Mamie's crazy improvement, motivation and inspiration thread!
Hi guys,
It's my first time posting on the forum. I've been enjoying my stay so far, and I'm looking forward to lurking your art a bit more! Seeing all these great creations people make, I wanted to try!
SCROLL DOWN FOR SHORT VERSION, GIRLY CRYING BELOW.
First, I'd like to develop about the kind of work I want to do. Some people may have experience with the kind of situation I'm into, and I'd be glad to take advice from you guys.
I am trying to make a game.
See the word "Trying".
It's simple, I want to create a game that will allow me to develop new skills and earn small amounts of money, if possible.
For a year and a half now, I've been sharpening my modeling skills through various online tutorials. I lost a lot of my time following guides that just weren't right. I had no money, I was young... But in the past 6 months, I finally found something that helped me. And I just started seeing improvement in my own creations. Something that actually, well looked like something.
I invested a year and a half in this already, and I am starting to need money.
I know I am heavily limited by my skill level. And a full tree can't grow in a year. I have the ideas, the patience and ambition (I believe). If any of you have been through this, you'll probably know what I mean:
People lose faith.
My girlfriend is starting to think I'm crazy, but I'm not. (Again, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong). I'm on the 'puter all day all night, I started drinking coffee and I'm running out of cash... fast. I'm expecting the rivers to go dry in 3 months. My hands are still shaking from the last line. 3 months, oh god.
SHORT VERSION IS HERE GUYS, I FINALLY STOPPED CRYING.
I tried many projects. I've had many ideas, just like anybody who's in desperate need for money. My first ideas were ambitious and way toooooo complicated for a team of 3. My last ideas always gravitated around the same rule: Needs to happen fast. But again, they always seemed too complicated to achieve.
But now, I got what I think is the Holy-Grail of ideas. Or to be modest, an idea that could REALLY work for me, and my team.
I won't reveal too much, 'cause after all that you couldn't believe how paranoid I am. But I am searching for a specific art style, that I saw previously on the forums but never saw again. Here's the thread: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144335
I was only able to find one reference after an hour of two of searching. I am probably not using the correct terms, and I was wondering if this art style had a name.
This is the closest I could find. I want my characters to be shorter than the thread and the image above, so they look way more exaggerated and I really want them to be angular, just like the two "references".
For reference, the game would be a 4 player coop platformer. A close inspiration is the PlayStation game "LittleBigPlanet" which just had a sequel released 3 days ago. Players would need to cooperate and mix their "powers" to get through various levels. My best example is highly inspired from the animation in the thread I previously linked, where the muscular "Heavy" kind of guy, would be able to throw one of his teammates to enemies, or any possible puzzle-ish trigger. Combine this with a "Sanic Fast" character, you'd have the Heavy throw a speeding bullet at the enemy, and that'd be a powerful, damage blasting combo.
Despite its childish, colorful and simplistic art style, the game would still have a young adult kind of humor, with its character using "strong words" in their everyday quotes. This example is HIGHLY work in progress, but like any other platformer, the main characters could collect a bonus item that would grant them additional powers. Just like Mario's mushrooms or Crash Bandicoot's mask. The bonus item in question is currently depicted as a purple gem that the character would use in its own "true-to-himself" animation. Let's say the "sanic" guy finds a gem, when the player chooses to use it, the character would smash it to powder and inhale it by its nose. Or simply, sniff it. This would make him jump with a purple aura surrounding him, and he would then be ultra-sanic.
So my point is, if you guys have advice on how to start, where and where not to go, what's a good idea and what's not, I'd gladly listen to you guys.
I will be updating this thread every once in a while with game art (I hope so).
Please excuse my infinite talking and crude writing, english isn't my native language and it's 8 AM here...
It's my first time posting on the forum. I've been enjoying my stay so far, and I'm looking forward to lurking your art a bit more! Seeing all these great creations people make, I wanted to try!
SCROLL DOWN FOR SHORT VERSION, GIRLY CRYING BELOW.
First, I'd like to develop about the kind of work I want to do. Some people may have experience with the kind of situation I'm into, and I'd be glad to take advice from you guys.
I am trying to make a game.
See the word "Trying".
It's simple, I want to create a game that will allow me to develop new skills and earn small amounts of money, if possible.
For a year and a half now, I've been sharpening my modeling skills through various online tutorials. I lost a lot of my time following guides that just weren't right. I had no money, I was young... But in the past 6 months, I finally found something that helped me. And I just started seeing improvement in my own creations. Something that actually, well looked like something.
I invested a year and a half in this already, and I am starting to need money.
I know I am heavily limited by my skill level. And a full tree can't grow in a year. I have the ideas, the patience and ambition (I believe). If any of you have been through this, you'll probably know what I mean:
People lose faith.
My girlfriend is starting to think I'm crazy, but I'm not. (Again, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong). I'm on the 'puter all day all night, I started drinking coffee and I'm running out of cash... fast. I'm expecting the rivers to go dry in 3 months. My hands are still shaking from the last line. 3 months, oh god.
SHORT VERSION IS HERE GUYS, I FINALLY STOPPED CRYING.
I tried many projects. I've had many ideas, just like anybody who's in desperate need for money. My first ideas were ambitious and way toooooo complicated for a team of 3. My last ideas always gravitated around the same rule: Needs to happen fast. But again, they always seemed too complicated to achieve.
