Nikolas Mösonef, Concept Art student at ARC Academy – for the courage to pursue your dreams
Nikolas Mösonef is a first-year Concept Art student at ARC Academy. He was born and raised in Bavaria, Germany, devoting most of his life to law. As his graduation approached, Niko realized how much he wanted to pursue art, and more specifically, building fairy-tale worlds. He decided to step out of his comfort zone and enter the deep waters of the creative sphere. Learn more about his path to art and how it brought him to ARC in the interview.
If you also dream of developing as an artist in the game industry, but you don’t have the opportunity to attend a venue, don’t worry. You can improve your digital painting skills from the comfort of your home. Apply to ARC Academy’s distance learning Concept Art program and take the first step toward your dream career.
What inspires you and how did you get into the creative field?
Like everyone, I too get inspired by reading books or looking at art. But what truly gets me going is creative collaboration. I love building on someone else’s idea, adding a dark twist or exciting story. And I love it when someone takes my ideas, spices them up and turns them in a direction I never would have gone. The best outcomes are a product of the right people coming together and to be part of a team like that inspires me more than anything else.
That is why I am and will be part of the creative industry. Creative people inspire me.
How did you find ARC Academy and how did you decide to apply?
I learned about IDEA Academy first, on Google. In the process of researching it, I stumbled across ARC Academy. I decided to opt for the latter, because of its dedicated Concept Аrt program and Sofia being more interesting than Rome.
Deciding to apply was kind of spur of the moment decision. When I first found out about ARC, the regular admissions deadline was almost over. Since I did not think I was good enough or able to craft a portfolio in this short time, I thought I had to wait until 2024/2025. When I routinely checked their website on the weekend between the tests for my final law exam, I learned there was still a chance to get accepted in 2023. Again, I only had about a week to prepare a portfolio and was taking law tests during the day. I gave it my best shot and drew in the afternoon and evenings.
I received their email on Friday, September 15th, confirming their interest and offering me an interview. Even though I took the last four five-hour written exams from Monday until Thursday, including seven years’ worth of studying, this was the most exciting event that week. As it turns out, giving it your best shot pays off. I am sure there are going to be nice and interesting people in 2024/2025, but I would not want to miss out on the friends I have made so far!
What are your impressions of the education so far?
The education is quite good. Learning happens mostly self-centered, with lecturers’ feedback building on the work you are doing. If you’re not picking up the pen, it’s not for you. Like anything it’s not perfect, but more important to me is ARC’s mindset of always learning and continuing to make improvements. Just from talking to alumni, you see the huge steps they’ve made since the start and with the education already being good, I am very excited about the coming year.
Do you play for fun? What are your favorite games right now?
I am a big fan of board games and tabletop RPGs. I enjoy the social aspect of playing together, more than anything else. In the past, I have also enjoyed video games, but at the moment I’d rather focus on my projects.
My favorite games, as far as tabletop games go are Brass Birmingham and Blades in the Dark. Brass is strategy-focused, with a lot of player interaction, where thinking ahead and planning will secure you the victory. Blades in the Dark is fast-paced and narrative-focused, streamlining the interesting stuff and cutting the rest. It’s my go-to RPG recommendation for everyone who doesn’t like number crunching.
Videogames-wise I’d say the games I’ve enjoyed playing the most are Frostpunk and The Book of Unwritten Tales. Both of them are, in my opinion, narrative-focused games, but they come at it from completely different angles. Frostpunk poses the question of how far you will go to survive in an inhospitable environment. Embedded in well-done city building and management mechanics, it forces you to make a lot of tough decisions. The Book of Unwritten Tales, on the other hand, presents its story almost void of any mechanics-tackling every pop culture trope and compressing a lifetime’s worth of humor into a single game. Its best moments are when you can sit back and enjoy all the effort and love the developers put into it because it shows.
How do you envision your development in the industry?
Over the next ten years, I would love to dive deep into worldbuilding, especially visually. To create a world out of nothing, full of life and entertainment, has always been something I aspired to do. To be able to do it professionally would be a dream come true. I already approach my concepts this way. I explore the world around my design, write keywords and short abstracts, place my designs into the world, figuring out how they change it. I think about the game mechanics and the story to understand how things fit together and to have that reflected. There is so much more to learn and I am excited to do it.
Another personal goal of mine is to develop an IP. This not only scratches my already mentioned itch for worldbuilding but also confronts me with many more challenges that I enjoy tackling. Ultimately, games are a product and thinking about them in that way helps me to not only understand the process better but also to look beyond my current abilities which fits my pioneering spirit. In the end, I want to create something of value, not only for my satisfaction but for it to be useful to someone else. Making sure you create a working product, to me, is making sure whatever you create is worth creating.
What would you advise someone who is wondering whether to apply to the Academy and move to Bulgaria?
I cannot speak for Bulgaria as a whole, but Sofia is a very nice place. It has most of the amenities of Western Europe, but still a different feeling. As far as applying to the Аcademy, just give it a shot! You might be surprised how positively leaving your comfort zone, can affect you.
My number one tip though is don’t base any final decision on just what I or anyone else says. Do your research. No one knows if this is the right or the wrong decision for you, other than yourself. And if you’re interested in a more detailed, first-hand experience, you’re more than welcome to get in touch with me! I am always happy to help.
If you, like Niko, love to create concepts for fairy-tale worlds and bring them to life but don’t have the opportunity to be on-site at our campus, apply to ARC Academy’s distance learning Concept Art program.
