THE STATE OF THE ART AT D3T


Established in 2011 to “design, develop and deliver technology”, Cheshire’s d3t has become an important co-developer within the Keywords group since being acquired six years ago. Richie Shoemaker spoke to Louise Andrew, the head of art at d3t and Coconut Lizard, about the growth of art services within the closely-aligned - and award-winning - studios


What’s your background? I’ve been in the industry for just over 20 years. I worked at Acclaim Studios in Manchester and then worked for a small indie company called Embryonic Studios that was about 13 people. Then that got bought and became part of TT games. I was there for quite a long time and by the time I left we were nearly 400 people. I’ve been at d3t for exactly three years.


Louise Andrew, head of art at d3t and Coconut Lizard


d3t was initially created as an engineering outfit. How did art enter the mix? For the first few years there were no artists and by the time I joined they were a very small team of generalists. The team is probably three or four times bigger now and we have something like 11 different specialisms within the art team, including animation, tech


24 | MCV/DEVELOP January 2023


animation, tech art, VFX, lighting, concept art, character art, UI, and environments. People feel like they can really develop and be an expert in their own right across all these different disciplines.


D3t in Runcorn and Gateshead-based Coconut Lizard work very closely, but in what ways are they connected and how are they distinct from one another? Coconut lizard was bought two years ago and the head of the studio then retired. The studio was about 32 people - a size that we could bring in as part of our studio. So


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