About me:I've been doing pixel art on a professional level for more than 8 years, and in that time I have accumulated skills in a wide variety of pixel art styles and techniques, including animation. I've been composing illustrations most of my life (25+ years) in various media, so I know my way around asset-creation, composition and design too. More recently, I have been developing knowledge of making 3D games (and assets), programming tools, and developing new workflows to assist in daily game development processes in everything from programming down to art and animation in 3D games. However I love (and started with) 2D games, so I still do try to find ways to combine the two wherever possible!
For the past 15 years, in addition to art and animation, etc., I've been studying business, marketing, programming, and both game design and development nearly every day on my own time. I've been the lead designer, software planner, and project manager across a variety of projects, but I've since put this on the back-burner to hone my overall design skills across all many disciplines -- especially game design. I've got an extensive list of skills, but art and animation is one of my true passions, second only to game-design. Unfortunately, I can't afford time-wise to do an entire game's art all by myself, so I have to choose my projects very selectively since that time.
I have been studying 3d art and animation, as well as playing with unique visual styles and gameplay elements for years now. I'm really into experimental game concepts, preferably small (but robust!) concepts, so if you're interested in stuff like this too -- drop me a line! I'm also a huge fan of experimental games with little (but impactful!) story -- I enjoy using narrative with very limited elements (visual, gameplay, and otherwise!) and how that can still create meaningful experiences, not unlike how many games (now considered old-school) impacted me as a child. I was always a big Nintendo and Capcom fan, so anyone who loves their older games/designs might truly enjoy working with me! I've gotten these companies' approaches down to a science to understand exactly how and why they worked so well (and how and why they've botched them in recent years!) I'm interested in the future of the video game industry and would love to make an impact on that, however little, in my time here as well!
What/Who I'm looking for:I'm looking for, at the minimum, a fellow artist who enjoys creating backgrounds, tilesets, levels and environments to work with me on creating fun and unique games. Character design and animation is my forte, but background concepting is also something I enjoy doing. A fellow programmer/artist who is also passionate about game design would be ideal too, as I haven't much time to offer either task myself, and it would be great to be able to swap tasks back and forth.
I aim to form a group of moderately-skilled *independent* artists, preferably with other passions (such as artist-designers or artist-programmers) with whom I can contribute my own art and animation skills to in order to publish promising game designs (with initially low asset-requirements) in order to ship many well-designed games to eventually position us as masters of game-design in the industry at some point. Yes, a lofty goal, but with the right minds, we can totally do this.
Ideally, the games we produce would be novel, have little overhead costs (both in project time-tables and asset-turnaround times), offset by top-notch design, planning, and execution by an overall highly-skilled creative team that we would be a part of. If you are wondering of what kind of team we'd be, think of what old-school Super Mario Bros. did with its bushes and clouds to save time and memory, and you're on the right track! Our development time would only increase from our own love for our projects, and of course, any sustained popularity of the games we create. We would aim for a Nintendo level of polish and quality at all times, but as indies, shorter projects would still be preferable to longer ones for a while, since each of us volunteer our time towards creating the greatest products we can create in the time we set aside to create them (i.e. if I can offer 16 hours this month to the project, and you can offer only 8, we may decide to tackle only a project whose scope would account for those 24 hours). Depending on the team we form, and the hearts and minds behind it -- this could very well become very lucrative for us all, as the things we create are, at the utmost-importance, a product of our own love and passion for the project and the time we have to create it. What separates us the most from indie startups today, however, is that we have the know-how to do it efficiently and we already know exactly what we are capable of! If you are an artist that has failed or has indefinitely-delayed projects under your belt, then you, my friend, are our partner.
Because you have experienced the soul-crushing defeat of a project of passion's failure, -- with that -- you now understand just what exactly will take a project of passion down the road to failure a hundred times better than anyone who has not failed so gloriously. So don't give up. Join us. We will make something great together.
If this kind of thing sounds like your cup of tea, then hit me up yo~!
The idea with any near-future projects I work on with our team, is to get a few very manageable projects off of the ground and make a name for ourselves in our spare time.
I'm a firm believer in the "you get what you give" philosophy.
The more work you put into yourself, the more work I (and I expect the team to) put into your development as a partner, a fellow artist, and as a friend. There isn't a lot of incentive to do other people's art for free, therefore you have creative control over the art you do, and, as a partner, we would only expect you contribute that to the project we are working on together, and ask that you simply don't offer us more hours than you will devote. We're all independent, and we all respect that in one another. We all pick the projects we do (as a unified whole) rather than as individuals. If we all aren't passionate about the project (through ALL stages of its development!) -- then it isn't a feasible project -- and we pull the plug. It is up to us to give all of our projects the 'shine' each deserves. Above all, we create the games we love ourselves. Nothing more. Nothing less. The world's full of shitty games already. Why add more to the pile?
I'll give more specifics as to how the partnership would work exactly, but this is an arrangement between independent artists and designed to empower you with the group's name and resources to help you make a name for yourself as an artist/designer/programmer/etc., by being part of a top-notch team who has shipped actual game titles. Monetary stuff should just be considered a side-effect. Our focus, at first at least, would be in creating a strong team to act as the backbone behind some very recognizable games.
We will need to see examples of your work as a game artist, so consider this as you would an application to any serious art job (in the sense that you'd not only be sending us your work (i.e. a portfolio), but the process/steps/tools in which it took you to arrive there). Regarding your secondary passions, please, show us whatever proves you are also passionate about these other interests as well. Remember, this is a small team, so we can only accept a limited number of people. If you're interested even remotely in a team like this -- now's your chance to join us!
Contact Info:Send samples of your art to me via PM to apply. Tell me about yourself and your goals in art/games and in life in general. I'll get back to you asap.
Some info about my art:mixed and newer examples of my artwork:
http://imgur.com/a/d4BR4random examples of my work (very old art, game-related art, and recent-ish art):
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/aceallen/slideshow/portfolio