Re: The Artists thing

[Pieter Hulshoff <phulshof@xs4all.nl>]

Ok, just read through the entire thread... Where to begin? Where to
begin? :)

Ok, short introduction of myself perhaps (for the biography writers
among you;):
My name is Pieter Hulshoff, 27 years of age, living in Almere, the
Netherlands. I hold what would be a Dutch version of a masters degree in
computer science (Technical University of Twente), and work as an ASIC
Designer with Lucent Technologies (yes, I have a normal job that has
nothing to do with music).
I've been running Linux since 1992, but been out of it for 2 years as
well (recently installed SuSE 6.4). I have programming experience in Z80
ML, M86000 ML, Modula2, Basic (*grin*), and C. Oh yeah, and I've been a
musician since age 6, playing church organ and piano. I hold a 3rd level
degree in church music (practice and theory), so I can safely say that I
know a bit about music. :)
I've also been involved with Role Playing Games for about 7 years now...

Ok, to the topic at hand. I think I'd better make a start today, and
continue tomorrow, since it's already getting late here. Besides: us
programmers need to watch out for RSI, right? ;P A few things I picked
up while reading the thread:

1. Programmers like to work on things they find a challenge, being free
in what they do; so do musicians! When writing music, we are free to
create the style of music we feel like at that time. Creating music for
a (part of a) game means we have to concentrate on writing a particilar
piece of music. This means we're being limited in our options, something
neither musicians nor programmers like.

2. Many games that are started on are never finished. For a programmer
this still means experience and code he can use again. For musicians
this often means music that may be fun to listen to, but is probably not
useable for the next game.

3. Programmers can (althought often they do not;) use each other's
libraries/code. If musicians do the same everybody complains that
they've 'ripped' that tune.

4. Programmers get started for a low price: compilers and text editors
are freely available. A good musician will need some good (and often
expensive) equipment to get something going.

5. Considering that music costs money (see 4), and musicians being
scarce, musicians will likely choose those projects that may help them
to afford their hobby.

6. Artists are often not asked to be involved with the game design, and
not pulled in until the last moment. Artists however have a very unique
view on game design, and need their time to develop their work.

Ok, enough for today. I'll try to get some thoughts going on what would
be a good way of getting artists involved in game development, and write
them tomorrow.

Comments please? :)

Regards,

Pieter Hulshoff

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: linuxgames-unsubscribe@sunsite.auc.dk
For additional commands, e-mail: linuxgames-help@sunsite.auc.dk