AdHoc Studio creative directors Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart revealed that the distinct, superhero-cartoon aesthetic of Dispatch was born from an unlikely source: a quirky apple juice commercial produced by the Thailand-based Igloo Studios.
The Struggle for a Signature Style
Defining the visual identity of Dispatch was no small feat. Early in development, the team lacked an in-house artist, leading them to adopt a “shotgun approach” by collaborating with various talented artists. The goal was to strike a delicate balance between the script’s dark humor and dramatic weight, but finding a cohesive look proved difficult.
Herman noted that the team eventually turned to ArtStation—a move he jokingly refers to as the standard path for “artistically challenged” indie developers in 2022. It was there they discovered artist Lap Pun Cheung, whose initial concept art became the foundational DNA for the game’s final visual direction.
Moving Beyond Traditional Game Development
The developers were firm in their ambition: they wanted the game to feel like a premium animated television series. However, they found that many established studios were either uninterested in their vision or lacked the technical capability to handle the game’s hybrid requirements—specifically, 3D characters rendered against 2D backgrounds.
This search led them to Igloo Studios. Despite the studio’s modest size and lack of conventional gaming pedigree, a specific project caught the directors’ eyes. “They made these really cool apple juice commercials,” Lenart recalled. “We could kind of squint and start to see Dispatch for the first time.”
A Calculated Risk
Hiring Igloo Studios was a gamble. It was the largest project the small team had ever tackled, and AdHoc knew they were venturing into uncharted territory. However, the collaborative spirit between the two studios proved to be the right catalyst. By moving away from the traditional development workflows they utilized during their time at Telltale Games, AdHoc successfully treated the project like an animated series.
The result is a title that captures the nostalgic “vibes” of classic superhero cartoons, albeit with a modern, mature edge. Through trial and error, the team achieved a look that now feels inseparable from the Dispatch experience.
