Student Project Skylantis
polycounter lvl 9
Hey everyone, my name is Cameron Hughes and I wanted to start off and say how astonished I am at the amount of amazing work I see here at the Polycount forums. This forum has been a huge source of inspiration for me in the last year or so.
I'm the lead concept and texture artist for the student project Skylantis at Utah Valley University. There are a total of 5 people on the team (not including the 2 sound designers we have) that have been working on this for over 18 months now. We consist of 4 sophomores and 1 junior soon to be juniors and a senior. Our over all goal for the project is to publish it in hopes to help start up an indie game studio at the end of schooling. We've invested an insane amount of work into Skylantis and have learned so much and come so far from where we were when we started this game. At this point we are running into a couple hurdles that we are hoping everyone can assist us with. I am here hoping everyone could take a look at the project and maybe lend a small hand with us purchasing the (expensive) licensing we need to get to allow us to publish our game and future projects. We will have to purchase pro versions of software such as Unity3D, Maya, Zbrush, Mudbox and Photoshop.
Mainly we want gamers, artist and designers like yourself to play this game and help us continue to do what we love most. Make videogames! So please take a bit of your time to just take a peek at our Kickstarter (link below) where we will have daily challenges (that will decide what is in the final game) that you can vote for even if you don't back the project, video updates to let you know precisely what we've been working on and finally all the awesome pledges we've crafted to let you get the best out of this great cause.
Even if you don't back our project we want to know what you guys think of what we're working on. We are all undergraduates and are doing everything that we can to be as good as we can be at what we love. So thanks so much for your time and ask any questions and I'd be more than happy to follow up.
-Cameron Hughes
Kickstarter Page
Public Blog
I'm the lead concept and texture artist for the student project Skylantis at Utah Valley University. There are a total of 5 people on the team (not including the 2 sound designers we have) that have been working on this for over 18 months now. We consist of 4 sophomores and 1 junior soon to be juniors and a senior. Our over all goal for the project is to publish it in hopes to help start up an indie game studio at the end of schooling. We've invested an insane amount of work into Skylantis and have learned so much and come so far from where we were when we started this game. At this point we are running into a couple hurdles that we are hoping everyone can assist us with. I am here hoping everyone could take a look at the project and maybe lend a small hand with us purchasing the (expensive) licensing we need to get to allow us to publish our game and future projects. We will have to purchase pro versions of software such as Unity3D, Maya, Zbrush, Mudbox and Photoshop.
Mainly we want gamers, artist and designers like yourself to play this game and help us continue to do what we love most. Make videogames! So please take a bit of your time to just take a peek at our Kickstarter (link below) where we will have daily challenges (that will decide what is in the final game) that you can vote for even if you don't back the project, video updates to let you know precisely what we've been working on and finally all the awesome pledges we've crafted to let you get the best out of this great cause.
Even if you don't back our project we want to know what you guys think of what we're working on. We are all undergraduates and are doing everything that we can to be as good as we can be at what we love. So thanks so much for your time and ask any questions and I'd be more than happy to follow up.
-Cameron Hughes
Kickstarter Page
Public Blog
Replies
okay, so Autodesk offer student licenses for anything you want to make, with the exception of a commercial product (wait to see where i go with this one), so you don't need to pay for that right now.
you also shouldn't need to pay for any outsourcing... you're at a university, which i would assume has at least one full class of art students, right? why not get them to work on the project? they'd get credit for it too... so where's the problem?
and even if you couldn't get them to help, do you know what that means? the scope of your game is too big for what you're capable of right now. which means (and i mean this in the nicest way i can possibly say) it won't succeed.
so you've started a kickstarter for an unrealistic amount of money to pay for things you don't need to pay for. even if you did want to fork out money to whoever for software licenses, you could do that when you already know your game will succeed and you're ready to release it. right? because up until that point, it's still a student project.
i just don't know what else to say man... you had a golden opportunity to band together a bunch of like-minded students into making a cool game that could have done reasonably well for very limited cost, and in the process potentially ended up starting a studio with all of those same people. it's almost like a dream scenario which you haven't capitalized on, and instead gone the route of almost certain defeat.
i wish you all the best. and i hope it doesn't go as badly as i think it will.
Also UDK, It's free.
We are piloting a new program that is helping students that want to create projects at a professional level.
There are a good few silly things happening in it. The largest is the biped jumping away from the explosion. I also suggest that if you don't have the skills, to learn them in your own time. Not be paid to. May seem forward but 30k is alot of cheese to pay for that.
How so?
We also have a new video in the works that our Film team from school is working on that will be more informative then the one we have currently. Thanks again everyone for all the responses. Super appreciated
I will also have to say for working 18 months already on the project it is not very impressive. As a lead artist it is your job to raise the visual fidelity of the project before asking for money and showing it to the world. I wish you luck on reaching your goal.
but sorry kiddo I've got to agree with everyone else, the way you've gone about this is very detrimental.
There are free software equivalents of all necessary software,
Max/maya = blender
Unity = UDK ( altho unity is pretty cheap )
Zbrush = sculptris
Photoshop = gimp etc, there are loads of ps clones
A place to work? Live at home with your parents while you can like every other indie, or if your still at uni then you've housing/halls of res, classrooms.
Many indies just coordinate over the Internet via Skype, svn, Dropbox.
How can you afford to outsource in the first place? That's expensive from students perspective.
It also may be abit soon to try this as well, since your all still students, As a first project you may have bitten off abit more than you can chew?
I wish you luck with the project tho, I'm not saying your doomed but realistically you'll need to do some serious reorganising if you hope to stay afloat.
