NextMars
01
Concept & pre-production
Concept art outsourcing that locks a direction before a single asset is built — thumbnails, mood boards and key art a producer can schedule against, not a Pinterest board.
Game art outsourcing · 2D · since 2017
Game art outsourcing
for the worlds
people remember.
NextMars is a game art outsourcing studio for 2D production, working with games, film and publishing teams. Concept art, characters, environments, UI and Spine 2D animation — scoped in 48 hours, delivered when you need it.
300+
art contracts
characters · environments · props · UI
125
individual & studio clients
games · film · publishing
2017
shipping since
one team, same pipeline
01 Clients
What they say when
we're not in the room.
125 clients since 2017 — independent authors, indie teams, and established studios across games, film and publishing.
The quotes below are published client feedback, kept verbatim. Written references and NDA-protected credits are available on request.
They created the cover for my most recent novel and it has been #1 in its Amazon Kindle niche for the entire four months since it was released. The best thing about them is they listen. They produced exactly what I wanted, on time and on budget.
Publishing client · book cover · verified review
Consistently praised for
-
On your date
Your launch date is set first; the schedule is built backwards from it.
-
More than the brief
The brief is the floor, not the ceiling.
-
Ideas worth keeping
Ideas you didn't ask for — only where they make the work better.
-
One thread, no chasing
One producer, one thread. Answers in hours, not days.
02 Services
Art services for
the whole 2D pipeline.
One 2D game art outsourcing studio for the whole visual chain — concept, UI and Spine for games, plus books, print and AI video. You choose the scope; we scope it honestly.
02
Character design
Playable casts, NPCs, bosses and skins. Turnarounds, expression sheets, outfit variants and colour keys — layered and named for 3D modelling or Spine rigs.
03
Environment & level art
Backgrounds, isometric maps, tilesets and set dressing. Delivered in separated layers so your designers can iterate without re-briefing us.
04
Props, UI & game assets
Icons, HUD, menus, boards, cards and store art — the unglamorous forty percent of a game that decides whether it feels finished.
05
Book graphics & covers
Covers, interiors, maps and illustrated spreads for novels, tabletop and children's books — print-ready files, Kindle-safe covers, no surprises at the printer.
06
Spine 2D animation
Skeletal rigs, mesh deformation, skin swaps and events, exported as .json or .skel and tested in-client before handover.
07
AI video & motion
Commissioned AI video — trailers, store listing videos, social cutdowns, short-form video and short drama. Blockouts and camera tests on request; AI never used unless you ask.
08
Anything else
Storyboards, marketing key art, packaging, stickers, pitch decks, icon sets — the requests that don't fit a box usually fit us. If it's 2D, ask.
03 Process
Brief to delivery,
without the drama.
Most outsourcing failures are communication failures, not drawing failures. This is the loop we run on every project — including the awkward parts, up front.
01
Scope & quote
You send references and a deadline. Within 48 hours: a written scope, per-asset pricing and a delivery date — not a vague estimate.
You get · fixed quote in 48h
02
Prototype
Two or three style frames on the real subject, not samples from the archive. Direction is approved before production volume starts.
You get · style lock before spend
03
Production
Updates reach you as they land — daily, or hourly when your schedule calls for it. The working file stays open to you, and an art director checks every batch first, so you review work, not mistakes.
You get · visibility at every step
04
Polish & revision
Your notes are folded in as they come — sketch, colour, polish — so what you sign off is finished art. Anything that moves the brief is quoted first.
You get · notes folded in before sign-off
05
Delivery & handover
Layered PSD sources, exported assets, Spine rigs or print-ready files, named to your conventions and ready for your pipeline.
You get · sources, named your way
04 Engagement
Three ways to
work with us.
Pick the shape that fits your production calendar. Most clients start with a single batch and move to a monthly cadence once the pipeline is proven. No minimum — one cover or one character is a normal brief.
A
Project
A defined scope, a fixed price, a date. Best for a vertical slice, a launch batch or a one-off commission.
- Per-asset or per-batch quote
- Fixed delivery date
- Layered source files included
B
Embedded squad
Our artists inside your pipeline, on your sprint clock. Best for live-ops, seasonal content and long projects.
