Team needs concept artist (paid sketches)

[ktalkimist]

Hi guys,

As I mentioned in a previous thread, I am working on an Ace Attorney/Zero escape type of game. I now have a programmer and we are proceeding with production.

What we're looking for is someone who will sketch placeholder art (backgrounds, characters, puzzles) for development purposes. Final art for the game will be provided by other artists, unless we like your polished work so much that we decide to recruit you for good.

The rates will be: (Update: We are only looking for background and scene sketches now.)

$5 every 2 backgrounds
$5 every 2 scene illustrations

We are only asking for rough sketches, so I hope the rates are reasonable. This is only for the first chapter (30,000 words) of the game, so the volume of work won't be much. Since we need placeholder art ASAP, please make sure you have time to prioritize the project. These are just sketches anyway.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Hey there You might want to fill in people a bit about what you are working on, such as whether your game is commercial or not, as well as if you are planning on using the sketches as bases for the other artist.

You might also want to find a round-about example of what kind of level of polish you are looking for since a sketch can range from a rough skeleton sketch to something finished enough to ink straight away. Since an artist would be wanting to spend around less than 2 minutes a pose they will then be able to measure if it's something that is possible for their skill level, so they don't get in over their head and you can get an artist that can see it through. People have different speeds and skill level so it's important to think about that before diving in. People probably don't want to be drawing a pose for an hour only to get 50-37 cents.

Good luck!

[Taleweaver]

Also, your posting is missing a necessary project overview. "Ace Attorney/Zero type" is too vague.

[ktalkimist]

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. To be honest, I'm a bit wary of sharing project details publicly for two reasons. One, it's in an early stage in terms of development (although design/story of the entire game is complete, it's still subject to revisions). Two, I am worried about ideas being stolen since anyone can just run off with the world and story you have painstakingly crafted, do a different version of it, and if the copycat releases first, you end up being the rip-off.

I guess I can divulge that...

- It is inspired by Zero Escape in terms of plot complexity and character development
- It has elements of Ace Attorney such as collecting evidence and grilling someone
- It shares imagery with Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne/The World Ends With You
- It is around 150,000 words long

The plan is for a commercial release. We need the concept artist to help us through just the first chapter of the game, which we will release for free as a demo and leverage for publishing partners (there are interested parties already) or crowdfunding. However, this is our first game, so who knows if we can actually reach a marketable level of quality?

The sketches will be used as basis by other artists on a very limited degree. We really only need them to make sure everything works and feels right before putting in the final art. So yes, they only need to be rough sketches with some semblance of what will actually be in the game.

[Tempus]

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. To be honest, I'm a bit wary of sharing project details publicly for two reasons. One, it's in an early stage in terms of development (although design/story of the entire game is complete, it's still subject to revisions). Two, I am worried about ideas being stolen since anyone can just run off with the world and story you have painstakingly crafted, do a different version of it, and if the copycat releases first, you end up being the rip-off.

An oft-cited and silly reason for not sharing information about a game. Firstly, your premise isn't your game. People can't steal anything but what you put up here and if that's a premise, guess what? They have to develop everything else. They have to commit to stealing your idea, gathering a team and working their ass off on it. They don't automatically get access to all the story details and script you've rewritten, all the character and BG art, music, code, etc. They start at square one.

Frankly, ideas are worthless unless they're brought to fruition. They're a dime a dozen and everyone has cool ideas. Developing them is the hard part. Which means this hypothetical thief needs to be shameless and lazy enough to steal an idea wholesale, but hard-working and diligent enough to develop it. Seems pretty unlikely to me. A lot of more experienced folk simply won't inquire further (except to help with improving recruitment threads). And "a lot" isn't some vague BS I'm pulling out of nowhere; if you say you're worried about ideas being stolen on any game dev forum and you'll get similar responses. Ironically, the best way to allow someone steal your ideas is to never tell the public. By making a public thread you've got your project out there and dated.

[ktalkimist]

I hear you, Tempus, and you would be right if we did not have in our hands a ready-made tool (Ren'py) and a small army willing to provide art/music/writing for free. It can take a 60-minute kinetic novel to steal your premise and suddenly you're a knockoff.

