Dark artz looking for help from the community

Discuss the industry, development techniques and other general topics

Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby supermoose76 on Mon May 07, 2012 9:51 pm

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... ?t=2688672

I hope you all can take us seriously on this. As we are taking your feedback very serious. :)

So let me know what you think. Bad or good.
supermoose76
Member
Member
 
Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 7:26 pm

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby MrTwoVideoCards on Tue May 08, 2012 12:19 am

I think the best criticism anyone can give is just that you guys are bad at making games. I fully understand the circumstance you guys were in that drove you to make a game.

Regardless, the issue there is assuming you can actually fix the game considering the fact that it's been built on zero experience. I think you guys need to just acknowledged a few things, that ideally would mean creating an entirely different game:

  • Don't make a L4D clone

Actually while writing that I kind of realized that everything wrong with the game falls on the issues that Valve basically gave you guys the l4d2 engine branch, and more or less what you guys did was just replace models/materials/particles. Not sure if at any point during development that issue occurred to you guys, but you more or less shipped a mod. I am sure if you guys spent less time creating a nude skin for one of your npc's that could of went into soething like oh I don't know, valuable playtesting feedback.

If it were a high quality variation of l4d then I am sure people would of welcomed it at some form of praise, but considering it's current state this is why the game is failing.

supermoose76 wrote:
Yes it can be very hard to read sometime but we can't let it bother us to much. We want to keep moving forward. Any help we can get will be very helpful :) Thanks for your support.

I think we talked to him. We asked him to calm down. :)


I think you guys just need to take a step back, acknowledge the game is complete asses, and try to perhaps make a simpler game, that's if you guys want to continue to pursue game design. Which at this point I would suggest you don't. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with admitting you suck at something, versus trying to pursue it. I am sure there are other ways you guys can make money considering your background and previous jobs. Not every moment in life is going to a be a Mighty Ducks moment.
User avatar
MrTwoVideoCards
Monothetic
 
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:18 am
Location: IN YOUR SOUL

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby supermoose76 on Tue May 08, 2012 2:18 am

We are taking a step back to look at our game. One of the first moves we are implementing is to make the game look different than l4d2. So we are currently looking for a UI artist to help us with that in his or her free time.
supermoose76
Member
Member
 
Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 7:26 pm

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby Jordash on Tue May 08, 2012 4:33 am

Currently there would be no monetary compensation for worked performed. If it's any consolation, we don't get paid as a development team. This doesn't rule out future compensation but right now we have nothing to offer other than experience and possible future employment. - Steam forums


Pay a freelance artist for your UI problems, people don't like companies making money off their work for free.
User avatar
Jordash
Been Here A While
Been Here A While
 
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:36 am
Location: Perth, Australia

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby Saxon on Tue May 08, 2012 2:09 pm

I'm sorry, but getting the mod community to help fix a commercial game for no financial reward is really cheap. You guys stand to make a profit at the expense of the people who help to fix your game, and that just seems very wrong.
Saxon
1337 p0st3r
1337 p0st3r
 
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:12 am

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby Kosire on Tue May 08, 2012 2:43 pm

Saxon wrote:I'm sorry, but getting the mod community to help fix a commercial game for no financial reward is really cheap. You guys stand to make a profit at the expense of the people who help to fix your game, and that just seems very wrong.


I agree.
User avatar
Kosire
1337 p0st3r
1337 p0st3r
 
Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2009 7:25 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby supermoose76 on Tue May 08, 2012 3:17 pm

Jordash wrote:Pay a freelance artist for your UI problems, people don't like companies making money off their work for free.


I can't say much but I personally wouldn't let those people that help us get ripped off. They will get the money they deserve and most likely a job with us if we can turn this game around.

We aren't even getting paid our selfs. Just to make that clear.
supermoose76
Member
Member
 
Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 7:26 pm

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby supermoose76 on Tue May 08, 2012 3:19 pm

We wouldn't be able to give anything up front but we would be willing to give something later.
supermoose76
Member
Member
 
Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 7:26 pm

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby nub on Tue May 08, 2012 4:25 pm

My opinion on this matter:

Get formal education on game design before trying to make anything else. Afterward, when you have developed your skills enough, come back and make something simple but decent. This game already stands on a weak foundation. You would be much better off starting from scratch.

