Into The Pixel 2011 collects incredible works of gaming art

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Concept art is often beautiful, but even with a growing number of art books being bundled with collector's editions, it's just as often work that will never be seen by anyone outside of a game's development team. The Into The Pixel collection tries to change that. Organised by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and the Entertainment Software Association, each year it selects some of the best pieces of gaming art, whatever the reason for its creation.

The 17 new pieces to be displayed at this year's E3 have just been released, and I've posted the PC-relevant images below, including work from Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect, Dragon Age 2, Alien Swarm and the unreleased Drawn 3. So pretty.

Click each image for bigger versions, and find more work from previous years at the Into the Pixel site.

Alien Swarm

Incident at the Workshop by Ivan Simoncini

Mass Effect

Normandy by Mikko Kinnunen

Orcs Must Die!

Dead Walking by Chris Moffitt, Brad Crow, Nathan Stefan, Bart Tiongson

The Dream Machine

The Bridge by Erik Zaring & Anders Gustafsson

Bioshock Infinite

Market Fire, Columbia by Ben Lo

Drawn 3

The Cottage by Hamzah Kasom Osman

Dragon Age 2

Flemmeth by Matt Rhodes

Drawn: Dark Flight

The Dragon Play by Brian Thompson and Hamzah Kasom Osman

Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull

The Swamp Skull by Jeff Haynie