Briefly, it is a sci-fi, fully-realized literary novel of fiction, in a space setting, with a few central characters aboard a spacecraft. It’s a work that people expecting something at a higher reading level and maturity can enjoy, though it retains fun, cartoonish design elements, and even a romantic, relationship aspect.

The tone and pace is, more than anything, conversational; full of character and dialogue; and smart, down to earth, often humorous conversations about life, love, society, cultures, philosophy, technology, and of course, space.

Currently in the process of final re-editing, and transposing the writing to code… forming code action and visual placeholders as I go… the search continues, for a (or a couple of) visual artist(s) so interested in gearing up, and jumping into space alongside me.

This virtual book / novel videogame is, in contrast to a bulk of the related market: not short or half-written… not made for the sole purpose of being nsfw or lewd content… not relegated to the sub-genre typicality of being anime, or anime-like — almost expected of games of its kind.

In actuality, it represents a very small minority of quality-level, thoughtful, literary and uniquely-styled visual novels that has potential to find its way to the surface, and stand among a special few within this still-burgeoning genre.

An omni-tasking creator, I’ve not only written the book and am performing the coding, but I’ve designed and sketched most everything required for the game’s assets… or will as we go forth. This includes character concepts and backgrounds.

What I would love to have for this project is a fantastic artist, such as yourself, whom, I have noticed, has impeccable talent. If you are interested, I know you could do wonders adding to and making this project come to life.

Without getting too salesman-y (though I come to understand some people are better swayed by the kind of professionalism), here are the reasons you would do well to come aboard and have a blast working with me on this project:

1. To all those who are or would be on the fence, I urge you to give me benefit of the doubt. I have actually, lovingly created a great novel / visual novel of literature, and it’s… frankly, quite good.

In other words… in opposition to what the words “visual novel” might evoke in some people’s minds — due to experience — this is an actual work of literature-level, though accessible entertainment, which has the potential to become something that could “pop out”, or stand out as one of those few memorable visual novel titles.

Existing solely for the story, the illustration, the musical atmosphere. This here is an unfulfilled niche zone, which I, with your help, will fulfill.

2. The work itself is likely going to be far less intensive than you might already presume, because, much of the creative, idea-generating portion is, or will already be done by me (that said, I am completely open to a person who craves more creative input, and I would gladly welcome improvements).

So basically, there are decent character sketches and mock-ups, already; I’m expecting someone to do their best (better) rendition of these, and professialism-ize them with big screen-ready lines, coloring, and expression/pose changes.

And also, decent-enough backgrounds (I’m cool with impressionistic, even quaint, minimalist cartoon styles here especially).

Making it clearer: even backgrounds, I have basic storyboard directives thought out. And color schemes, I’ll have gone through and picked them for each character, their font hues, etc.

3. Monetary (the part where, just maybe, you and I make this get us paid):

I am someone who just excitedly, passionately wants to work hard and get this project done, but good (but asap). That said, and bearing you are a person also wishing to be a part of something worthy… for the experience and joy, the name-making and accomplishment and possibly, breaking-through… there’s a lot of wiggle room in my ideas, regarding this.

The first one I would prefer, is to go the “revenue-share” method, as partners; I would definitely negotiate a fair percentage deal with you, for your artistry efforts.

And, I would be willing to potentially commit to some other offer as well, if it is doable. In other words, I’d love to talk with an interested artist regardless. We could potentially come to some agreement regarding pay, for the right match.

4. Finally, and simply to bring all the above together:

You —

like the idea of being part of a passion, worthy, game-changing project;

are ready to crank out some awesome drawings without a huge amount of extraneous effort, because you are well in shape for such a workout;

are flexible enough in terms of getting payment, and see the overall benefit in being part of a (who knows…?) launch pad game / book / media entertainment, which could start or enhance greatly each our careers — and add to the pantheon itself as it stands.

I sincerely hope to hear from your excited voice; super skilled rendering fingers in no time.

Take care … for now… … … … … . .

Steven

A B

There are probably other sites that focus more on art that would be better.

http://www.themysticalforestzone.com/forum/forum_rules_sprites_teaching.htm

Thanks for the check of the blood. I know it's not your thing but it's an example of "creating sprites through common sense." And its "not rock", which I've been doing for too long.

—hartnell

—hartnell

It's also good to see you're doing some sprite work, I'm assuming you're working on some stuff for the Sprite Art section.

A fresh blood pool (not splatter) is bright red. The edges are beveled as it does have round edges off the floor, but not much. Blood shines along the edge of the pool facing the light.

Several days later, blood turns black and cakes. It breaks like mud and leaves watery stain in between the larger "mud" cakes.

—hartnell

Here's what to look for as you look at the sample above :

• Guts are always globular.
• Forground guts are always wet and shiny.
• Background guts lose their shine and, like rock and wood, be composed of only the darker colors of the foreground guts.
• Transparent guts (middle) show what their owner has been eating.

—hartnell

—hartnell

About the screenshot: That kind of sprite art would take some time.

— hartnell

Do you need the three different colors to make more cards?

I know they're not perfect, any suggestions to improve them before the memory research begins is appreciated. I originally wanted gold / silver / bronze but I need color samples for silver / bronze.

—hartnell

If I can finish this by tomorrow I'll make it a freeform research project. However, can you guess the game it's based on? Younger gamers need not bother to guess. :)

—hartnell