It has been a while, and I am sure many of my readers are starved for an update. I am unsure where to start, but I can share that a lot has happened over the last year.
Recruiting
I have continuously looked for artists and talent to help with the project. I have found that most good artists don’t want to work for free. Not surprising. Finding those with talent and skills who wish to donate time and assets is not impossible, but it is not as easy as it was for me.
I have hired independent contractors from CGTrader, Artist Station, and other websites. I look for talent on Instagram, Facebook, and other Social media platforms.
I have found some excellent counsel on Discord, especially from the communities for some of the assets I have published for The Advent Game.
I’ll keep an eye out for the right candidates.
Networking
I have attended several events and ComicCons over the last year with another scheduled for late Spring next year. I talk about the book, Children of Arla, and the vision and plans for The Advent Game. When people learn about how the game is meant to be played by reading the book first, they are interested and intrigued. To read a story and continue their adventure in the game, is a novel idea to many. Although, I am sure there have been others who have tried to do the same.
I still try to go to other Business Networking Events but the pickings here in El Paso are a little slim. There are no Game Studios that know of and the Entertainment Industry seems lean. I have met a few people that are working on music and art projects but very few game projects. The local University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP) does not have a Game Design Program or I would recruit from that. It would be great if they did have one.
Development
I hired a couple of foreign Game Development Studios on short contracts. Hapz Games and Arcadia Studios (Coeus Solutions) helped me with many things I could not do myself (or would take quite a while). I plan to continue to use them when I get better funding for the project.
I implemented leveraging a good MMO Platform that works well with Unity. Atavism allowed me to cut corners and customize it to work how I needed to. The learning curve was steep for me at first but they have a great community and I learned a lot from many of them on their channel on Discord.
Art Assets
I found lots of assets on CGTrader and the Unity Asset Store. I found the designers of most of these assets helpful whenever hit some speed bumps. In other instances, I had to figure out how to do something myself since the online documentation was very vague. It is amazing how much you learn though after sticking with something for almost 15 years.
In a nutshell, I would rather prototype quickly with existing assets I can tweak than create everything from scratch.
Current Works and Concept
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Experimenting with New Technology
Now that AI has become the latest thing in design (and marketing spamming), I have been experimenting with it. I started using Mid-Journey to create concepts by describing the creature or character to the Mid-Journey bot. It was amazing what I was able to create. Or that the Mid-Journey AI Bot created.
I have not played with ChatGPT yet. I like to write!! I use Grammarly, though, to keep me on track.
The generated concept pictures below include but are not limited to:
- The Space Tear the NWC Crew Found. The planet Argus was seen on the other side of the tear.
- The semi-transparent creatures found in Crystal Canyon. They look like glowing ghost-like sting rays.
- John Baxter, CEO of New Worlds Corporation (NWC)
- Denny Robinson (President of NWC)
- Jessica Baxter
- Sara Baxter
- The Hydrackian Machines that attack future Earth
Leveraging Mid-Journey
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