Anyway, in compliance with Taleweaver's request to abide by forum rules, let me tell you more about the game.

Themes:

The game actually deals with a variety of themes. Here are some listed in the design document:

War the Destroyer. No matter what the motives behind it, destruction is always the ultimate result of war. War waged with modern day weapons, including WMDs and bio-weapons, can push humanity back to the dark ages.

Everyone has something to hide. In this game, every character lies to someone at least once. Healthy relationships are based on trust and understanding despite differences. This is reflected in the conflicts and resolutions of subplots between characters.

Death separates. The main character spends the entire game chasing the dead and witnessing how death separates in many ways. Families are broken, relationships come to an end, and survivors become more detached from the world around them as a psychological defense mechanism.

Nothing is ever what it seems. The story reaches its culminating point with a displacing plot twist that shatters the player's expectations. The main character's actions every chapter also have surprising repercussions in the end.

No one-trick pony. There is always more than one way to get things done. Just because a certain approach worked on a character doesn’t mean it will work on another. People are a mixed bag of personalities, after all. Moral choices are also sometimes ambiguous, so the player has to anticipate what their decisions could cause.

Play, think, feel. The game presents players with several moral divergences and dramatic outcomes that will tug at their heartstrings. Disconcerting decisions will have to be made for the protagonist to achieve his goals.

May God have mercy. The game portrays how life could be controlled by worldwide religious organizations, in the same way civilizations were reigned over and pitted against each other during the Dark Ages. Another religious group schemes to stop the establishment of an oppressive new world order in order to push for its own selfish motives.

Evil is easy. Choosing to do good is often more difficult than lying and cheating your way to success. In this game, the “evil” path always positions itself as an easy way out. Its alternative requires much more finesse in how the player interacts with characters in order to reach the story’s best ending.

[noeinan]

Removing my post as my situation has changed and I am no longer able to take on a project of this size.

[pickle131]

Ahhhh this sounds like the game will be really interesting! My art style would probably clash terribly, but I'll definitely consider playing this game when it comes out *u*

[Kokoro Hane]

Sounds interesting.

I have a few questions;
Do you need one concept artist for all positions, or several for multiple positions?
What is the payment method?
What quality do you expect from the sketches?
What kind of characters are you looking for?

I might have a go at character sketches, since I love designing characters (as long as it's in anime/manga style, since that's more of my specialty). I like to design my characters to look like they have their own personality, and I love experimenting with hairstyles since that hekps individuality.

Anyway, after my questions are answered, I'll see if this is something I am able to do and then I can provide some samples. Since all you need is sketches, it'll be easier for me since I am more of a traditional artist than a digital artist (due to having no tablet). My brother's good at backgrounds, though, so I'll also look into if he'd be interested in sketching up backgrounds.

[ktalkimist]

Hey there,

We're now trying to choose from applicants who can do both characters and backgrounds. Since your brother can take the background part, we wouldn't mind looking at your stuff, too.

Payment is through Paypal. Sketches only need to look at least similar to what we'll have in the final art. For characters, this means poses and accessories are more important than other parts of their designs. Backgrounds will have the layout we need, but they're still just rough sketches.

[noeinan]

Removing my post as my situation has changed and I am no longer able to take on a project of this size.

[shinyshoe]

Hello, I am interested in your project. My normal rates are here and shows some samples of what I'm capable of drawing, but since these are just sketches that I can do very quickly, I think the pay would be fine for me. For more samples, here is my art thread. Thanks for your time.

[HikaruNoHana]

Hi there!
I would be interested, and I'm currently doing some sketches for a story, I'll edit this post as soon as I can get some photos of these, so you can see how I work
See ya!

Edit:

[IMG=http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/6097/uptj.jpg][/img]

[ktalkimist]

Updating this thread because we're still looking for an artist, preferably someone who has time for the project because we'd really like the sketches as soon as possible.

We are looking for sketches as such:

http://i.imgur.com/kRz3fEY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZOFDscR.jpg