Are there any finished concepts that show the final look you're going for? The gameplay looks pretty flat/lacking in art-direction. Lighting and textures especially are letting it down, and the designs feel fairly uninspired. I get the sense that you've sort of rushed forward into making assets without really exploring a style and putting in the effort to come up with something interesting.
My suggestion is to continue working on this as you guys obviously enjoy it and put in a lot of work, but make sure you're focusing on your individual skillset and portfolio as well. In case this idea of an indie studio doesn't pan out, you've spent enough time working on getting good enough to land a studio gig and start your career. Right now the stuff I see isn't going to cut it, especially if you're looking to be a concept artist.
My question would be, why go with a grimy look for your characters? Why not make them bright and colorful? Make them pop from the world. As of right now everything looks last gen. Your two main characters would look much better if they were red and blue.
Also 30k is such an unrealistic number. There have been plenty of student projects that have done a lot of great work with no budget.
As a designer I can tell you now that 16 levels might not be a good idea. Why not make 8 awesome levels each with their own distinct theme. Less is more. I would just suggest cutting it down so that way you have time to polish and art up everything. Believe me it takes a lot of time to make levels look good. Not to mention from a design standpoint the hours of playtesting, bug fixing, collision and etc.
- D.Carmine
Firstly take this out
"Impressive! Doesn't look like student work."
- Steve Taylor from Wahoo Games
I dont care what it doesnt look like. Im not sure this is exactly a showcasing compliment either.
Take down the game update. It showcases a broken product. The lighting is poor and flat (and for some reason it took a year and a half to get it in?), and the animation is admittedly broken. You guys also ramble about the game being so fun because it has replay value. How do you even know it has replay value? What makes you think this game looks like fun to anyone else?
The commentary in the video bugged me within the first couple secounds when i heard the word 'lead'. I also scrolled down to notice this:
'Hi, I'm Michael Chugg, lead project manager, lead designer, and the one and only programmer on the project
Hello, I am Joe Albrethsen, lead project manager, lead designer, and the team effects artist.
Hi, I am Cameron Hughes, the lead concept artist and texture artist for the project.
am Corey Pullman, a character td, level designer, environmental artist, and lead modeler for Skylantis.
My name is Andrew Winkler and I am the Lead Animator for Skylantis.'
I don't think its necessarily to say 'lead' for every person's role. It just sounds silly; each of you are obviously responsible for different things and that extra title does not make you a lead. You are not leading anyone. It reminds me of student resumes that I see when they put 'lead etc' under 'whatever student project' in the experience section.
Next you guys are giving the expectations on deliverables for the people who are giving you money. 21 levels is alot. if it has taken almost 2 years to get one level with lighting, does that mean this project is going to take 21 years?
I fear this is something that will stay in development hell if you scope this large. Its not a bad thing to keep it tight so you can over deliver the hell out of it; therefore if it is successful you can follow it up with another installment.
From the looks of it, I would expect this to be a mobile game. Maybe switching the intended release to mobile would cut on some of the costs and give you more of an excuse to execute the art in the way you are doing it now.
Overall, needs work.
Also who is the lead finance guy?
I understand that the job market for folks fresh out of school isn't exactly rosy (heck, it's downright dire), and so it may seem like a good idea to try to make a start-up before graduation. Also, I'm fairly certain that each of you are plunking down copious amounts of dough to attend school. Just power on through it.
For future presentations, it may be a good idea to wait until you have a vertical slice - one polished level that you can point to and say "see that? We want to make more of that." What I've seen so far seems prototypical.
As a matter of fact, it might just be a good idea to start out with your character in a simple box. Get it so that it feels good handling him in the box, then make a level and polish the ever-living f*** out of it.
It kinda feels like the horse is ahead of the cart on this one.
-Cameron Hughes
Whats wrong with just making a non profit game? Back in the day i was part of a mod team at AILA and it had a great reputation of getting members industry jobs. They were just mods, not full games because.. making a full game takes a lot of time.
You can spend a year or two working on this game, if it fails then you're shit out of luck with having a good portfolio that's diversified and markets well to employers. Every student wants to be successful and start their own studio, but until you've worked in one.. you're going to make a ton of mistakes. Make the most of the time you have in school and get a bitchin portfolio. Earn your reputation at a studio and then go balls wild on your own.
30k, is a lot of money, but there are many alternatives out there with software. Indie devs make games on smaller budgets that have more experience. Plus.. challenge yourself and see if you can make quality art with free software. From the POV of an artist, the art you currently have is lacking compared to other art students. So trying to get legal software to make art isn't your issue, its the quality.
again, I can only go back to the importance and convenience of doing a mod. start simple and don't promise things that are too far out there. I would have hoped your instructors would have the insight to guide you towards a product they believe you can achieve, but instructors aren't always the brightest.
You can always disregard all I've said, but one thing you really should focus on if you want to raise $$$$ is better presentation. Create a dressed up, pimping vertical slice/demo with the best art and design/programming you can do. Put all the basic gameplay elements, functions and other elements you plan to show off in the rest of the game. This is your pitch demo and people will get more excited and have a better product to decide if they should invest in. Showing badly lit, low res, choppy animated character on screen reeks of failure.
You have no reputation or online cred built up yet. You're not some season game dev who has awesome titles to get investors excited about. You're just a bunch of college chums who promise an awesome game, but haven't actually ever produced something. I just hope you see the reality of it from an outsiders opinion. I doubt you'll make your goal, but if you prove me wrong, I hope this game rocks for ya'll. Just know, if you try this again, put more effort and planning before you show the world your product. Activision, EA and other publishers *usuallY* don't show AAA games off when they have meh visuals and shoddy/nonexistent game play for a reason. $$$$$$