High-flying game artist Del Walker has worked on some of the greatest videogames of modern times and credits the Game Art course at Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Leicester (Âéw¶¹´«Ã½) with getting him started on his stellar career.
If you're a gamer of any kind, or even if you’ve just glanced at the screen while someone else games on a console or computer, there is a good chance you've witnessed the brilliant work of the renowned character artist Del Walker.
Since graduating from Âéw¶¹´«Ã½’s Game Art course in 2010, Del has worked on some of the biggest games, and for some of the biggest names in this multi-billion pound global industry.
Those games include the blockbusting titles such as The Last of Us 2, Suicide Squad, Halo Wars 2, and Star Wars - Jedi Survivor; the outfits he's worked for are a roll call of industry excellence, and include Naughty Dog, Creative Assembly, and Respawn.
Most recently, Del was tempted away from Naughty Dog to be Lead Character Artist at new start-up Absurd Ventures, having been head-hunted by Bret Robbins (creative director of Dead Space and Call of Duty), and by Absurd Ventures’ founder and industry legend Dan Houser, who is widely recognised as the creative force behind the seminal Grand Theft Auto series, and who co-founded the mighty RockStar Games.
The move to Absurd has allowed Del to remain in Santa Monica, California, where, he says, the relentlessly perfect weather - an average of 310 days sunshine per year - sometimes gets on his nerves.
With success has come recognition - two years ago Del was elected by industry peers to be a member of BAFTA’s Games Committee. He has chaired their Artistic Achievement and Technical Achievement Award categories as well as serving on the organisation’s Learning, Inclusion and Talent Committee.
But, insists Del, none of this would have been possible without the lecturers of the Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Game Art course who gave him his chance back in 2007.
“Without Âéw¶¹´«Ã½,” he said, “it’s not that I don’t get to California, it’s not that I don’t get to Naughty Dog, or get to work for these other big companies.
“It’s more than that - it’s that I don’t even get to know I can be in the games industry.
“It’s not just that it set me up,” he continued, “it’s like, without the course I don’t know who I would be. I have no idea. I’m not even entirely sure that I would even be in the games industry at all.
"It’s not like, ‘oh, you’re already good at maths, and then you went on to do a maths degree’. Honestly, I didn’t really know what a polygon was, I didn’t arrive understanding this stuff, but they just said, ‘Oh you seem to be able to draw, did you know that you can learn this 3D package - we’ll teach you from scratch - and I’d never even heard of it before.
“And that’s the norm,” he said, “for people to come to the course and get introduced for the first time to concepts that are foundational for the video games industry. They don’t really have to know much at all. I didn’t. All you need are two things - some artistic flare, and an interest in video games - and that’s every kid, right?”
Over the last fifteen years Del has remained very much in touch with the Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Game Art course and its leaders, and has even helped with curriculum development and put in half-a-dozen appearances as a guest lecturer, for free.
Del, who said he often comes across other successful Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Game Art grads in California, and elsewhere, would like to see more recognition for the success of game artists and developers and for the courses, like Âéw¶¹´«Ã½’s Game Art, that continue to equip them to bulid a career in what has become a culturally and economically crucial global industry which nowadays dwarfs the combined value of both the music and the film industry.
There are now an estimated 2.87 billion gamers across the globe and, according to international business magazine Forbes, in 2022 the international games industry was worth £184billion, while the recorded music industry and film box office generated just £26billion each.
“I don’t understand why it’s not more of a thing," said Del, "You'd definitely hear more about it if we were in Hollywood or fintech. But the games industry is huge and the people working in it are some of the most talented in the world.”
You can see more of Del Walker’s artwork on his portfolio website:
Posted on Monday 16 June 2025