Role Models in the Gaming Industry Case Study
For my case study, I have chosen to research Anna Nikonova, also know as Newmilky on social medias. Anna is a concept and character artist, as well as an illustrator from Sweden. Her work mainly consists of character designs and concepts, although she has also worked on asset design and full illustrations too. 
She has worked within the industry for countless years, starting her journey in the gaming industry in 2011 for games company MimimiGames as a concept designer and artist who focused on characters assets and background design. Since then, she has worked for countless different companies, taking on different roles and learning skills as she went through her journey in the Industry. Throughout the years, her art style and skills have developed tremendously, which is what landed her her job with Riot Games, best known for the video games League of Legends, as a character designer and concept artist in 2017, and she has worked there since.
During her time in the industry, Anna has worked for numerous companies. She has taken on the roles as a concept artist, 2d artist, character artist, lead artist and also worked freelance for a portion of her career creating illustrations and comics. Due to her working in multiple different environments, she has become acclimated to many different working styles. She has worked within an office environment, as well as remotely during her time as a Freelance Artist and also within some of the companies she has worked for.
As a freelance artist and remote working artist, She had to create her own scheduling and make sure she produced work for designated deadlines. Working freelance allows for great freedom for an artist, but it also means that they have to essentially become their own manager, and plan their days around their work. working remotely means that while you can work from the comfort of your home/office, you must have good time management skills and be able to work without getting distracted as there is nobody around to guide what you do.
In terms of skills required for the job roles she takes on, Time management plays a very important role. Especially during the period she was self employed, time management is a very big issue and planning for deadlines and being your own boss is one big struggle of being freelance. As well as this, good communication skills are needed to be able to communicate and relay information consistently across team mates, as well as to give and take feedback from others. 2D Artists and Concept Artists will mainly work in teams, all sharing ideas and creating multiple variants and iterations of designs. These jobs roles of course require good drawing skills, and the ability to produce good quality artwork at a fast rate.
credit: Anna Nikonova
Arcane concept designs.
To get to where she is today, Anna had to work up her skillset and portfolio. She worked countless different jobs within the industry, learning new skills and making new connections through her time working. She started out originally working for a company called MimimiGames in 2011, where she created concept art for backgrounds and characters before moving to work for a company called NARR8. After working there for a short while, she joined a company called ZeptoLab as a 2D Artist where she worked upon the popular mobile game, Cut the Rope and King of Thieves. She then worked on self employment for a few years, completing personal work as well as freelance work and comic creation. After almost 2 years of freelance, she began working for the company she still works at today - Riot Games. Riot Games is a huge company exceptionally popular for their game League of Legends, as well as more recently the hit Netflix Show Arcane, in which Anna also worked on character concept art for. Over the years, Anna worked to build up her portfolio and develop her skillset. I really admire her work and her work ethic too, going through many different jobs in the industry and gaining a vast knowledge and skillset in the process.
In my case, I would really like to work on things similar to her. I really enjoy her artwork and illustrations, her style is very easy on the eyes and her illustrations and design work are always full of colour which is something I really like. If i were to enter the industry, I would like to follow in her footsteps, working a similar job. Creating concept art, illustrations and character design and things that really interest me and I would like to see myself working in this part of the games industry one day. However, I also feel that the industry can be very demanding, and especially working for a big company such as Riot Games. I think that working in a fast paced and busy environment would burn me out quite quickly, as I feel I work best at a slower pace to really allow myself to create work of a high quality that I am proud of. I feel that in more recent years especially, the games industry has become more inclusive over these type of matters. Being self employed as a freelancer or remote working have become much more common and accessible forms of work within the games industry, which is something I could see myself feeling more comfortable doing. I still feel that the industry could change more to accommodate for different types of people who require longer to work on things, or who may not focus or feel comfortable in very busy and stressful environments such as myself.
Credit: Anna Nikonova.
League of Legends Seraphine concept art.
Anon, Concept art [online]. Riot Games. Available at: https://www.riotgames.com/en/artedu/concept-art [Accessed 16 May 2025].
Anon, Concept artist [online]. Cgspectrum.com. Available at: https://www.cgspectrum.com/career-pathways/concept-artist [Accessed 16 May 2025].
Anon, Linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikonovaanna/ [Accessed 16 May 2025].
Anon, Artstation.com. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/newmilky [Accessed 16 May 2025].
Mullich, D., 2016. What it’s really like to work in the video game industry [online]. Linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-its-really-like-work-video-game-industry-david-mullich/ [Accessed 16 May 2025].
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