So I’m on a team for an Indie iPad RPG.
For the time being, I’ve reformatted this blog to contain my research and thoughts as I put this game’s pieces together. The old entries were mashed into the “Gamer Articles” category, to preserve their geeky usefulness and get them out of the way of my present endeavor.
I want to say I’m the game’s Project Lead, but I’m still not sure if Indie games have those kinds of fancy titles. In any case, I am formally the title’s Script Writer.
I spend more than half my time putting together miscellaneous files and research to give the project cohesiveness. I imagine, at some point, this process will come to an end, and I’ll be able to produce more Script Writing and less files that say, ”refer to this file for XYZ.”
If there’s something I learned from writer conferences, it’s research, research, research. Today, that research has taken me on a journey to find a sprite artist.
In the pursuit of this sprite artist for our Indie game, I’ve come across a plethora of pixel-related websites and forums that have everything from advice to job listings:
This spawned an epidemic of e-mails to potential artists. One has sent a reply, with a price that’s modest considering what I’m asking for, and he seems to show genuine interest in the vision of this project. I’m waiting on my hands for another day or so to see if the others show interest.
Of course, I realize I’m doing this the wrong way. If we’re going the route of hiring a commissions-based sprite artist – versus the revenue-share plan for the other team members – I need to put a job query up on some of the forums.
But I like reaching out to the brave souls that share their portfolios first. That’s why they share them, right? And my brain can only handle this kind of nitty-gritty search for so long.
In an effort to make today’s research easier, I’ve also started my hunt for extinct animals. One of the characters of the story is a “Dreamer” (think like a visitor) from Earth, from the year 2052. He’s a scientist that specializes in the cloning and DNA splicing of extinct species.
The moa was the most interesting find, albeit a predictable one, but that’s not to discredit some of the other lists of species that cropped up:
This is the kind of research I’m more apt towards after trying my hand at novel writing. It’s a cathartic way of keeping oneself productive when the Muse isn’t kicking in for the actual creation of content.
I’m going to close with my favorite Yeats poem, which I had to bust out today while discussing this project with another person on the team:
HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939)
“He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven”
