So today I had an hour and a half meeting with the artist who will be providing the pretty pictures for my game. He is Howard Cobb; I don't know that he is exceptionally famous, but I mentioned him here before. His gallery is composed mostly of landscapes, but I know his talents and interested better than that. He has a history of, among other things, comic book art (He's done some Punisher, Quantum Leap. His most famous comic book work was probably on Virus, the comic that spawned the movie). He has also done costume design art for movies (most awesomely Underworld!) So anyway, we sat for an hour and a half talking about what I wanted for art for the game.
To my advantage, he's been involved with the game from the beginning. When I first conceptualized the idea of having players defend Wessex from invading Vikings, he was the guy I called. He was also the first (version 1.0) play tester, and he has been involved in most of the play tests to date, so he is very familiar with the game. Coupled with his talents, I imagine the art he will produce will be top notch.
It was interesting to come to this point in game development. Prior to this it had all be poster paper and cardboard, with play tests punching glaring flaws in the game mechanics. Now that play testing results in a fun time and I'm not spending the entire time taking notes, I knew art would be the next step. Now that its begun, it almost feels a little surreal.
It will probably 6 or 7 weeks while he finishes the art; when he's got 2 or 3 pictures penciled in I will go and see them to make sure that they are what I want. Then he inks the pictures, scans them and colors them via photoshop. Pictures get loaded to templates and positioned before being sent to the Game Crafter. Its all very exciting. Through it all I will continue running play tests, looking for kinks. In the next 10 days I believe I have 3 plays scheduled with assorted groups of players.
As artwork is done I will load up some samples here for you guys to see. Of course I will post a bit too after my play tests also.
Until then!
