Back in our Particletree days, we had a friend copy edit any major pieces we wrote. Inevitably, she would catch something that was poorly written. So, for a game that contains almost 15 minutes of dialogue, I figured that I would have to spend money on a second pair of eyes to help me out. Early on in the process, Mike Waterston emailed me with a desire to help out. He wasn’t in it for the money — he just wanted to help a game come to life. So, after a few back and forths, we’ll be seeing this story through to the end together.

Every once in awhile, a composer will email me asking if I would like for them to work on the project. I keep their names with the idea of getting back to them when I’m ready to focus on music. Anthony contacted me out of the blue with an eagerness, varied skill set, and past experience — all which compelled me to start a trial. So far, trial is going great.

Just as I have been working nearly non stop with an illustrator, I have been going back and forth with Liron, my animator. I eased into a contract with her due to fear from my last animation contract. We started with a $90 trial, and then another $500 trial. She did an amazing job on those, so the full contract began.

Chris, Scott and I came to an agreement on an illustration contract that would involve Scott alternating weeks in which he works for us. My portion of the contract was $8,000. It ended up finishing mid-week, so I extended it the extra $380 to round it off. The goal was to finish all illustrations for the game during this time. That did not happen because I changed my game midway through. Still, a lot was accomplished.

I wrote about a contract that I broke before it was finished, and this amount accounts for that mistake. Our contracts are structured in a way that either party can leave, and payments are spread out. Anything paid is no refundable, and anything completed must be delivered. This allows flexibility for both parties.

More, more, more trials. Finally, I’ve found an animator and an illustrator. Ready to begin contracts with both. This brings my trial budget up to $1,483.

Things are moving quickly now. I’ve started to line up as many character artists and animators as I can to do some trial runs. Ideally, I’ll find one super talented person, or multiple people who have complimentary skill sets. Trials get expensive, but they’re worth it to find the right person. More should come in next week.

It turns out finding a final style is harder than I thought. Ran more experiments with both an animator and illustrator this week to try to merge their styles / find a final appearance for the game.

I’ve found an animator who I like working with, so I decide to start a trial with him. The main objective is to figure out an art style that works with my illustrator, and to get a rough idea on pricing in that given style. I’ll share the result when they come in.

I’m starting to reach out to a few artists, and it is difficult to determine cost, style, availability and friendliness just by exchanging a few emails. So, I plan to contract out a couple of artists to see their take on my existing level and characters. In the end, I imagine I’ll spend $1,000 on this sort of purchase.

To be an Apple Developer, you have to register with their developer program. I have no problem paying the $99+tax since I love the developer program they have in place. I enjoy working in Xcode, notice fast download speeds, frequent beta updates, and so on. Overall, it is a pleasant environment to work in, so please take my money.

I’m not usually a fan of books, or any tutorial for that matter. I prefer to look at docs and start playing around. But since I know so little about game development, it makes sense to look at someone else’s code and project to get an idea of their code structure and approach.