Dev Diary 41: Artist Found

I finally found my artist last week. Introductions will follow soon, but for now, I have found a talented and motivated partner to really bring this game to life. I couldn’t be happier. The search process has left me with a couple interesting observations.

First, it took a lot less time than I expected. I’m both thankful and surprised by this. I didn’t really think I could find an artist so quickly, especially not one that seems to be such a good fit.

Second, I got a lot more responses than I expected. I emailed 7 artists on my first go around, and received 5 replies within the week. It was pleasant hearing back from people, even if they weren’t interested or were busy. It was also interesting to hear feedback on the game concept from people who have nothing vested in it.

Finding a good partner has been a long-standing concern. However, the whole experience stood in stark contrast to the anxiety I have felt in the months leading up to this search. I believe that preparation had a large part to play. Having a good early demo and a clear vision made a positive impression. It’s a lot easier to attract people if you actually have something to show, or a demo to play. And obviously, it shows you are serious. I know that if I had approached the same people nine months ago with just a concept, I would have had a lot less success.

I guess this is common sense in the end. It works the same ways for publisher pitches. It’s easier to bag a deal if you have a prototype to show then if you have just an idea. It’s the same thing with breaking into the industry. I remember struggling to even get a reply, let alone an interview until I finally put some good demos together. The best way to make up for a lack of experience is to prove yourself to your audience.

Well that and a bit of luck.

Work Done Last Week

Full parallax support was implemented, in the game and the editor. I’m happy with the results as the system is quite flexible and relatively clean. I’ve managed to keep the new interface simple and self-contained. In addition, it’s given me an opportunity to clean up a lot of small annoying issues.

I made a nice optimization after discovering a big gaffe on my part. At some point in the last month when I was reworking the renderer system, I accidentally put in some code to draw all the objects in the scene a second time. So I obtained an easy and huge boost in performance, which is always nice. I wish I had discovered it before the demos were submitted though.

I made another small optimization to the rendering, cutting back on the number of expensive transformations by combining them.

Finally, the artist search is complete for now. I have a found a talented partner and I can’t wait to introduce him.

Work Planned This Week

The work will be varied this week. I will be helping the artist get up to speed with my processes, and responding to requests that can be addressed quickly. This means I will be working on tools and the editors.

We will also have a few planning and design sessions. The artist is full of ideas, and I’ve given him free reign over the art, storyline, and mood.

I will be implementing some new gameplay features based on some of our early discussions.

Related posts:

1. Dev Diary 39: The Hunt for an Artist
2. Dev Diary 26: Six Months Later
3. Dev Diary 52: Short Update
4. Dev Diary 40: Project Management