Things are really feeling like they’re starting to come together. I think a large part of that is because the artist I’m working has been sending me some great stuff that’s got me really excited about the visual direction she’s taking. Although the decision to pay to hire an artist is a scary one (it’s the biggest part of my budget for this game, aside from my own time), I’m already seeing how important it is.

I’m one of those programmers who has always had an interest in art. Both my parents are artists, my grandfather was a portrait painter, my grandmother was an art teacher for years and is now a stone sculptor, and my aunt is a painter and art teacher. I grew up around art. I took a lot of art classes in high school and continued taking some classes at university. However, I know my limitations: I’m a hobbyist artist; I’m not a professional. I knew from the start that I’d have to hire someone to do the artwork if I wanted to push the level of polish in the game to a point that I’d be happy releasing. It appears that it was the right decision.

Right now the art is still in the mockup stages, so I can’t wait until I get some assets to drop into the game. Once I get a first pass of the art in the game, I might even post a screenshot or two! *gasp* I know…a shocking move forward. I’ll just have to make sure the artist is ok with me releasing the art prior to completion.

This morning I started realising that I had little notes everywhere about all the stuff I still need to change/fix/tweak/implement. I decided it was time to start compiling it into a central list of “things that still need to get done”. My plan was to take the list and plug it into my project planning software, but I’m not sure if I will. A big part of me knows that this will help me to track my progress and I can use the metrics I gather from it to plan my next project better. The other part of me just keeps screaming “let’s code something cool!” Right now the screaming part is winning out. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel more like project planning.

Back to coding…

Owen

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Art, iPhone, Project Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.