Changes at Serpent King Games
- February 18th, 2014
- Posted in Jon Hodgson
- By Jon Hodgson
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You may have heard a rumour of changes coming at Serpent King Games. The rumour is true. Jon Hodgson here to fill you in.
The short version is that I’m departing Serpent King Games.
The long version begins with some history: When we formed the company 3 years ago I had reached a point in my freelance art career where I realised I wanted a change. So I put a bunch of irons in a bunch fires, worked hard at each of them, and waited to see what would happen. As it turned out working with Cubicle 7 as their art director, and more recently deputy CEO, has burned significantly hotter than any of the others.
The downside to this is that I just haven’t had the appropriate time to give to Serpent King Games. This has never sat easily with me. I love Dragon Warriors, getting to work on the Magnum Opus edition was huge for me. Sadly when there were new SKG Dragon Warriors books for me to apply my illustration skills to, my time was all spoken for.
My departure has been a long time coming, and I’ve worked hard on some different strategies to try and stay an active contributor of the game, but there comes a time to admit I can only work 12 hours a day. Rather than hold up already delayed projects I feel it’s more appropriate to step aside, help the guys find some new art talent with a bit more time to spend, and wish them all the best.
The last thing I’m working on is all the art for imminently forthcoming The Knight’s Tale, and handing over all my art direction notes for The Player’s Book to the new Serpent King art worker. I’m leaving behind permission to use all my artwork, which was my major investment in Serpent King Games, since the copyright to that art is owned by me, rather than a part of Dragon Warriors.
It can’t be overstated that my departure is entirely amicable, and I wish Ian, Gar, Kieran and the artist slated to take Dragon Warriors forward all the best. Each of them has invested significant time and resources in keeping Dragon Warriors available, and not one of them has taken a penny in return. A true labour of love.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing what new material this new era brings for Serpent King Games.
Your contribution to Dragon Warriors has been immense, Jon. Whoever takes over your role will have their work cut out in order to to fill those big Balor-size boots!
I must say I’ll miss your work on DW. Luckily I still have TOR and DWAITAS to get my Hodgson fix.
Any chance of doing the occasional cover for future releases. 🙂
My deep thanks for the investment of time and energy into the game. Its been awesome.
thanks for all of your amazing art for Dragon Warriors Jon – you have made the books worth staring at.
A very responsible decision, but I must say this: your art IS Dragon Warriors to me. All the mood is there, perfectly captured. Having a Dragon Warriors book without at least a cover painting done by you would be like having a Sandman comic without a Dave McKean cover. It would be WRONG! 🙂 So I hope you can at least do the covers! 😀
@RF Victor – Given the absolute staggering release rate for DW I don’t see how he could possibly do the covers even if that was his only job.
On the offtopic of cover artwork, I have a print of the cover of the core rulebook, which I picked up at Dragonmeet in 2008. I completely failed to meet you or James Wallis there.
Any way of getting it to you for signing and numbering (3) – it’s been a few years so not that pressing!