Airship Interactive, a specialist game art and design studio based in Manchester, UK, partnered with HB Studios to bring PGA TOUR 2K25 to life — delivering high-fidelity characters and several full courses, along with their environmental assets that power the game’s realism and player immersion. The collaboration saw Airship contribute extensively to core game elements, including player models, environments, apparel, clubs, and accessories.
Following their successful partnership on PGA TOUR 2K23, HB Studios brought Airship on board once again — this time with a brief focused on modernised workflows and hyperrealistic quality.
“Airship Interactive’s work on PGA TOUR 2K23 set a high benchmark, so they were the natural choice for PGA TOUR 2K25,” says Peter Jones, Senior Production Director at HB Studios. “After two years of close collaboration, their team worked seamlessly with ours and played a key role in the final delivery.”
Building realism
Character design and animation are at the forefront of Airship Interactive’s services, so this was a significant focus when working on PGA TOUR 2K25. “Bringing real pros like Tiger Woods and Matt Fitzpatrick to life in-game requires incredible attention to detail,” adds Jones. “Airship understood the importance of balancing authenticity with consistency — the results speak for themselves.
“We used a mixture of tools and scan data to make sure we were highly accurate during character development,” says Joe Harford, CEO and Founder of Airship Interactive. “We also needed to maintain a consistent style to avoid the uncanny valley effect, which is why the core workgroup remained mostly the same throughout the process.”
Clothing was also an important factor because many in-game characters are shown from the back when taking their shot. Having high-quality apparel keeps players immersed in the game, despite not always being able to see faces. To ensure immersion during gameplay, Airship also had to innovate around player perspectives and apparel visibility — particularly from behind, where detail still mattered.
Creating new workflows
Airship Interactive worked in Unity, in conjunction with the HB Studios team, enabling rapid feedback on visual iterations.
“The Airship team was agile, responsive, and fully embedded in our pipeline,” says Jones. “Having a partner that could adapt to our tools and timelines made a huge difference in keeping development on track.”
“As an external partner, agility is in our DNA. We regularly adopt client toolsets and workflows to ensure seamless integration,” adds Harford. “We want to work with our clients in the easiest way possible, and that can mean switching to their toolset and adapting to their processes, enabling a smoother workflow throughout. The Airship team is equipped to do this, alongside constantly modernising and innovating for game development and design pipelines.”
Beyond character work, Airship also contributed to enhancing the overall realism of the game. To stay at the forefront of industry standards, the team dedicated time each Friday to internal skill-sharing sessions and collaborative development. These sessions ensured that everyone remained up to date with the latest techniques and innovations — and knew how to apply them effectively across the project.
Keeping in touch
“Alongside weekly training, I also believe that recognising the team’s hard work is integral to retaining high-quality visuals,” Harford says. “Airship champions its workers, and PGA TOUR 2K25 was no different — we 3D-printed the assets our artists created to give to them as gifts when the project wrapped. Every single person had a crucial role to play in the end product, and we want them to know that.”
Airship’s internal morale boosts were paired with constant communication with HB studios, hosting regular meetings, direct messaging, and having daily standups to set the goals and agenda for the day. Having this open and frequent communication means that the expectations are clear, enabling a smooth production process and mutual trust and clarity.
“We could tell Airship cared about their team and the project. That level of engagement and pride really came through in the final product,” Jones adds.
PGA TOUR 2K25 is available now on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
