“What do you get when you take a painter with a penchant for the peculiar and a programmer fluent in pixels?”
That is the question posed by JJ Walker’s short documentary, Canvas+Code, which follows Ryan Ford and Brad Henderson, the painter and programmer that make up Globhammer. The documentary has been out for a few days now, and is currently available to watch on Vimeo. The seven-minute-long short film gives viewers a brief look at the duo, with both sharing small details about how they met, their respective thoughts on art and videogames, and just what, exactly, Globhammer means.
“When I said [Globhammer], I was just joking; for some reason I just loved the sound of it,” explains Ford in the documentary. “But there was something in the back of my head that was saying to me ‘you’re going to revisit this title.’ And then, of course, three or four years later, old friend Brad Henderson from college shows up at my door and is checking out my oil paintings, and he’s all excited like ‘hey man, I want to make videogames [out] of your paintings.'”
As for what Globhammer really is, the pair describes it as being a videogame-focused, artist collective that’s main focus is to create “a gaming experience that delivers the player into a fine art environment.” The visual and emotional experience of each potential player comes first, followed by the utilization of current technology to bring Ford and Henderson’s thoughts and ideas into the world. Their first game, SRC 1515, a platform-inspired side-scroller set in the medieval future, is the end result.
Ford says his primary inspirations for his art are 14th-16th century Sienese Italian paintings and Super Mario Bros (1985). Both of these influences can be seen towards the end of the film, which shows what’s presumed to be the earlier parts of the upcoming game. “He can just create these shapes and forms [from] his mind by just using a paintbrush or a pencil, and they have such a nice style and feel to them,” says Henderson. “I think he has an incredible imagination and it’s nice just being able to take those images and bring them to life digitally.”
SRC 1515 is designed to play in modern web browsers upon its release, and is at its best when played at 1080p. However, it doesn’t have a release date yet, leaving us with Canvas+Code and the game’s Kickstarter campaign from 2014 to provide more details about the game’s setting, protagonist Minerva, and the environments players can look forward to playing in.
Find out more about and watch Canvas+Code on its website.
