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Author: Tim Wendorf

Weekly Content Blog #13: This Is An Emergency!

Weekly Content Blog #13: This Is An Emergency!

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Guys! Emergency! Our man Josh was supposed to write this week’s article, but he’s so busy kickin’ ass on our game that I had to step in. Funnily enough I spent most of today taking somebody to the emergency room for presumably unrelated reasons. However, I have a suspicion that Josh’s ass kicking on our game is so strong that it’s seeping through the interwebs and kicking anyone’s asses who come in direct contact with it. Let’s just hope we can get that bug squashed before we ship it to you! We want to slay you with sick graphics and wicked game play, not our programmer’s ability to kick people’s asses through the interwebs. That being said, I thought I’d take you guys on a brief tour of a section of our game, because that’s the kind of article that can write itself.

Tangle 4

We start at The Tangle.  A thicket of corrupt magic who’s mere existence is enough to strike malaise into any part of the natural world unfortunate enough to be in its proximity. That slime isn’t there to be the icing on your cake, it wants to eat your soul!

Shop Keeper

After peacing out from The Tangle we find ourselves in Adam. Not the guy, but the town! Here the shopkeepers are always happy to see you, because you saved their town from a purple tentacle jungle. They’re so grateful they’ll let you loot their guest’s chests while they rest!

misty woods sauce

But nobody can stand a shopkeeper’s incessant waving for too long, so we’re off to the Misty Woods. Curious as to where the woods got their name? Check the above screen for a hint.  You may also notice three of our heroes seconds away from downing crazy old Lorabeth’s famous Hoss Sauce. If you’re ever in the area make sure to save room for seconds!

Misty_Woods-5

Upon exiting Misty Woods you’ll find yourself staring at the great castle city of Dradora. Only minutes away from the woods, Dradora boasts numerous luxuries for the wayfaring traveler. Cozy beds? Check! Street magicians? Check! Rampant illegal gambling? Check! Evil megalomaniacs? Check! Well maybe that last one isn’t much of a luxury…

campfire2

That’s it for tonight kiddies, time to snooze. Next time I’m in action I will wrap up the “How to budget the art costs of an RPG” series. Thanks for tuning in!

Weekly Content Blog #10: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 2

Weekly Content Blog #10: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 2

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This is part two of a three part series.
Part 1: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 1
Part 3: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 3

 

In part one I talked about some of the costs and risks related to creating art for an RPG. More specifically I outlined the groundwork I laid for Shadows of Adam early on in its life, so that its art could grow organically within the scope of the project and the budget of our team. As both of those factors grew, so did our art requirements. In order to cover this new demand we looked to outsource some of the work to freelance contractors. In part two I will talk about the overall outsourcing experience, what kind of costs to expect when seeking outside help, and how outsourcing helped shape Shadows of Adam.

Dummies Guide to Outsourcing

The first rule of outsourcing is that you need to hire outside help in order to outsource your work. This can be achieved in many ways; posting ads, reviewing portfolios and sending emails, or drawing from your own list of contacts are just some. For Shadows of Adam I knew of two communities where lots of talented pixel artists post their portfolios, so I chose to check out pixeljoint and pixelation and email the people I was most impressed with. The average rate of a pixel artist is in the $15-40/hr range, with the higher end reserved for professionals in the field. It’s important to know what the expected costs are for the quality of art you are looking for. You can’t expect Metal Slug quality graphics when you’re only paying $15/hr to get them. And even if the artist is capable of creating that quality at $15/hr, odds are it will take them at least twice as long and look half as good as an artist charging $40/hr. This is not even taking into account your ability to provide direction and feedback, and a client’s ability to infer direction, apply feedback, and reliably produce art cohesive to the project in a timely manner. The point is that you get what you pay for. A professional artist is going to cost a lot more than a novice, but they also come with greater security that your investment  in them will be worth it.

Tiles and Tribulations

After some deliberation it was determined that new tile sets would be the biggest bottleneck for our project moving forward, so we recruited for that task specifically. I received a few replies back. Not everyone was immediately available, or fit the standard + price point I was looking for, but I did find somebody relatively fit for the job that was ready to go. His first task was to create a tile set for Dradora, the castle city. Below is a side by side of the new tile set for Dradora, and our first town of Adam.

AdamDradora (2)

The first thing you might notice is that the palette changed, and the level of detail slightly increased. Neither of these were planned changes for the game at this point, but the artist’s struggle applying the original palette to a city theme, and their own personal style produced those results. Overall we were happy with this new direction as a team, and felt that it was close enough to the existing art that nothing already made had to be changed. For the second time the art in Shadows of Adam evolved organically without incurring greater costs. Unfortunately the budding artist took on a more demanding project soon after starting the second tile set for us, and so parted ways with Something Classic for greener pastures.

Winds of Change

Upon losing our first outsourced artist to another company (one of the major risks of outsourcing skilled artists at a cheap rate), we set out to find a replacement to continue work on our next needed tileset, the Wind Tower. I found a skilled and willing artist after another round of emails, and work on the Wind Tower proceeded. During this time more grays were added to the palette and it nearly doubled in size from where it started, more details were added to the tiles beyond the new standard set in Dradora, and the art was taking twice as long to produce. Our new artist’s test round was wrapping up and they were unable to finish the tile set in the eight hour window set aside for them. I was starting to wonder how to keep the game’s palette and style in check while keeping the art costs sustainable. Almost serendipitously an artist I initially contacted in the first round of emails -and really wanted to work with- came around to let me know that they were finally available. After talking about the game’s current art direction and needs, they set out to finish the wind tower and unify the palette that was getting out of control.

