NetjerSoft’s Eye

March is always one of the hardest months for me. My tops is November, as I’m trying to get presents for family. This month, it’s strictly for me. Every single 3d vendor on the planet puts on sales this month. STEEP sales. Daz is doing theirs. Get this: They throw up 1 to 3 products for 65 to 80% off. For each of those products you buy, you get a $1 voucher credited back to your account AND a 50% off coupon for the sale category of the day. Sometimes, you spend $1.80 on something, and since you get $1 back, it’s like buying it for $0.80. Nifty.

Not so much for those of us who are struggling - and I’m perpetually struggling. A lot of people think it’s glamorous that I’m “doing what I want to do”, and that I’m trying to make a game, be an artist, and that I get to work in a field I love. It’s great. Except the times when I can’t buy anything because I have no money. Most people do this “on a shoestring”, which means that they work a full-time, day job, and do this sort of thing at night till they get off the ground. Well… take away the day job, and you get the picture. (Have I mentioned I take donations via PayPal? lol)

Still, I’ve managed to scrape together a few things, and one of them, is this lovely character. I need to find a hairstyle that fits with the historical theme of the game, but other than that, I really love her. Her name is Madelaine Hargrove, and she’s Dr. Whittaker’s secretary. I may age her a bit, I’m not sure yet, but I just loved the old-fashioned style of this character. Here’s a render with the unaltered character, wearing some 20s garb.

If you want to see the full size version, click here: (I still haven’t figured out how to link back to the smaller image from the post. Sorry!)

Lots going on over the last few weeks. The site seems to be back to its lovable, stable self, hooray! Meanwhile, I did the massive database project that’s been sitting for over two years. All the game assets have now been categorized, downloaded, backed up, and are in the process of being installed. I’ve been running some test concepts for the first scene, and some of the satellite locations. This concept is a possibility for Dr. Whittaker’s house.

Greetings to everyone on this sort of cold and dreary day! I’ve talked to the people at the web-hosting company, and the issues with the website will be resolved soon! Thanks for all the patience, I know it’s frustrating when you try several times throughout the day to get to the site, and it’s offline for some reason. As they haven’t had any other server-side complaints, I’m suspecting it’s something hinky with my site, and hopefully they’ll figure it out soon.

I’m going to see if I can get with a friend within the next few days, and have him poke through some of the .css in Wordpress. I’d really like to get the blog finished, and it needs matching fonts, and a few other tweaks before I’ll feel comfortable making it the front page.

I’m also working hard to get the Art Gallery online, so soon it will be easier to track the work on games, and follow some of my learning process, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. I know a lot of you come around to see how my drawing is progressing, and while some of you like the words, some others just like the pictures. This will allow you a way to see the pictures as a group, not just as individual pieces with commentary.

Have a great day!

If you haven’t been keeping up with my Development Diary then you probably don’t know that one of my New Year’s resolutions was to improve my drawing skill. It’s something that I’ve needed to do for a while, and my efforts have turned to figure drawing, specifically. My procedure, involves selecting poses from Mario Chakour’s “Virtual Pose 3″, and then drawing them from all four sides. Once I’ve gone through all the poses, I’ll review myself, to see if I’ve improved, and I’ll move on to something else. (Possibly Bargue’s Figure Drawing Course, or a series of drawings from anatomy books, to help improve my technical representation.) Right now, the intention is to learn how to properly *see* the human figure, and that’s a very difficult task.

To that end, I was trying to select one pose a week, and do all four drawings in that week. Then select one of the sketches, and complete the finished drawing around the four sketches of the next week’s pose. This is turning out to be ambitious with other commitments, but I’m still plugging away.

Okay, so it’s the not-so-daily drawing lately, but I’m still working hard to keep up with it. We’re still on Pose #3, and this the third view of that pose. I’ve been forced to restrict drawing time to less-than-usual, so it’s either spend several days on these sketches, to get them to the semi-finished state of normal, or leave them in sketch format. I’m making that choice on a per-sketch/per-day basis, so this one’s only a bare sketch.

Finally getting around to some of the site changes I’ve been wanting to make. First on the list: updating the blog. I wanted to change it’s look, bring it more in line with the website colors, but give it a little pizazz as well. I think the new style shows a bit of my personality. I’ve managed to get the look updated and the colors mostly how I want, although I’m still not thrilled with the white border - if only for the fact that it isn’t a thin border around elements, but a background that’s empty farther down.

Next on the list is to fix the fonts. I’ve been at that for the last hour, but I can’t figure out how to make it work. I *think* I need to change the available fonts in the base styles somewhere, but I’m not certain. The site uses Papyrus for most of the text and titles, and that’s what I’d like to carry on the blog. The last step will be to move the blog to the homepage, and to get the menu working so that you can actually go other places from the blog. Right now, it’s sort of it’s own little island.

