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Plan for Adam deGrandis
Plan for Adam deGrandis
| Name: | Adam deGrandis |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Oct 14, 2005 | |
| Rating: |  3.5 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
| RSS Feed: |  or Subscribe with  . | |
| Profile Page: | View profile page for Adam deGrandis |
Blog post
A lesson in game development
I learned something I wasn't expecting to during IGC, which puts me in a surprised happy kind of mood.
My own personal goal is to create artwork that inspires. I can remember a year ago when I was in a mad "I must read every tutorial I possibly can" mode. When I was tired and frustrated and feeling hopeless, it was prime examples of 3d work that kept me going. Great artwork takes you out of whereever you are and puts you on its own time. I was no longer in my head, it was just me and the work I was looking at. Id manage to mutter "damn, that is HOT" and Id get a second wind and continue my education.
I no longer have the frustration of not knowing how game artists make what they make. I've gone from "I have no idea how a person made this" to "I could do this, it would just take me significantly longer that it did them. Probably".
This is going somewhere, so keep reading.
This IGC, I watched people play two games Ive had the pleasure of working on, Marble Blast Ultra and Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa. In both games, there are things that seemed to me like glaring flaws while I was working on them. Watching people play them, though, melted those things away. My attitude went from "If there were more hours in the day, I could make this look how its supposed to" to "hey, this is actually not bad at all... It fact, it kind of kicks ass."
So what does this all mean? It all boils down to experience. Different kinds of experience on different levels. Venture Africa and Marble Blast are going to be my first shipped games. In my experience, when you're developing a game its surprisingly easy to forget the most important step: releasing it into the world. The difference between myself and all those artists who have made stuff that have stopped me in my tracks is that lesson. They've done it time and time again. Each time they go through that, they learn something new, and apply it to the next challenge. Ive certainly learned mountains in both dev cycles that Im geniunely PUMPED to take to the next game, tech, whatever I work on. So I guess the bottom line for me personally is that Im on my way to being the artist I know I can/ want to be.
Which, you know, kicks galaxies of ass.
But really, as a community take this as a call to let your project go. Finish it up and get it out there. You'll learn something, and your next game will be worlds better because of it. Plus, it would make Jeff T really happy.
And cause I know how *painful* it is to read a plan from someone you don't really know if it doesn't have screenshots... Its the humvee from the humvee pack which Tim Aste and I are working on making its transition into a hi poly model for the purposes of normal mapping.
Thanks for reading, kids.
My own personal goal is to create artwork that inspires. I can remember a year ago when I was in a mad "I must read every tutorial I possibly can" mode. When I was tired and frustrated and feeling hopeless, it was prime examples of 3d work that kept me going. Great artwork takes you out of whereever you are and puts you on its own time. I was no longer in my head, it was just me and the work I was looking at. Id manage to mutter "damn, that is HOT" and Id get a second wind and continue my education.
I no longer have the frustration of not knowing how game artists make what they make. I've gone from "I have no idea how a person made this" to "I could do this, it would just take me significantly longer that it did them. Probably".
This is going somewhere, so keep reading.
This IGC, I watched people play two games Ive had the pleasure of working on, Marble Blast Ultra and Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa. In both games, there are things that seemed to me like glaring flaws while I was working on them. Watching people play them, though, melted those things away. My attitude went from "If there were more hours in the day, I could make this look how its supposed to" to "hey, this is actually not bad at all... It fact, it kind of kicks ass."
So what does this all mean? It all boils down to experience. Different kinds of experience on different levels. Venture Africa and Marble Blast are going to be my first shipped games. In my experience, when you're developing a game its surprisingly easy to forget the most important step: releasing it into the world. The difference between myself and all those artists who have made stuff that have stopped me in my tracks is that lesson. They've done it time and time again. Each time they go through that, they learn something new, and apply it to the next challenge. Ive certainly learned mountains in both dev cycles that Im geniunely PUMPED to take to the next game, tech, whatever I work on. So I guess the bottom line for me personally is that Im on my way to being the artist I know I can/ want to be.
Which, you know, kicks galaxies of ass.
But really, as a community take this as a call to let your project go. Finish it up and get it out there. You'll learn something, and your next game will be worlds better because of it. Plus, it would make Jeff T really happy.
And cause I know how *painful* it is to read a plan from someone you don't really know if it doesn't have screenshots... Its the humvee from the humvee pack which Tim Aste and I are working on making its transition into a hi poly model for the purposes of normal mapping.
Thanks for reading, kids.
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| List: | 12/05/06 - What's new with Games Extract 11/01/06 - Games Extract FX Pack 08/14/06 - A wicked awesome face animation / morph target tutorial 08/07/06 - Games Extract open for business! 06/03/06 - Games Extract sells out! 04/28/06 - Why my life is filled with more change than yours 01/31/06 - Humvees, education, wrongful death, and time machines 10/14/05 - Plan for Adam deGrandis |
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Submit your own resources!| Tom Bampton (Oct 14, 2005 at 05:25 GMT) |
| Todd Pickens (Oct 14, 2005 at 05:27 GMT) |
I hear you mate!
Your art is your baby, and releasing it to the world is putting yourself out there and saying "HEY Judge Me!"
Some times it hurts, sometimes it makes you feel like you are the king of the world. Given a little time you get to that pace where you realize that you are doing what you love, and that is HUGE!
When I got into the dev biz, I use to drive to working laughing...literally. The idea that someone was paying me to do this was beyond me. And I had MAJOR performance anxiety the first couple years. But in time I realized that I was my own worst critic.
I can't think of one case where I showed my work to someone and they were harder on it than I had been.
So do your best, that all you can do, then throw it out there, and don't sweat it.
Nice Hummvee by the way.
| Andy Schatz (Oct 14, 2005 at 06:33 GMT) |
| Ben Garney (Oct 14, 2005 at 07:18 GMT) |
Nice plan, Adam.
| Brett Fattori (Oct 14, 2005 at 14:04 GMT) |
Just don't give me a pen and ask me to draw. ;-)
- Brett
| John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder) (Oct 14, 2005 at 14:59 GMT) |
"Venture Africa and Marble Blast are going to be my first shipped games"
I agree, regardless of the minor flaws you may see in those games they're HOT and no one else will ever notice. Awesome work man!
-John
| Matthew Langley (Oct 14, 2005 at 17:36 GMT) |
| Mike "Tango Whiskey" Lawrence (Oct 14, 2005 at 22:28 GMT) Resource Rating: 4 |
| Anton Bursch (Oct 16, 2005 at 05:09 GMT) |
Damn that looks perfect. I wish I had one of those to drive around in. I would have to probably starve to afford the gas for it, but it might be worth it.
| Eric Elwell (Oct 21, 2005 at 05:30 GMT) |
| Dirk "dirkk" Krause (Nov 17, 2005 at 22:31 GMT) |
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