Toy Factory!

Hi, All!

I finished a game about a year ago called Sparks! 5: Toy Factory. (Actually, it went through many names including Origami Garden, but that's wishy-washiness for you.) It's a network-connecting logic game. I couldn't find a graphic artist, then the holidays came up, then I took over a month of vacation, then my sister (with 5 kids) had surgery. Well... you get the idea.

During this time I worked on Fast Arcade and made about 35 games. This was a lot of fun. I'll be adding games to it until the day I die. Recently, I created a game on it called "Pet Store Detective". I'd been wanting to test out RentACoder, so I tried hiring an artist through it. It worked like a charm. I got a lot of offers at a lot of different prices, each with it's own advantages.

But now I'm back and converting Toy Factory to the latest TGB version. I found Richard (a British ex-patriot living in Spain) to do my art.

I've had 2 experiences hiring artists here at GarageGames and now 2 at RentACoder. My success rate here is 0% and at RentACoder is 100%. I'm not bashing the artists here. My experience is probably not standard. In one case, the guy had no experience; in the other, the guy had to stop due to personal issues.

Below are two images. The first is a programmer-art version of the game in one of its 50 levels. (Each level is replayable, due to the random building of the puzzle.) The second is a close-up image that Richard created.

Later!