Re: Gaming projects

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Pieter Hulshoff wrote:

> *nod*, I think we've had this discussion before on the artist mailinglist. 
> There are a few reasons why many artists have a problem with "free gaming":
> 1. Cost of equipment to create music is quite expensive. I don't know how this 
> works for graphics artists: is The Gimp good enough?
I'm not sure I buy the argument about music equipment being expensive...those
who are sufficiently enthusiastic to want to do this will already own the equipment.

GIMP is easily good enough for 2D artwork - but for 3D work, there is a big problem.
Really the only usable tool is 'blender' - and a LOT of people hate it with a passion.

> 2. A musician has little to gain from others 'improving' their music. The same 
> goes for graphic artists.
True.  If they are artists and only artists, that's true.  However if they are artists
who want to make a game, then they have much to gain from others 'improving' their game.

> 3. Programmers often involve themselves in the music/graphics part of the game 
> by setting restrictions on what it should be like. Word of advice: don't!
Well, some restrictions are necessary.  3D artwork has to fit within the
polygon and texture budgets that the hardware can support.  Music might be limited
by the number of voices you can play or the amount of RAM that can be allocated
or something.   There ARE hard limits and the artists have to be aware of them.

Programmers ARE likely to be making demands - eg "I need a 10 second music segment
to cover the loading screen".  "I need a nice font for the high score table".

The IMPORTANT thing is that those demands are only of a technical nature.  I agree
that programmers shouldn't be trying to enforce ideas of artistic style or design.

> 4. There are a lot more programmers than artists around. If you look at the 
> credits of a professional game however, you see that these groups are usually 
> of equal size (programmers, musicians, graphic artists).
There are a lot more OpenSource programmers than OpenSource Artists.
There are probably more artists (in general) out there in the world than there are programmers
(in general).

The question is: Why are the ratio's so different in those two statements?

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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