But keep using Source if you want. It's a good engine, despite what people say. Otherwise there's always the UDK. But once you start making over $25,000, you have to start giving a quarter of your profits to Epic Games. It's always an option though.


Don't get me wrong though. I want to see you guys succeed. If you guys were to improve so much that you ended up releasing a game worthy of playing, it would be totally awesome.

supermoose76 wrote:We wouldn't be able to give anything up front but we would be willing to give something later.

That's not going to entice very many people I'm afraid.
User avatar
nub
Veteran
Veteran
 
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:11 am
Location: Charlotte, NC, US

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby supermoose76 on Tue May 08, 2012 4:31 pm

nub wrote:That's not going to entice very many people I'm afraid.


Yeah its going to be hard to find people that are willing to help us. If those people are already making stuff for free but want a chance at getting a foot into game developing or a chance at making some money. Then I see no harm in that.
supermoose76
Member
Member
 
Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 7:26 pm

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby Stormy on Tue May 08, 2012 6:54 pm

nub wrote:But keep using Source if you want. It's a good engine, despite what people say. Otherwise there's always the UDK. But once you start making over $25,000, you have to start giving a quarter of your profits to Epic Games. It's always an option though.


That would be 50,000 and 20%

Also supermoose, anyone who wants a shot at developing, and has a clue about their skillset won't be looking for a job with an inexperienced company who has name is already synonymous with failure. By asking for the kind of help you're asking for, you'll get people who will produce some really shit work due to inexperience. I think revelations has the appeal of being so bad it's good, just forget about it and drastically downsize, do what you must to recoup your losses as much as you can and make a mod this time. And I shouldn't have to mention this but I get the feeling that you need the advice: don't put revelations on your resume.
User avatar
Stormy
May Contain Skills
May Contain Skills
 
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2010 6:03 am
Location: Cairns, QLD, AUS

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby supermoose76 on Tue May 08, 2012 7:01 pm

Black_Stormy wrote:Also supermoose, anyone who wants a shot at developing, and has a clue about their skillset won't be looking for a job with an inexperienced company who has name is already synonymous with failure. By asking for the kind of help you're asking for, you'll get people who will produce some really shit work due to inexperience. I think revelations has the appeal of being so bad it's good, just forget about it and drastically downsize, do what you must to recoup your losses as much as you can and make a mod this time. And I shouldn't have to mention this but I get the feeling that you need the advice: don't put revelations on your resume.


I'll have to disagree with you on the experience. We've been through a lot and learned so much. Maybe it doesn't show in our work now but you will see soon enough. Hopefully in 6 months you'll see what I mean. If we stay as a company that is ;)
supermoose76
Member
Member
 
Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 7:26 pm

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby Jangalomph on Tue May 08, 2012 8:31 pm

Well there wasn't much experience to gain from that game in the first place.
http://www.nomoreroominhell.com
I don’t know whether I was right or wrong, I guess I’ll never know… But I made it. And I guess I should be thankful for that. - Strelok
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
User avatar
Jangalomph
Forum Goer Elite™
Forum Goer Elite™
 
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:19 pm
Location: Sumter, SC

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby Jordash on Wed May 09, 2012 3:22 am

Would you even have a role for a full time graphic designer in the future? I can probably count on my fingers the number of UI bits which need overhauls, not to say it isn't much work, but after it's done, you won't need that skillset for a while. Skilled artists are not difficult to find, but they expect to be paid. You'll need them for like a month to fix revelation's UI, it will be worth the money.

PS. How do you pay rent or afford food if you don't get paid?
User avatar
Jordash
Been Here A While
Been Here A While
 
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:36 am
Location: Perth, Australia

Re: Dark artz looking for help from the community

Postby Stormy on Wed May 09, 2012 4:06 am

I'd like to extrapolate on jordash's question. How did you do it? Where did you get the funding? How did you live? Did you work around jobs or did you work fulltime? And to a lesser extent, how did you walk on it for so long without seeing any flaws? Did you really think it was a great, release worthy game? I honestly want to know these things, this isn't a tongue in cheek insult.
User avatar
Stormy
May Contain Skills
May Contain Skills
 
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2010 6:03 am
Location: Cairns, QLD, AUS
Next

Return to Game Development

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users

cron