About

Jess Campbell is an award-winning Northern Irish artist in the games industry. She adores nature and mythology, and specialises in expressive, characterful design and visual storytelling.

Currently, she’s Art Director at Bellular Studios, working on their next projects after the release of The Pale Beyond. She started there as an animator in 2016, and she’s led art and merchandise for the Bellular Patreon for 5 years.

In the past, she’s animated for the Game Grumps, illustrated for zine anthologies, made an animated documentary about dogs, consulted on art and narrative on other game projects, and lectured aspiring artists about how to draw without their arms falling off. She pours her heart into everything she does, and is open to being contacted about any kind of doodling.

Email: jessanightart@outlook.com
(Contact for access to CV)

Awards

NI Short Film Awards 2018 – Best Student Film
Art/co-director for Zara’s Story, University of Ulster final year animated film (Team: Ryan Hollinger, Katie Noble, Nadine McLaughlin and Tyrone Owens)

MCV Develop 30 Under 30 2022 – Honourable Mention
Nominated and mentioned in a showcase of talented individuals in the UK games industry

Northern Ireland Screen – International Women’s Day 2023
Featured in a selection of local women creating influential artwork and content in the screen industries

Talks

Kippie – Girls Make Games 2021 – present
Repeat guest speaker, teaching art direction and giving talks on my career in the industry

Nerve Centre Games Academy 2022/23
Co-lecturer with Jordan Bradley on a full day’s games concept art session, solo lecturer on two half day sessions, on story, and on 2D design

NI Screen Tour Talks 2023
3-time guest lecturer, speaking in educational facilities about my first experience art directing a video game

The third episode of a documentary series Bellular Studios created in early 2023 to talk about how we made The Pale Beyond! I am featured alongside creative director Thomas Hislop and character artist Katie Noble, and I talk about the influences behind character and ship design, and the world building put into them in the game.

A panel I was so excited to be asked to join by the host, and my creative director at Bellular Studios, Thomas Hislop. As part of Ludonarracon 2022, run by our publisher Fellow Traveller, we participated in conversation with Dave McCabe and Stephen Downey to discuss Adapting The Past: Bringing Myths, Folklore and Local Culture into Video Games. We spoke a little about our influences and the process of world building and character design on The Pale Beyond.

An episode of the My Favourite Game podcast I was delighted to be invited to guest on – where Johnny Cullen interviewed me about my favourite game series growing up, Ratchet and Clank. Recorded in September 2021, we converse about the games’ writing and character design across the different eras and platforms, my opinions on art direction, how fundamental the series was to my introduction to online fandom and community, and I tell the story of embarrassing myself to the game director of the series, Brian Allgeier.

A talk and interview I gave at the 2020 NI Developer Conference about art direction and my path into the industry. It was aimed at 9-15 year olds, intended to show that there are artsy jobs in video games, and they can be right here in Northern Ireland.