Applied!

Application is sent away. I'm not going to check over anything because it's too late to see if it's okay, and if there are any stupid mistakes I'm just going to feel awful about it.

I'm terrified.

Here's the revised Range picture. I think it looks a lot better now. The background makes more sense. It's  a shame to discard the old one, so maybe I can use it for a different picture!

Rare Application

This is harder than I thought. I only have 2 hours left to apply and it seems like everything needs to be fixed. The Range picture I drew really lacked energy. Rhoda and Josh helped me to make it better, but it took up so much time. I wish I'd done it right first time because now I'm worried about the standard of everything else.

The 1920s Support was taken from the portfolio and replaced with concept work of the Assassin. I feel a bit bad about it, because now I don't have any male characters to submit. It might make me look a bit repetitive with characters.

Hopefully I'll be set to submit my application soon. Fingers crossed.

Maybe Enough

I've got 6 images together for my portfolio. I'll see if I can squeeze anything else in,  but if not, I think this is an acceptable amount.

I thought it'd be best to refer to my Range as Sniper, just to be sure they get what she is. Range is kind of vague.

I have to include a covering letter and a CV. I don't really like doing either because
A) I never know what to put in a covering letter
B) I don't particularly like publishing my botched A Level results
C) I really don't want to be judged for these things over my pictures.

Criticism would be appreciated, but I'm hoping I don't have to change something that would take me hours to fix. If it comes to that, I'll just have to switch pictures.

Western Fantasy Range

Hoping to use this in my portfolio.

Futures Group

Got some more feedback for Futures today. Everyone was so helpful and now I feel like my game makes more sense. 

Kindrits is going to be less based on RPG and adventuring, and more focused on training and looking after your pet. I'd like to keep a little bit of action in it though, because it's always fun for people to customise their characters with new clothes and things.

Basics of what I have so far:

-You get one Kindrit in the game (Though maybe more later).

-You sort of choose what 'animal' it will be; dragon, hippocamp, sphinx, potato, whatever.

-Every Kindrit has a uniquely generated personality; maybe your Kindrit will have a good sense of humour, maybe it likes cuddles, and maybe it hates yellow hats.

-You can change your Kindrit as you progress and unlock new parts. These parts might enable it to do new things, such as fly or breathe underwater or deal more damage.

-Your Kindrit communicates nonverbally through fairly exaggerated cues, and by changing the colour of 'mood patches' - spots of its body that are visual indicaters of emotions.

-It's up to you to understand your Kindrit, but NPCs might give you tips if you seem to be struggling.

-You train your Kindrit to complete tasks. The better it does, the more rewards you receive.

-Your Kindrit can be good or bad depending on how you raise it. This will affect how it behaves and looks.

Without giving too much away (You never know who could be lurking to steal IPs), I was really impressed by OJ's and Laura's games. I didn't get to see Laura's when we were marking the posters, and it's a shame I didn't after hearing about it. It's really clever and appealing. It seemed to sum up the idea of Futures well, because it's a game that makes sense to come out in a few years. It's well researched and could easily be a hit.

OJ's was a great idea that I'm surprised no one has done yet. I saw his poster last week and thought that it was a good idea, but even then I'd really underestimated the things he'd planned. It would clearly be very popular, and I really hope he can get it going. I think he'll be very successful if he does.

Fantasy Progress

I started work on my WFantasy Range today, but my hand's just seized up.

I've done my Soldier and Support, so I'll upload them tonight. I've also done more detailed pictures of their weapons and basic 3D models. I asked Rhoda a week or two ago about doing props, and it seems to be a good idea to do some detail for at least a few of them.

It's surprisingly fun.

There was an internship mentioned in class. I want it so much. I'm trying to find some decent pictures to send off, but I don't have many that I'm confident enough to use. I only have a week to get something together too.

COMPUTER SEIZED

Stolen Jack's computer again.

I got into a fight discussion with Jack about characters in games again. He thinks they don't need to be well thought out and I think they do. Eventually I could admit that not every game needs them to be great, but in a stage of game development where people are trying to make games that can be as deep as films, the characters need to be brought up to standard too.
Jack countered that film characters are not deep and interesting a lot of the time. I counter-countered that this wasn't a good thing.
Games also would benefit from better characters even more than films because, a lot of the time, you are the protagonist. You take them from place to place, you make their decisions and you get to see their personality closely. Because of this, good characters make a good game even better.

Of course, I don't think the problem is strictly with the developers. When you have an audience screaming that Generic Character is soooo kawaii and the epitome of awesomeness there's no reason why they should risk making a character that does not appeal when the formula in place already works so well. The problem with that is, when a great character does come out, people who appreciate these values go nuts for them; they're really well received and they're loved by many. Compare that to a game with the cutesy girl with little clothes on, or the big buff man who just wants to blow shit up, who may get the vote from a few but who don't strike many others as an asset to the game.

