The main character and concept artist for Dispatch, Lap Pun Cheung, was picked up on ArtStation as a last resort to get developer AdHoc Studio through the pitching phase, according to a Dispatch panel at this year's Game Developers Conference. What began as a temporary solution to a creative crisis would reshape the entire game.
The studio's creative leads Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart described being caught between two worlds: some artistic styles suited the comedy they wanted, but struggles loomed when imagining dramatic beats landing, while other approaches felt too serious for the full scope of their story. Time was running out. Pitching season waits for no one.
In their own words, Herman recalled: "So as a last resort, we did what every artistically challenged indie developer did. We went to ArtStation." It was a pragmatic choice, born of necessity. Yet necessity sometimes breeds excellence.
Co-founder Pierre Shorette discovered Cheung and the team believed he might be able to do quick character concepts for ideas they'd been developing. What happened next caught everyone off guard. When Cheung delivered his initial work, the pieces were so strong that the concepts he drew first became promotional imagery for the finished game, including the game's most-shared promotional image.
This story matters because it exposes a truth about modern game development. AdHoc faced genuine financial peril; the studio of 30 employees narrowly escaped closure when its founders went six months without paychecks to keep staff paid, until Critical Role Productions announced a partnership to finance the final stages of development. In this precarious situation, ArtStation represented not a luxury network but a lifeline.
Dispatch is among the most visually accomplished games in the narrative adventure genre, praised for its animation, character designs, and strong visual art style. That visual identity did not emerge from a carefully planned hiring process or a major publisher's talent network. It emerged from a stressed indie studio searching desperately for help and finding an artist of unexpected calibre.
The game has sold over 3 million units and received generally favourable reviews from critics, with OpenCritic reporting 97% of critics recommended it. This sales figure represents an impressive number for a small studio.
The broader context reveals something important about creative recruitment in 2025. Platforms like ArtStation have become essential infrastructure for indie studios that lack the budgets of established publishers. ArtStation serves as the industry's largest job board for media and entertainment art positions, allowing studios to find freelance and full-time artists for hire in games, film, and related fields. What was once seen as a secondary option has become a primary channel for talent discovery.
AdHoc's experience also reflects the financial realities facing independent developers. When margins are thin and risk is high, hiring choices often come down to immediate need rather than ideal process. The studio did not hire Cheung because they had planned for someone with his specific talents. They hired him because time had run out and his portfolio convinced them he could solve an urgent creative problem.
That Cheung's temporary solution became the permanent foundation of Dispatch's art direction suggests something encouraging: sometimes constraints force better decisions than comfort would allow. A fully funded studio with infinite time to audition candidates might have pursued a different path. A desperate studio on a deadline found an artist whose work transcended the brief and elevated the entire project.
The lesson extends beyond Dispatch. As production budgets balloon across the industry and development risks accumulate, the ability to discover and integrate talent quickly has become a competitive advantage. ArtStation and similar platforms democratise that discovery. A solo artist with a compelling portfolio can now reach studios that would never see their work through traditional channels.