies with magic and steel. Control the arena with game-changing buildables and outplay the other team. With so many different ways to play and win, Breakaway is never the same game twice.

Splash Art:

Concept Art:

3D Model:

In Game screenshots: