Re: The Artists thing

[Ed Page <cubesoft@techieguy.com>]

On Wed, 19 July 2000, Pieter Hulshoff wrote:
> 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.

Not all the time.  When I get to music in my game, I plan to create a system where it plays a song based on the current mood.  Moods could be determined by weapon fire, number of people in the area, the enviroment, etc.  This gives composers all the freedom they want.  Though, a scheme like this wouldn't work in everyones case 

> 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.

Well, if you can't easily find a project to take the music, then the developers are dumb, in my opinion.  With our limited resources, they should try and take advantage of the oppurtunities.  I admit, this wouldn't fit for all cases, but there are almost always rare exceptions.  Of course a artist section of this site could help in finding homes for the art from a dead project.
 
> 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.

I don't mind, as long as it isn't a tune played out too much in both the games.  What I mean is that it shouldn't be the only song and it should fit the mood of the game.
 
> 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.

I hope this gets remedied somehow.  So basically you need a program like Cakewalk(I think) where you can compose a piece and turn it into a midi/wav/mp3/whatever

> 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.

They can always talk the develop into making a high quality version of the art that, since it would be huge, would be available through CD purchase, and maybe get a couple of bucks for the artist.
 
> 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.

Well, at least from my experience, it helps if you have one/some.  <plug>That is why I have been developing my game to be as configurable as possible, so that you coiuld easily redesign it.  Game stories and data would be plug-ins for my game</plug>

> 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.

Yes, sleep good sometimes, but takes away from programming.


____________________

Ed Page
Cubesoft Development
http://cubesoft.sourceforge.net
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