- 2D artists + dedicated art director
- Your tracker, your standups
- Monthly capacity, scale up or down
C
Art direction retainer
Senior eyes on a team you already have. Best when the art is produced in-house but the bar keeps slipping.
- Art reviews at your cadence
- Style guides and pipeline docs
- On-call for critical reviews
05 Selected work
A selection from
nine years of work.
Since 2017, we've created 2D game art for mobile, PC, console and print. Here are some of the pieces we're able to share, just a small part of our work, with much more covered by NDA. Click any image to view it in full size.
Loading archive…
See the full archive →Opens the 606-piece archive in a new tab — keep scrolling, the rest keeps loading.
06 Contact
Tell us what you're
building this quarter.
Send references, an asset list, or just the deadline you're worried about. We reply within 48 hours — usually with a scope and a date attached.
OR EMAIL DIRECTLY — info@nextmars.com
07 Studio
One team.
Start to finish.
A game art studio of art directors, producers, a channel manager and 2D artists — one team working the same pipeline every day. The people who pitch the style are the ones who finish it, and a producer keeps the schedule honest on our side so you don't have to. That's why 300+ art contracts have shipped on the date the client needed.
- info@nextmars.com
- Phone
- +86 153 2479 0412 · WhatsApp · WeChat on the same number
- London
- 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9JQ, UK
Replies · any time zone
Within 48 hours
Send it whenever it suits you.
Briefs land at midnight, on a Sunday, mid-flight. A producer reads every one — the written scope, the fixed quote and the delivery date come back on your clock, not ours.
- The clock Starts the moment you hit send Not when a studio opens. A Sunday brief and a Tuesday brief are answered in the same window.
- Calls Booked in your time zone Name a slot in the reply and we take it — early morning or late evening, whatever fits your day.
- To start A page is enough No deck, no brief template. A paragraph, a deadline and a couple of references is all a producer needs to quote.
You don't have to catch us awake — send it after hours and the answer is waiting when your day starts. If it's already urgent, write RUSH at the top of the brief; the phone above is faster still.
08 Questions
Answers before
you have to ask.
The questions clients actually ask on the first call — including the awkward ones. If yours isn't here, send it and you'll get a straight answer, not a discovery call.
What is game art outsourcing?
It is hiring an outside studio for part or all of a game's art — concept, characters, environments, UI, animation — while your team keeps art direction and final approval. Teams use it to absorb a content spike, cover a discipline they don't have in-house, or keep a live-ops pipeline fed without hiring for a peak that ends.
How quickly can you start?
Send a brief and you get a written scope and a fixed quote within 48 hours. Most projects start within a few days of approval. Rush work is possible when the schedule allows — say so in the brief and we'll tell you honestly.
How much does game art outsourcing cost?
Priced per asset or per batch, not by the clock. What a piece costs depends on the scope, the level of finish and the deadline, so we quote per project rather than publish a price list — send the brief and you have a fixed number within 48 hours. That number is what the invoice says.
Who owns the artwork?
You do, on final payment — including layered source files. We keep the right to show the work in this portfolio unless the contract says otherwise; NDA work stays private.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. Around two thirds of our work is under NDA, and if you need one we'll sign it before the first brief. Client names, unreleased builds and internal documents are confidential by default — which is why the work here appears without credits.
Is any of the art AI-generated?
Not by default. The studio is human — art directors, producers and 2D artists — and AI tools are used only when you ask for them. Where they are used, nothing AI-generated enters the 2D art files unless you ask for it there. Commissioned AI video — trailers, store listing videos, social cutdowns, short-form video and short drama — is quoted as its own deliverable with its own usage terms. If your contract rules AI tools out entirely, they stay out of the project.
How do payments work?
Usually 50% to start and 50% on handover; larger projects are split across milestones. Invoiced in USD or GBP, paid by bank transfer, Wise or PayPal. Nothing is invoiced that wasn't quoted first.
What files do I get?
Layered PSD sources, exported assets, Spine rigs or print-ready files — named to your conventions, not ours.
Do you work with indie teams or only studios?
Both. Individual authors, two-person teams and established studios sit in the same queue and get the same producer — no account-manager layer, no minimum engagement.
How do revisions work?
Notes are folded in as they arrive — at sketch, at colour and through polish — so the file you sign off is finished art. If a note moves the brief rather than refines it, we quote it before doing it, never afterwards.