Nikolas Gekko is a senior concept artist with more than fifteen years of experience spanning AAA video games and feature films. Across his career, he has contributed to over twenty major titles, where his work has directly shaped character design, environments, cinematic storyboards, and large-scale visual direction within production pipelines.
His first major international breakthrough came with 1st Place at the CG+ “Star Wars Reimagined” Challenge (2D category), a professional-level competition with global participation. The challenge was judged by senior industry figures Maciej Kuciara (The Last of Us, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo), Furio Tedeschi (Star Wars, Blizzard, Lucasfilm), and Brad Rigney, and sponsored by Wacom, Pixologic (ZBrush), and Learn Squared. Gekko’s winning piece, Skywalker’s Reunion, was selected over submissions from established international artists, placing him at the top of a highly competitive field.
Shortly after this recognition, Gekko joined Sledgehammer Games as a Concept Artist on Call of Duty: WWII, entering one of the most demanding AAA production environments in the industry. Released in 2017, the title marked a major return of the franchise to its historical roots and became a global commercial success, generating over $1 billion in revenue within its first two months and topping sales charts worldwide.
On Call of Duty: WWII, Gekko worked as a full-time concept artist, contributing to the visual development of environments, characters, props, and campaign content. His work was production-driven and built to translate directly into modeling, level design, and cinematic implementation. During this period, his cinematic approach began to take shape, influenced by war films and series such as Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and Come and See. These references informed the project’s grounded tone, framing, lighting, and sense of scale, reinforcing a realistic and emotionally restrained portrayal of World War II.
Gekko’s experience with Sledgehammer Games pushed him to work on projects such as Call of Duty: WWII from pre-production through final release—an approach that would continue to define his career.
From this foundation, Gekko went on to contribute to major franchises including The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Days Gone, Destiny 2, DOOM, Fallout 76, and Far Cry: Primal. His work across these titles focused on early visual development, environments, characters, and production-ready concept art used to guide downstream teams.
On Halo Infinite, Gekko designed the game’s primary villain characters, Escharum and Tovarus. These designs played a key role in defining the antagonistic presence of the Banished leadership and contributed directly to the game’s character lineup.
In 2019, Gekko entered feature film production with his first major film project, working with British filmmaker Sean Ellis on The Cursed (Eight for Silver). Ellis is known for films including Cashback, Metro Manila, and Anthropoid, and is an Academy Award nominee as well as the recipient of the Douglas Hickox Award and Best British Film at the British Independent Film Awards for Metro Manila. Developed as a psychologically driven period horror film, The Cursed required a grounded visual language rooted in historical realism and sustained tension.
During early development, Gekko was responsible for storyboarding key sequences and designing the film’s primary creature. His storyboards established shot composition, camera movement, pacing, and reveal structure before filming began, serving as practical planning tools for the director, cinematography, and production design teams. In parallel, he developed the creature’s anatomy, silhouette, and surface detail, with close attention to how it would read in low-light conditions and partial reveals, supporting coordination between makeup, prosthetics, and visual effects departments.
That same year, Gekko was contacted by Academy Award–nominated director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie) and invited to contribute concept art to his feature film projects. This marked the beginning of a long-term professional collaboration focused on early visual development and production-oriented design work for both independent and studio productions.
In 2020, Gekko was invited to relocate to Stockholm to work with EA DICE in the early development phase of Battlefield 2042. As a concept artist, he contributed to the creation of several main characters and key environments, working at a stage when the game’s visual identity, scale, and tone were still being defined. His work focused on production-ready character designs and environment concepts intended to translate directly into in-game assets and large-scale multiplayer spaces.
Released in 2021, Battlefield 2042 launched as one of the most anticipated entries in the franchise. The title reached millions of players worldwide, topped digital sales charts at release, and became one of the most-played games on Steam during its launch window. Following extensive post-launch support, updates, and reworks, the game experienced a strong resurgence, earning renewed player engagement and positive critical reassessment. Gekko’s contributions were part of the early visual foundation that helped define the game’s near-future setting, character lineup, and large-scale environments.
Alongside independent cinema, Gekko has contributed visual development to major studio productions including Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Paramount Pictures), Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Warner Bros.), The Gray Man (Netflix), Secret Headquarters (Paramount), and Gran Turismo (Sony Pictures). In each case, his involvement centered on the concept phase, where visual direction is established before filming begins.
A similar development-driven approach defines Gekko’s long-term collaboration with director Neill Blomkamp. Over several years, Gekko has worked with Blomkamp as a concept artist across a range of projects, contributing visual development during early creative phases.
After several years of collaboration, in 2022, Blomkamp invited Gekko to join Gunzilla Games on Off The Grid, a cyberpunk shooter conceived on a cinematic foundation. At an early stage of the project, Gekko defined the game’s overall visual direction, authored the style bible, and structured the art pipeline from the ground up. He established and guided multiple art departments, including environment art, hard-surface design, character art, and cybernetic augmentation, with cyberlimbs becoming a core visual and thematic pillar of the game.
Gekko continues to collaborate closely with Neill Blomkamp on several projects currently in development. As is standard in high-level film production, details of these projects remain confidential. His role consistently focuses on early visual exploration, world-building, and pre-production design, providing a foundation before assets, sets, or final shots are committed.
In addition to leading teams, Gekko made extensive hands-on contributions across characters, environments, and key visual elements, ensuring consistency between concept, production, and final in-game assets. His visual direction became central not only to production planning but also to investor-facing presentations during a critical scaling phase of the project.
As a result of this unified visual strategy and production structure, Off The Grid secured over $70 million in funding and achieved significant early visibility. Upon its first major public reveal, the project attracted more than 150,000 concurrent viewers and received multiple nominations at the GAM3 Awards in 2025, establishing it as a high-profile entry in the competitive multiplayer shooter space.
Beyond studio productions, Gekko has also contributed to independent multimedia intellectual properties where visual identity functions as both a creative foundation and a commercial driver. One such example is HUXLEY™, a science fiction universe created by concept designer and art director Ben Mauro. Due to the project’s scale, Mauro assembled a highly limited internal art team, selecting only two concept artists worldwide to help develop its core visual world. Gekko was chosen for his ability to translate narrative direction into structured, production-ready visual systems.
The HUXLEY™ intellectual property has since generated significant commercial interest and developed a substantial international audience. In 2023, Gekko and Mauro jointly presented the project at LightBox Expo, a major global event for entertainment design and concept art.
Gekko’s professional influence also extends into education and industry standards. He serves as an official judge at The Rookies, an international competition for emerging artists in digital art, animation, and visual effects. This role is typically held by senior professionals with extensive industry experience.
In September 2025, he presented his personal work at Clio Art Fair in New York, an international platform for independent artists. The exhibition placed his practice within a contemporary art context beyond commercial film and gaming, emphasizing conceptual exploration rather than production-driven work.
Gekko continues to work as a concept artist in the U.S. at the intersection of cinema, games, and design. His career reflects a broader shift in modern entertainment. As fictional worlds grow more complex, visual development at the earliest stages has become essential in shaping how projects are imagined long before production begins.
In this evolving landscape, Gekko’s work demonstrates how early visual decisions increasingly function as a form of creative leadership, quietly influencing not just how worlds look, but how they are built.
Author: Kakhi Chakvetadze