Of course, in games where story isn't a major issue, the point can be overrided. For example, I really enjoyed Gears of War despite the minimal personality of the characters. If, however, the game was trying to convince me it was a deep one, I don't think I would enjoy it so much, because the emphasis would now be on these flawed characters. But, as a post-apocalyptic game about gruff, sardonic guys trying to get through a gritty war, they fit well and the depth isn't required.
Preferred, but not required.

Disregard

I don't have internet so I'm borrowing Jack's computer while he's away.

We pinned our Futures posters up yesterday. There was a big range of quality. Some were really well thought and out looked great, while others seemed a bit rushed. Like, there were a few that were missing taglines and some of them didn't really look like games.

I felt really queasy and I had to leave early. I've been so ill this year. Every time I start to get better, something else gets me. I hate it.

We had to give feedback on everyone's work. I'm no good at that sort of thing because I don't know if I'm saying something helpful, and I don't want to upset people if I say something bad.

I got some good feedback though. The general vibe I got was the the background looked too empty - so make the face bolder or put something else there - and make the screenshots bigger and more detailed. Sounds like good advice, and if we get to resubmit the posters I'll try to do it.

Western Fantasies

I started work on the Western fantasy characters, mainly assassin and civilian. Since we have flat viewings approaching (props to landlord for being so vague with the actual days of them), I had to take out my wireless again. Jack's been nice enough to let me borrow his computer to upload this.

The memory stick digested the assassin so the Photoshop file's now flattened. I might have a deflattened one somewhere if I'm lucky.

I kind of hit a snag with outfits for both of them, as neither really looked like proper Western fantasy. After doing some research, I realised that I think it's because they weren't revealing enough. I'm not a major fan of pointlessly sexy outfits, but without it, it didn't look right. So, I gave the assassin an exposed middle and the civilian some cleavage and hips.

And yeah, their proportions are odd, but I'm trying to go for two completely new fantasy creatures. I don't want to hog Jack's PC for too long so I won't go into depth, but basically

assassin = extra long legs, kind of short torso, wide glarey eyes.

civ = big head, long neck, wiiiide hips, tiny hands and feet, looks like a goat.

Kindrits

For Futures, we had to make a poster for a game relating to what we thought would be popular in our essays. I spent a decent amount of time on it, and finished it yesterday evening at about 9ish. I was then up until 2am trying to get a name for it.

That's FIVE HOURS.

In the end (With help from Jack in the form of names like 'Twid'), I came to Kindrits. The idea behind the game is that, as a rite of passage, everyone is paired with a soul-mate type creature that you're bound to for life; like a shared destiny thing. The name is a mix of kindred and rite to show that you get your familiar when you earn it, and it makes you whole.

It's not flashy, deep or clever, but it's aimed at kids who just want to sink their teeth into a fun hook, so I figure the best way to do that is with just showing off what the game involves: swords and a magic pet.

geedeedee

Not sure how much we're expected to have done tomorrow, but hopefully I've done enough. I'm annoyed with how long it's taking though. In my timetable thing, I said I wanted to have done a whole level - all three tiers - the finished story and more characters before Christmas. Well, it's now after Christmas and I've only done an isometric plan of one tier, half the story and very little on the characters. I definitely thought it'd be easier than it was. I guess I forgot that one level with 3 tiers = 3 levels.

I'm quite happy with the plan though. I told Stu I'd only done 1 new picture for GDD, which is only sort of a half truth. While it is only 1 picture, it's one big plan with at least 4 screenshots and a walkthrough. Not great, but not too bad. It currently looks like this:

The original is ridiculously big: 10,000x10,000 pixels and 600mb. Hopefully I can keep adding more to it tonight.

I decided to do the bosses based on the chakras. The good news is that it gives me a base to start designing. The bad news is that I have 9 levels planned, but there are only 7 chakras. I'll have to work around that somehow. I'm thinking that I could use the Third Eye as a three-in-one sort of chakra - two bosses could be first and second eyes maybe.

Yewnee

First day back yesterday. Wasn't too bad! I put 1920s on hiatus and started work on Western Fantasy. I feel more motivated now that I'm doing something new.

Jack and I gave Rhoda a bribe souvenier from Germany as a thanks for all the help. There was this stall in one of the markets that sold these nice little elf models, so we got her one. I got one for myself, and I love him. If I go back to Cologne, I'm going to get another. And another.
As many as I can.

I don't have internet at home for a few days as I had to take out the ethernet cable. There's a PAT tester or something coming over, I dunno. Landlord doesn't like the wires for some reason.

Today's Futures, and everyone seems to be itching for their results. I hope we get them today, and I really hope I did well.

Did you know

There are no jobs out there.

NO JOBS 


It's worrying. I'm struggling to find things for character concept artists other than senior/lead jobs, and I obviously can't do that. I hate this stupid thing that students coming out of any course face.
Look for job
Find a job that requires prior experience in the field
Have no experience
Look for job
Find a job that requires prior experience in the field
Still have no experience
Look for job
etc
What is anyone meant to do?? How can someone get a job when the thing you need to get it is only available after having the job??


Help.