Here’s a test post, with a link to a picture on the site:

There’s a lot to report since the last blog post. Obviously, we made it through the hurricane just fine, Gemstone Texture Pack sales are still going strong (thank you for your support!), and client work has been pouring in. Here’s the low-down on the run-down:

Gemstone Texture Pack/Crystal Texture Pack

The Gemstone Texture Pack is still on-sale, and people are still buying it. The Crystal Texture Pack started production last year, and then stalled before final crystal candidates could be chosen. That’s currently on a back-burner, with the hopes of releasing it before June.

Fantasci: Hidden Wars

In April of last year, we picked up a long-term contract to do concept art and animation for Fantasci:Hidden Wars. It’s been a long, and bumpy ride, and the project is still on-going. At present, six character concepts along with final promo shots have been developed. As well as a group shot, and several pieces of test animation using the characters. Currently, we’re developing a CGI trailer for the game, and that should be completed by mid-March.

AIR Steampunk

Take a great genre, and mix it with computer madness. Then make it an MMO with well-deserved delusions of grandeur. What do you get? AIR Steampunk! Taking a good thing (the Steampunk Genre) and pushing it into the skies to create a unique world concept is only one of the many good things about this game. NetjerSoft is in on the ground floor for concept art, and we are so excited!

Development Diary

When we got the contract for Fantasci:Hidden Wars, we created a development website so that the client could track progress on the project. This eventually became a visual diary of overall learning progress, which was so helpful, NetjerSoft has started keeping one for every client project. Once the project is over, and the client has given approval, these Development Diaries will be available from the main page, or through the customer project page.

Pharaoh’s Frenzy

Character concepts are in-progress. Due to some unexpected changes at GarageGames, we’re looking at other game engine potentials. While we may still use Torque Game Builder for this project, it’s unlikely that we’ll use it for the next. Only time will tell. Currently, work on the art pipeline is strong, with programming a secondary concern at this time. We are willing to entertain assistance from able-bodied coders who’re looking to make a name for themselves. Work would be paid via royalties if anyone is interested.

Site Updates

While the overall color and art style will remain the same, look for some startling changes to NetjerSoft.com over the coming months. The site will get a moderate makeover in organization, and we’ll see a bit more glitz in the form of custom animations and artwork.

That’s the news for February, see everyone in March!

Well, the hurricanes are pummeling us here. Actually, it’s just the one: Fay. She has become the Hated One, the Nemesis. She has already caused massive flooding just south of here, and is sitting like an ominous faerie right over Palm Coast, cackling with madness and dropping spittle all over town.

Seriously, she made landfall in Tampa two days ago. She was moving 15mph, and slowed to a crawl through 7.5mph, then 5mph, then 2mph. She was finally stationary over Brevard County and they got pummeled by rain for EIGHT HOURS! They got over THREE FEET of rain, and people are being evacuated from homes, by boat. They’re without power, and sewage is backing up into houses. Further, the heavy water is harboring fish, alligators and water moccasins, which are invisible until they bite you! Scary stuff. The governor of Florida has called for a state of emergency, and is requesting aid from the President.

Meanwhile, Palm Coast has received steady rain, with no sign of it stopping. We’re experiencing winds of up to 50mph, and over 2800 people are without power as we speak. Flagler Pier is shaking like it’s going to come apart, and we’ve been sitting in the eye of the storm since 8am this morning. The whole thing is a huge mess. The skies are leaden grey as far as the eye can see, and the air feels dangerous. The storm is expected to regroup for yet a third time, and continue west across Palm Coast and up through the northwest part of the state. Hopefully, we won’t experience more power outtages, but the power’s already been out three times since yesterday.

If for some reason this site is down, or you place an order for a Gemstone Texture Pack and don’t receive an immediate response, please be advised that certain areas have been without power for days, and are expected to continue to be so. We *will* get you your download AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, but there’s no telling if we’ll even be somewhere with computer access. Depending on how bad things get in the coming hours, evacuation may become a real possibility.

Thanks for the patience!

Joel Spolsky has a great article on Picking a Ship Date.  It specifically covers the difficulties faced by software developers, and the fine line between release dates and keeping customers happy.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t specifically address the special concerns of solo developers, but it’s easy to see that I’m somewhere between “Release Very Frequently” and “Release Every 3-5 Years” lol.

Totally unrelated to all Game Development news, I had to post this anyways.  My cousin, Christopher Ruhlig, a senior at Avon Old Farms, made Athlete of the Week.  I’m very proud of him.  He’ll be graduating soon and he’s an excellent student and athlete.  (Hopefully I can entice him into game development, but.. probably not.  :/ )

 Read his blurb here:  http://www.avonoldfarms.com/page.cfm?p=358

 Editor’s Note:  The link only shows the player for one week.