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I want to take this question in good faith and not kneejerk "neither", but I think the answer really is neither. I've sat for a bit weighing up A and B, foundation vs execution. The only thing I can think about is Bagel.

@doublefine.com had a big issue with Bagel (Nathan Stapley) on Broken Age. Tim wanted him to do both the concept art and the final renders to make it truly "Bagel". But that's a lot of work for one person. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBdE...

That's hard if you want to ship a game in a timely fashion. The process makes Nathan question what "Bagel Style" even is. But with the advent of replacing human labour with AI maybe we can do it! That's a joke of course, it's fundamentally not possible.

Part of the solution is bringing on @leviryken.bsky.social who jokingly says "I'll get out my tracing paper" in reference to Peter Chan's concept art. This is preceded by him talking about watching Ghibli films every day at a local cinema to get inspired.

Even when an artist is following a previously established direction, you can see their identity and attention to detail bleed through.

Over the course of the project Nathan does a lot of both concept and execution. But the game is made by working with fantastic artists like Lee Petty, Levi Ryken, Lydia Choy, Derek Brand and so many others to build on the unique "Bagel Style" at the heart of Broken Age. It's a team effort.