Finished Game Needs An Artist

Car Jockey, with code and graphics all done by myself was completed a few weeks ago and I've been looking at options for what to do with it. Today I was discussing the game with a distributor and he gave me some ideas on how he'd like the game to be, and I tend to agree with him that the game could do very well if I had the time and talent to make all the graphics required. It's going to be quite a bit of work just to add the extras to the code, but I'm prepared to do that if I can find an artist to put the work in on the graphics. It's essentially going to be a range of cars and parking lots, plus whatever else we might come up with ( we might include a character or all sorts of off-the-wall graphical extras. ) You *could* make graphics to go with mine, but it's probably going to be best to bin mine and use all yours for consistency. You can do them realistic, cartoon, stylized, whatever you prefer. But if you're not up to the standard of the graphics I did, then obviously you're not going to be good enough. I'm hoping for better since I'm no artist, but I'll settle for similar quality. But you know if you've got the talent to be the artist on a ( hopefully ) major portal game or not, so I'll leave that to you.

Here's how it currently looks.



We can discuss exactly what we do when I find the right person, since there's no cast-iron rules, just some ideas which would make it much more popular. ADDED: For clarity, this is 2D art. I don't care if you render 3d graphics, draw it and scan it, paint it in photoshop, model it in clay or whatever. It's going to be 2d art in the end.

Since I'm not being paid for the work, neither will you be. The distributor wants the game and will probably take it as it is, but they're not going to buy the IP even if it's done up the way they want it. So I'm offering a ( negotiable. depending on experience and ability ) percentage of the profits.

The point is, I've finished half a dozen saleable games, I have a distributor lined up and I have a completed game which needs improving. If you think you're up to it, reply with your portfolio/sample work or email me.

Email : info@... ( Phil )


If you need or want more information, again, probably best to email me because I have a new project on the go, as well as working on some notes and ideas on how to make this the game it could ( and should ) have been, so I can't afford to spend too much time chasing around forums and whatever on this project.

hey Gabe... could you share with us some of those suggestions... personally, as far as the graphics go, it looks very good for the type game it is...

regardless, i'd be interested in hearing what the publisher suggests...


--Mike

Hi Mike,

As far as the graphics were concerned, it was a question of quantity, not quality. They think a lot more variety in graphics would be really helpful, and I don't have either the time or the creativity to come up with that.

It wouldn't really be fair to say what we discussed. It wasn't an "official" conversation ( distributors don't tell you how to change a game, they say yes or they say no ) so it was really just a personal chat about the game where we discussed some ideas, general concepts, examples and how they could all be brought together into a deeper, more rounded game.

yeah the graphics are much improved over the original one with blocks. Good luck finding an artist.

Thanks, I suspect I'll need it. I've had zero interest so far.

I knew I should have posted about making an episodic FPS or an interplanetary scifi MMORPG, or some other flight of fantasy that had no hope of ever being completed ;)

Actually when I played this first (it was just blocks) I thought it had portal potential with proper interface (half the work of course!) and nice graphics/sounds. But I wonder if it needs something else, some plot, or money or bonuses, or collectibles (e.g. BKR fish) just to raise it above "very simple game but with fancy graphics". But maybe it doesn't need any of that... Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, I have a pretty clear idea of what it needs after the chat yesterday. It was mostly stuff I already knew and chose to ignore because it was just a little game that I polished up for fun in two weeks. But there's no point doing it unless I can add a substantial amount more graphics, and I'm not in a place where I can throw all my current work in the bin to go back and spend a few months on this.

If no one wants to work on it, then I'll probably just make a few simple changes and throw it out there anyway. The smaller portals will definitely take it and one of the big portals is a maybe even as it is, so that's all I can do.

Someone could probably make it look like "Oblivion" for you if you wanted ;)

Seriously thou, If I could do it, I would have loved to, but yours are better than mine would be. (And Id demand to help reprogram it, thus extending its production by years) (And it would still have worse graphics)

Could you not spend a small amount of time "Teaching" a member of the family/friend to make such graphics? Even a Pre-teen can be amazingly both productive and creative when motivated.

I think it would be a shame to release it as it is, now that your are no longer happy with it. Battlecruser 3000 comes to mind.

"It was mostly stuff I already knew and chose to ignore "

"If no one wants to work on it, then I'll probably just make a few simple changes and throw it out there anyway"

Sounds like you've given up on it already! The game has potential but needs more than just graphics (and better music) to make it marketable as a casual game.

Grey Alien is right on about the bonus/plot/money type thing. Maybe the white car isn't the ONLY car that you have to repeatedly free each level. Or maybe all of the other cars are crapola and the car you have to get out is a fancy jaguar/mercedes/porsche that an 'irate' customer at the parking garage wants his car back and you have to get it to him in a certain time frame, the quicker you do it, the more he/she tips you. You could have a variety of cars/customers. The controls could use some polishing too... it felt too much like I was sliding a graphic on the screen instead of moving a car. Maybe you could click the car and click where you want it to go (highlighted areas appear of movable spots). This would be more natural for the casual game biz.

I'd say you'd have a few months polishing this and then you would have a nice game that was portal quality. Music and graphics are a must but some of the issues mentioned above could raise the bar on this.

@H&K: Nah not really. All the graphics were done in 3dsMax so I'd have to spend several months teaching the ins and outs of 3dsMax, which I've picked up very slowly over a period of many years.

@Gellyware: It's a simple matter of business priorities. If I give this project several more weeks of work doing all the programming and design that are necessary, I can continue the bigger, more important project I have already begun, albeit with a delay. If I spend several months ( and it could easily stretch to six or eight months because I can get good results graphically, but it takes me a lot longer than a real artist ) then the long term project will most likely go under. That's too much to risk, and makes bad business sense, so I won't do it.

This may well be a very profitable project, but it's the end of a line. My future projects won't be going in this direction any more, so it doesn't make sense to scupper the future, even for the sake of a very profitable game from the past.

I'll be sure to pass your comments on to the musician, he'll probably get a chuckle out of that, like I did.

You know what would be cool is after each level when the car goes through the tunnel there is an animation that shows the car comming out of the tunnel on the other side into yet another traffic jam! Oh the insanity! Use it.

Graphics look fine... were they models or simply sprites?

Most everything is rendered 3d.