Re: [linuxgames] Re: Gaming projects

[Bill Kendrick <nbs@sonic.net>]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2004 at 06:01:25PM +0200, Gregor Mückl wrote:
> Unfortunately. Most of the time it's not the programming which kills the 
> projects, though. We're still missing artists. I've started to go through 
> great efforts to get artists for my current project.

Don't let lack of artists stop you in your project. :^)  It never stopped me!
(As you can probably see... I'm pretty crappy at coming up with art.)

Two cases where I received contributions that totally spruced up my games
_after_ I released them were Gem Drop X and Super Tux.  (Of course, ST is
receiving a complete overhaul and rewrite, and has a ton of other programmers
working on it now, too, but compare _my_ versions to the recent ones, where
the artists came out of the walls.)

The point is, sometimes it's hard to find artists because if they can't
_see_ a game, and understand what kind of art needs to be done, they probably
can't think of how they can help.  Or if you say: "Looking for artists for
my cool new project!", unless you've done a lot of cool projects in the past,
I'm sure most will say "feh, why waste my time?"

I think the same goes for programmers, too.  If I said "Hey everyone, I'm
gonna write a cool Super Mario Bros clone!", not many people would have
climbed on board.  But, I wrote the basic mechanics, and a first level with
some enemies.  Of course, it was _years_ before people picked it up to run
with it, but I doubt _anyone_ would have touched it if it were just a
SourceForge proejct with a description and no code. :^)

So, draw crappy art, make a cool game... eventually artists will say
"dude, I can draw some better art for you", and you'll be set. ;) ;)


<snip>
> I also have to give up on the idelogical part of "free gaming" if I want to 
> succeed. The artists ususally love to see money for their work - at least 
> those with reasonable talent. Having nothing to offer for them, it's quite 
> difficult to build up a good team.

I think it depends on the aritst.  The 'Open Source movement' has got all sorts
of people in it, from different parts of the world, with different interests
and expertise.  Some of the hardcore FLOSS evangelists are great artists,
as I'm sure some of them are great cooks or great lovers.  :^)

I could make the same argument you did about programmers: "They love to see
money for their work."  But as someone else responded, sometimes it's nice
to have practice, make resume fodder, etc.  I doubt I'd have my cool
game programming job today if it weren't for the fact that I was hyperactively
showing off all of my Linux games at the Vintage Computer Festival when
some random guy (who's now my boss :^) ) wandered by... :)


> The more experience I gain, the more I recognize the need to do game projects
> on a commercial basis. It sounds bad. And it is even more disappointing.

I recognize the need to [anything] on a commercial basis.  Don't feel bad,
but don't feel like game projects are _that_ much different from anything
else.  It's just not as mature (or 'stable', maybe? :^) ) in the Open Source
arena as, say, webservers and programming languages. ;^)

-bill!
bill@newbreedsoftware.com              C is like an industrial strength
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/       nail gun; if wielded improperly,
New Breed Software                       it can cause untold carnage.