But now, I got what I think is the Holy-Grail of ideas. Or to be modest, an idea that could REALLY work for me, and my team.
I won't reveal too much, 'cause after all that you couldn't believe how paranoid I am. But I am searching for a specific art style, that I saw previously on the forums but never saw again. Here's the thread: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144335
I was only able to find one reference after an hour of two of searching. I am probably not using the correct terms, and I was wondering if this art style had a name.
This is the closest I could find. I want my characters to be shorter than the thread and the image above, so they look way more exaggerated and I really want them to be angular, just like the two "references".
For reference, the game would be a 4 player coop platformer. A close inspiration is the PlayStation game "LittleBigPlanet" which just had a sequel released 3 days ago. Players would need to cooperate and mix their "powers" to get through various levels. My best example is highly inspired from the animation in the thread I previously linked, where the muscular "Heavy" kind of guy, would be able to throw one of his teammates to enemies, or any possible puzzle-ish trigger. Combine this with a "Sanic Fast" character, you'd have the Heavy throw a speeding bullet at the enemy, and that'd be a powerful, damage blasting combo.
Despite its childish, colorful and simplistic art style, the game would still have a young adult kind of humor, with its character using "strong words" in their everyday quotes. This example is HIGHLY work in progress, but like any other platformer, the main characters could collect a bonus item that would grant them additional powers. Just like Mario's mushrooms or Crash Bandicoot's mask. The bonus item in question is currently depicted as a purple gem that the character would use in its own "true-to-himself" animation. Let's say the "sanic" guy finds a gem, when the player chooses to use it, the character would smash it to powder and inhale it by its nose. Or simply, sniff it. This would make him jump with a purple aura surrounding him, and he would then be ultra-sanic.
So my point is, if you guys have advice on how to start, where and where not to go, what's a good idea and what's not, I'd gladly listen to you guys.
I will be updating this thread every once in a while with game art (I hope so).
Please excuse my infinite talking and crude writing, english isn't my native language and it's 8 AM here...
Replies
Realistically three months isn't much time to build a high quality game in my opinion (however this does depend on the scope of the game).
If your partner is showing signs of concern then perhaps it's time to take a step back. It's completely unnecessary to spend "all day all night" on your computer, and admitting you are a learner, you don't have to push yourself this harshly - especially when you don't appear to have a fall back option? Do you have a day job? - Ideally you should have a job to support yourself, and then in your spare time work on improving your 3D skills or build that game with your team in your free time. Alternatively you could go back to a good quality school that teaches games design - personally I'm a third-year student at University in the UK studying Games Design, which has helped me progress as far as I have currently.
You should continue looking at websites to learn art - as well as Polycount. Lots of people post their work here, and most are more than happy to share their techniques with you - asking people for Wireframes, UV layouts, etc. is a great way to learn because you can see how other people have undergone the process.
There's plenty of websites you can use for tutorials, however some of them do use a subscription method. Youtube, DigitalTutors, Eat3D are good (though with any tutorials they're sometimes hit N' miss). You can read the Marmoset Toolbag's website to learn about the newer PBR texturing style which renders things more realistically.
The problem you face right now is that you're in quite possibly the worst situation I can think of for someone wanting to make games - you're full time when you really should not be full time. You haven't got the money or the experience to support yourself, so you need to suck it up, stop crying and act quickly and cleverly:
If you move forward as you are, I am certain that you will fail either by running out of money before the title is finished, or by releasing a title of insufficient quality and running out of money because you recieve few sales.
This usually isn't a problem because indie teams tend to start as part-time endeavours - people have other incomes and only go full-time on the games when they're sufficiently experienced. Personally I saved every penny I could from my job for a year before I started making games which helped a lot.
The next problem is that your game is vastly too ambitious. You need to be making one-button games, tiny things. At this point you simply don't have the experience to properly pull off the game you describe - you may be able to demonstrate that you can program 4 player co-op or do the animation but tying all of that together into a professionally presented, polished and well executed experience that could be a featured title on an app store whilst doing enough content to satisfy buyers is difficult.
By this I mean, you don't have the luxury of being sloppy and slapping something together roughly like other indies because in order to pay for three people's full time living costs, never mind any extra money to actually have a life, you're going to have to sell a LOT of copies - this means you need to hit that AAA quality bar.
Leave the ego at the door and embrace starting small, but do that small with stunning quality. Think flappy bird but with the most stunning CG film graphics. Fruit Ninja, things like this.
LIMIT YOUR SCOPE, AND THEN LIMIT IT FURTHER.
I highly suggest above all that you simply all go part-time and get jobs until you:
A) Have enough money to support your team for 6 months (enough time to develop three 2 month projects).
*AND*
The idea is that you prototype in your spare time and when a few of these built and you all have enough money to drop the part time jobs, you can do so and you have your first year of your business plan sorted.
Good luck, have a good talk with your team and let us know what you get up to!
And find a job, even if it's at mc donald, that is real cash inflow, cash that will allow you to live and not ended up without a girlfriend and a home. You have to much to big for too little reward.
I told my team about this and I believe they understood. Not without disappointment, though.
I'll start fresh, get the money I need and make my prototypes.
For the co-op, I was not sure about it either. But the idea came from it, I had everything clear and detailed in my head, but I had a lot of trouble describing it to my team.
Again, thanks a lot! I'll give you updates on this!