From a childhood dream of making video games to leading GameMaker's art team in Dundee, this conversation explores Alan Morris's creative journey, the evolution of game art, and why human creativity still matters in a changing industry.

Q: What first drew you to game art, and how has your perspective on it evolved over the years?

A: It was honestly a childhood dream. Ever since I was a young boy, I wanted to work in games, and I was obsessed with art, so the two fitted together naturally.

I grew up in the 2D era and joined the industry just as 3D was emerging. That meant I got to experience a huge amount of technological change, with games able to do more and more with pixels and polygons.

There's been this constant push to make things bigger and better. But what I've enjoyed seeing is how often games go in the other direction. Retro styles, minimalist art and simpler approaches keep coming back, and they can be just as well received and critically acclaimed.

That's a reminder that good art can work at any scale. It doesn't have to be the biggest or most technically ambitious thing to make an impression.

With AI now part of the picture, it's a pretty crazy landscape. The potential to create is enormous, but making art that actually works in a game brings very specific challenges. I think there's still some way to go before AI can consistently help with those.

Q: Is there a particular game from your childhood that left a lasting impression on you?

A: I could name so many, but Street Fighter II really stands out.

When it arrived on home consoles, it felt as though the arcade experience had suddenly come home. The line between what you could play in an arcade and what you could play in your own house was getting blurred.

For my little brain at the time, that was almost too much to take in! It was incredibly exciting.

Q: Today, you're Lead Artist for GameMaker in Dundee. What does your role involve, and how do you approach leading the team's creative work?

A: I lead the content team and take our projects from the first idea and initial scoping through to completion.

A big part of that is coordinating the team: setting tasks, estimating the work involved, removing blockers and keeping stakeholders informed about our direction and progress. Ultimately, I'm responsible for delivering what the team creates.

I also look at how we can improve the way we work. It's a creative environment that's changing quickly, so we're always considering tools and software that could help us create more efficiently and give us more freedom in the process.

Q: You've seen game art evolve through major technological changes. What do you think makes a game's visual identity truly stand out?

A: It's a strange moment for visual identity. In some ways, it's never mattered more.

There's so much AI-generated content around that people want to see the artistry behind something. They want to feel that someone made it with intention and put something of themselves into it.

At the same time, there's a huge push to use AI to speed up development and cut corners. In that rush, a game's identity can get lost.

For me, the important thing is keeping that connection to the person creating the game. We need to help people express their own ideas and put their identity into what they make.

AI isn't quite there yet in supporting that, although it's progressing. The question is how we use it while keeping the creator's choices at the heart of the work.

Q: Your team works closely with game developers and uses GameMaker itself. How does that experience influence the way you approach your work?

A: There's a continuous loop between creativity, product and technology.

We build a product for creative developers. They use it, tell us what they need and request features. As technology develops, we have new ways to respond and improve the product.

We also work in the engine ourselves, so tools that make developers' lives easier can make our own work easier too. That gives us a direct understanding of why those improvements matter.

Ultimately, it comes back to helping people make games. The product grows because we keep finding ways to make that process easier.

Q: Creative freedom is an important part of making games. What does it mean to you when you're helping other people bring their ideas to life?

A: It means helping people bring their ideas to life with as little friction as possible. Whatever they can imagine, our job is to remove the boundaries and obstacles that might get in their way.

That goes beyond what happens while someone is making a game. It starts with downloading and opening the product, creating a first project and learning how things work. It continues through publishing and getting support. The whole experience matters.

We have a direct line of communication with developers, so they can come to us with suggestions, improvements and feature requests. We also work with people who are getting ready to release their games.

If they run into a problem, we're happy to get involved, understand what's happening and help them work through it.

Sometimes giving someone creative freedom means making sure they have the support to keep going.

Q: With AI introducing new possibilities and challenges for artists, where do you see its value in the creative process?

A: It's been a challenging time for artists. But I think the goal for AI should be the same as the goal for our engine: making it easier for people to create.

That doesn't simply mean clicking a button and getting a finished picture or sprite. A lot of the attention has gone towards generating the final image, but that result isn't necessarily ready to use. Fixing it can sometimes take more work than creating the art from scratch.

For me, how we use AI is what matters. It needs to help with the work artists actually do.

Game art is very specific. Even something that looks random or simple to a player has been created to behave in a particular way and support a particular experience.

I think the useful approach is a combination of human intention and AI automation. Artists need to guide the process, make decisions and understand what the game needs. The technology should help them get there.

Q: Looking back at your journey and how your team has evolved, what makes you most proud, and what keeps you excited about what comes next?

A: The transition we've been making as a team, particularly on the art side.

GameMaker has been known as a 2D engine for decades. That's its strength and its niche. To move it forward, we knew we needed to explore something different from what we'd done before.

Moving into 3D and experimenting with AI in some quite weird and wacky ways has been a big shift. When I look at where we started and what we're creating now, the difference is night and day.

I'm proud of how the team has taken on that change. We're still learning and evolving, and that makes it a really interesting time to be doing this work.