Prev/Next Blog
by date

You have to lift, you have to believe

Name:	Stephen Burns
Date Posted:	May 09, 2006
Rating:	4.2 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
RSS Feed:	or Subscribe with .
Profile Page:	View profile page for Stephen Burns

Blog post

Howday all

Climbing the tallest mountain in the world takes courage.
Believing in yourself and abilities takes more.

Here is the mountain.

www.peakware.com/peaks.html?pk=80

Game making is like climbing to me.
It takes courage, commitment, learning, focus and a lot of self belief.

Lets Climb.

A huge 120 meg movie made for a film festival Jan 2003 in 5 weeks
from art after the strategy game collapse.

lightforgegames.com/Movies/CFX-8-DVD.mpg

Some short AVI clips. Very large files 4-36 meg.

lightforgegames.com/Movies/T-M-Argon-F-M2-LX.avi

lightforgegames.com/Movies/09-T-M-Argon-F-M2.avi

lightforgegames.com/Movies/D-Star-Aw-1.avi

The year in 1998 the inspiration is ... Babylon 5. I loved that show.
After failing in school and getting a fail for Art ( I wasn't into clay) I took
up drinking a lot. Had a dream woke up and decided I have to lift.
At the end of 1998 I produced these screens.

The year is 1999. Again I lift.

The year is 2001 I start working for free on game projects.

The year is 2002 and I lift. My first full project cycle.
I feel I have made 1998 level TA art. The project fails.

2003 I perpare for the 2004 tropfest film festival. Again I lift. I work
on some more smaller projects after the strategy game failure. I get
a full time job to recover from a 0 bank account.

2004 I start work on art for a RPG. I believe I as one artist can match the 10+ artists that worked on BG games.
I lift and create the snap lock mines in under 4 weeks which can create a 20 level dungeon in
1 day by snap locking like Lego. This is the peak before the fall to World of Warcraft.

Snap lock Church 40% done.

2004 Onwards I get a new job and work at a supermarket. I play Wow and I give up art.
2005 I begin my journey in World of Warcraft and join the front line in the top Alliance
guild on our server. I level two 60's one 54 one 30 and one 28.

Artist, Dreamer, game designer ...

Stephen Burns

Recent Blog Posts

List:	06/14/07 - Free Puzzle Design Kit released 06/08/07 - Being Confident 06/06/07 - Must have Bling and a budget 06/06/07 - Game development page, game finished 08/11/06 - Work and art 07/15/06 - One day Projects and fun 07/05/06 - RPG maps 05/09/06 - You have to lift, you have to believe

Submit your own resources!

Anders Linder-Noren (May 09, 2006 at 10:04 GMT)

Nice! =D

Andy Hawkins (May 09, 2006 at 10:40 GMT)

very inspirational - it certainly applies to me. thanks for the reminder :)

James Laker (BurNinG) (May 09, 2006 at 10:42 GMT)

If I could create screens like these... even draw that well... I would be in art myself. I think those are good!

Failing a subject means you your priorities were in the wrong place.
Doesn't mean you're stupid or suck at anything.

Tom Bushby (May 09, 2006 at 11:30 GMT)

That is some really nice art! :)
I can't do art to save my life, unless it's graphic design, then I can. Everything else in art I can't do. ;)

Sam Redfern (May 09, 2006 at 11:46 GMT)

Great stuff!, very nice artwork.

Your comments about WoW stealing your time are important, I think. One of the main ideas behind the MMO I'm working on is that it won't do that to you: you'll only be able to play for a few hours a week max.

Phil Carlisle (May 09, 2006 at 13:34 GMT)

Stephen:

Your art certainly seems to have come along. The thing you really need, is to get in with a group of developers who are actually moving forward and can provide support for when slacking off or doing other things call. We all have off periods, but the support of friends and workers who actually dont just die away when the work turns up is a big thing.

I've struggled myself with trying to maintain motivation when artists seem to fall away. But perseverence is a huge part of what makes making games difficult. Progress, no matter how slow, will eventually succeed. Its the old water at a dam theory, sooner or later a crack forms in the dam, no matter how long it takes the water WILL be released.

So keep at it!

Dennis De Marco (May 09, 2006 at 14:24 GMT)

Release a space content pack :) Love your space shots. If I was an artist with your abilities, I would make content kits for saps like me who can program and are limited to drawing squares in photoshop :)

Dennis De Marco (May 09, 2006 at 21:06 GMT)

You might want to hook up with Dreamer's MMORPG project site. He is looking for some good talented artistic people to help flush out the kit. It's a great community right now and very active IRC for the project.

www.mydreamrpg.com

Stephen Burns (May 09, 2006 at 21:55 GMT) Resource Rating: 3

Wow steal time !! I quit because I was raiding Molten core, Black wing lair, AQ, Zul grub, 6 outdoor bosses ... 60 + hours.

I said on team speak to the guild this game has become worse then my work at a super market (I get paid at the supermarket). Molten core was ok everything after that was down hill imo.

I like the idea of a limited 2 hour epic mission run every 7 days. So a guild has to pick which epic run each 7 days to go for and only one. I completely terminated Wow becuase the work rate is off the scale and growing with each patch.

What does a 2 hour epic run do. It means for me I can log on say g day to mates have a dungeon run a few beers and then get back to game making for the rest of the week. Wow lets you run the whole shop 24/7 and you just end up on a long list of tread mills (nice pretty tread mills).

Also I was the "heal bot" ( no comment :( ). Leveled a tank so I could at least use more then one button in a 5 hour MC run.
Edited on May 10, 2006 08:41 GMT

Stephen Burns (May 09, 2006 at 22:01 GMT) Resource Rating: 3

Got the team. The core team this year is puzzle games.
Game beta is in 4 weeks.

I will use the weekends to package up all my failed project art into free content packs.
Hold onto your hats for I have to go through 500 meg of model files and at least put them
into semi professional content packs (or try).

Andy Schatz (May 10, 2006 at 00:03 GMT)

The website has a nasty typo - "Coming soon" is spelling "Comming Soon" on all the buttons.

Art is great though, fun to see retrospectives like this.

Stephen Burns (May 10, 2006 at 06:44 GMT) Resource Rating: 3

Never let a artist do the spelling. Well not this one :).

Dreamer (May 10, 2006 at 17:46 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Seriously, how much for the dungeon? I really want those mines in my game.

Stephen Burns (May 10, 2006 at 22:25 GMT) Resource Rating: 3

I am working with a laptop which has a 40 Gig HD ( C 1.4 ghz 512 ram). All my old data files are burnt onto DVD's. So I have to transfer them on and set them up again.

Dreaming of a 2.1 Duo with 2 gig of ram.

Jesse Hall (May 10, 2006 at 22:49 GMT)

glad you pulled out of WOW bro. Awesome designs!

Jesse Hall (May 10, 2006 at 22:50 GMT)

btw are you a climber?? =)

Anil Eapen (Jun 30, 2006 at 09:41 GMT) Resource Rating: 3

You could try for a job in the U.S or Canada..based on what i've seen!
Better yet try for projects that are likely to earn u royalties or a contract.

Stephen Burns (Jun 30, 2006 at 21:25 GMT) Resource Rating: 3

Thank you for the support. I am doing well at the moment, but sometimes you can feel a little down on yourself.

You must be a member and be logged in to either append comments or rate this resource.