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While a lot of the marketing and community talk about the game before launch is focused on the cars, Undercover wouldn't be what it is without the strong art direction. I wanted to know more about the process of creating the look and feel of Undercover so I spoke with Senior Artist, Alan Jarvie.

I started by asking Alan how the art team decided on the appearance of each game: "We have time during pre-production (the design phase of development) to decide what our key differences will be from previous games. We look at what's out there in the market place, decide what we like, what want to achieve and what is possible within our time frame. We're always looking for inspiration and look at a wide range of media including comics, movies, games and everyday life.

In pre-production the art director decides on a visual direction for the game; a strong signature that will differentiate the game from others in the genre."

Before the filming of the cut-scenes the art team decided on a very specific look and light for the game; something that Hollywood calls the Magic Hour: "It’s a very dramatic time of day with long shadows, it’s hard to pull off because of the amount of ambient light in a given direction causing a loss in depth perception but this can also work in your favour." Getting the look right takes time: "It's an ongoing process through the development but we like to hold onto our main vision from art direction but it does tend to evolve a little during the time. Thankfully the art team is one of the biggest departments in the game team with more than 25 artists split between the difference disciplines."

As Alan left the room he promised to send me some of the concept art they created during the earlier stages of the game. Most of the time people outside of the office never get a chance to look at these images which is a shame as there are some very talented artists working here so we thought we'd give their art a chance to shine and show off their skills.