Wind_Tower 13

Above is a shot of the Wind Tower that they produced from what was started by the other two artists. The palette was transformed into what it is today, and the style of the game evolved for the third and final time. The biggest changes were in the palette (which got a lot warmer and multi-functional through increased color count), the perceived volume of objects (everything is weighted relative to its importance), and the increased application of small details which are more prevalent but also softer.  Not only was our client able to produce amazing art, but they were also able to provide a fully functioning tile set in the same amount of time that our other prospect was able to put out half the work of similar quality. We were ecstatic to see these results, and decided as a team to hire this artist for 80 hours to rework our existing tile sets, and finish up all the outstanding tile sets. In an effort to save costs, I reworked the rest of our existing assets using the new art direction and palette.

80 Hours Later

Eighty hours later and we have about 3/4 of all the tile sets needed for the game. Animations, interactive level entities, and miscellaneous art demands cut into the time scheduled for the tile sets and we came up a little short of our goal for the funds allotted. On top of that, our new artist also had greater demands elsewhere, and so was currently unavailable to finish up our tile set needs. Fortunately we had more than enough to keep us in production from May to the end of June, which is when the artist’s next block of availability will be. In the interim we have found another top caliber artist to assist us in other areas of the game. Overall Shadows of Adam’s art budget has far exceeded our original expectations, but the results have been worth it every step of the way, and the costs have always scaled with the type of game we ultimately hope to produce.

Tangle 4brashear3

Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope that this post has been informative in regards to some of the costs and processes involved in outsourcing your game’s art. Next time I will talk about the upcoming future for the art in Shadows of Adam, and wrap up this mini blog series with a neat little bow. In the meantime feel free to ask any questions about this series or anything pertaining to them in the comments or on facebook or twitter.

Part 3: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 3

Weekly Content Blog #5: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 1

Weekly Content Blog #5: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 1

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This is part one of a three part series.
Part 2: Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 2

Hey everybody, I’m Tim Wendorf, the lead artist and art director for Shadows of Adam. I first joined the project by happenstance when Tyler (composer for Shadows of Adam) and I were both looking for an obscure, unpublished project I had made. Miraculously, we both posted in some forums we hadn’t frequented in nearly a decade on the same day and at close to the same time. After catching up with him, I learned that he was working on an indie RPG. The scale and scope of the project was really small, and though I was busy at the time, I committed to helping out with some art assets to get the project going. In this series I will document my involvement in the project, and explain how the aesthetics have scaled from a no-budget game without a name to the full-fledged AAA indie title it has become.

The Beginning

Originally my involvement in the project was meant to be a one time deal where I’d provide a few tile sets, establish a style, and maybe create a few other assets throughout the project’s life. The project did not have an experienced artist and had no funds to hire one. I had to create a look and feel that could easily be replicated by an amateur artist. RPGs require an ENOURMOUS amount of artwork, and if you’re not thinking about that from the get-go, it is very easy to find that your project goals have become either unattainable or unsustainable. This is true in all costs of a project, but it is especially true when it comes to the art costs of an RPG. Below is a before and after shot from my initial involvement in the project. The goal was to reasonably improve the art while still maintaining the overall aesthetic of the original concept. In all it only took me a few hours to get to this spot.

before/after world map
First Update to the World Map and Character Sprites

Courting of the Courtyard

In addition to the world map, I wanted to help establish the look of the locations and battle system in the game. Enter the courtyard; which served both as an intro to the game and the first dungeon. The game was so early in development at this point that there really wasn’t much art for me to go off of. I created the courtyard tile set with the same sort of mindfulness I went into the world map with. Simplicity and consistency were top priorities. Below are shots of the courtyard tile set and battle system in action. Again, it only took me a few hours to reach the state of each screen. Note that the battle background makes use of the same tile set. Dedicating time to unique battle backgrounds was simply not in the budget at this time.

Boss Courtyard

 

While working on the courtyard I became a lot more involved in the game design side of the project. I helped figure out dungeon and battle system mechanics, did the mapping, and worked on finessing what story was there. By the time I finished my work on the courtyard I was fully involved in the project, and it looked like I would be for the foreseeable future.

Adam and Beyond

Upon being fully committed to the project, I still had some reservations regarding that commitment. For one, our art budget strictly correlated to the amount of hours I was willing to put into the project. For two, if I was going to be involved to this extent,  I wanted to produce a product that I could take pride in when all was said and done. Adam is the first town in the game, and where you end up directly after the intro. My goals in creating Adam were to maintain the established style of the world map and courtyard while building a more professional standard for any future maps. I reworked the palette a bit, took more care in sprite work, and chose assets that would lend themselves well to future areas. This is what I came up with.

Adam Misty Woods 3

 

The second shot is from a completely separate area called Misty Woods, but you can clearly see that it is using the same tile set while having a much different feel. I had spent maybe 20 art hours on the project at this point. Which includes some not pictured enemy sprites as well as a building interior tile set. We had a little under 40 minutes of game play at this junction. Our final product goal was a game that lasted 8-12 hours. At minimum, my commitment to this project looked like it would take at least 250 man hours to finish all of the necessary art assets. No small task considering I contract full-time and have maybe 5-10 hours to commit each week. On top of that, my new dedication to the project really inspired the rest of the team members, and they were consuming the content I generated as quick as it came. In order to keep the fervor of the project alive we sought to contract out some tile set work in order to free me up for other content creation.

Outsourcing comes with its own slew of problems, and my next update will outline some of those issues and explain how outsourcing shaped Shadows of Adam. If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for part 2!

Budgeting the Art Costs of an RPG Pt. 2