UnknownError
patreon
Want to make replacement art for Bitch Breaker?
🕑 Added 2020-02-21 05:43:44 +0000 UTCIt's been a long day, so this might be less coherent than I'd like. You'll have to forgive me for that.
Every so often I'm asked why I insist on work alone on Bitch Breaker, or why I haven't found a dedicated artist yet. The answer to these questions is both very complicated and immensely simple: making games is hard.
I don't have anything against working with other people, in fact, I would absolutely love to have a full team working with me on the game. I can't tell you how many times I've dreamt of handing off a particularly onerous task to someone else. It's true that I'm an acceptable writer-and perhaps creative director-, but my code is a mess and my art is...well pretty bad. Every time I have to code a new system for the game, or create entirely new art assets, I dream of how nice it would be to simply delegate those tasks and focus on the overall story and writing for the game. I think of how much faster I could work and how much better the project would be, because there are a ton of creative advantages to working on a team, as well. Working with other people exposes an artist to other perspectives and ideas that he might not otherwise encounter. There have been times on this project that I have felt my own creative energy wearing dangerously thin. Times where it would have been wonderful to have fresh ideas and new stores of creative energy to propel the project forward. Working with a full team would be fantastic! In fact, it's my dream to one day found an actual studio and move this genre of games away from Early Access, quasi-subscription based services.
But that's largely a fantasy. Making games is hard. It's time consuming. After the initial rush of creative excitement, it becomes work. It's not something I would feel comfortable asking anyone to do for free, and unfortunately, I can't afford to pay professionals. From the outside, making a game like Bitch Breaker can look fun. It looks simple and relatively easy, but the scale of work, even on a small project like this, can quickly become a monotonous slog. At the moment there are a little over 1,400 individual art assets in the game. That means that any artist that contributes to the project would need to create 1,400 different images. Even though many of the images are relatively small, that's a lot of work. And the reality of that work is why I have worked alone so far. When it comes to creative projects, I have an obsessive personality. I approach this project as a professional, and I would expect similar conduct and work ethic from anyone I work with on the project. Which would be unfair to any volunteer, given the workload.
You might then be tempted to think that my ego prevents me from ever allowing an outside artist, or contributing coder, to deign touch the perfect, golden project that is Bitch Breaker, but you'd be wrong. My intention has always been to eventually commission a proper, professional artist to redo the art from the ground up. Waiting until the game is finished to commission the art will provide a number of clear advantages. On it's own, commissioning all of the art in one shot will allow the artist to work faster and more efficiently, ensuring that the art will have a defined, singular style. And by providing the artist with the existing art assets, the artist will have clear templates that will make the process even faster and easier. This should help lower the total cost and increase the quality of the work substantially. Yes, I'd likely make more money if I had sexy, professional art to tease you wonderful patrons with every update, but I'm more interested in making a game that will be fun to play as a full, completed project in the future, than building a disjointed sex scene selector that caters to masochistic edging connoisseurs.
"I hear you. I've read all that and I still want to contribute!"
Okay. In that case, you have my permission to create whatever art assets you want for the game. If you're a professional and you want to really put in the effort, you even have my permission to open your own Patreon and monetize your work. All I ask is that you notify me before hand, make sure that you clearly state on your patreon that the main game does not represent your intellectual property or work, and provide a link to this Patreon. That's it. I'm not going to ask for a cut of your profits, or demand that you change anything about your art. The only reason I ask that you notify me is so I can try to keep track of alternate image packs.
In order to ensure compatibility with the base game just follow these guidelines:
1) All images must be saved as .png files.
2) Any replacement image must be named exactly the same as the image it is replacing.
3) Ren'Py places images based on the top left most pixel. For this reason, it's best if all images maintain the same size as the originals. HD packs would require additional coding.
4) Maintain image transparency. Most images in game utilize layering. If your images don't maintain transparency, they won't look right.
That's it!
If you have any questions or would like any additional input, feel free to reach out to me. I can be pretty bad about checking messages here, since my inbox is usually filled with weird fetish requests for the game, but I will get back to you eventually.
Comments
Manic
I'll do it. I'm manic#6012 on discord. Message me, I want to talk to you about your game anyway.
jonnymelabo
Usually with art is, once the players are used to play the game, they get used to and they don't really care so much about the art, but for the story and the gameplay (Different thing is if the art helps or not to arouse one, that's a different matter, your game has more parody than porn though...). But art is something that helps a lot to call the attention to those who didn't tried your game yet, that's why in part I did my game with so much color and shadows, but finally those who already played the game are more interested in the story than the art. It's basically a balance and hard to answer... One day I will try to make a fan-art of your game taking one of your assets and trying to make it in my style... but just one... I can't do that on 140 images (and growing). xD I like your game, has good vibes, I hope you luck and can improve and keep working on this project! ;)
Lyk
You're a good guy Spavon.
RRRRRR
idk why but I just find amateur stuff more appealing cuz it looks different
spavon
Oooh okay, good to read, finally i'll not grilled you ^^
UnknownError
I'm sorry, man. I was joking with you. You WERE right. lol My art isn't good. I've got a thick skin for criticism. I'm not going to ever get mad at anyone, especially not patrons. Feel free to roast me. It's okay, I promise.
spavon
Did I say something offensive? I didn't mean to hurt anyone, it wasn't a negative criticism, I'm not sure I was understood correctly. If I did, I apologize, it wasn't my purpose!!! Maybe my wording was clumsy and the term "abstract" was not the right one. Sorry I'm taking this a little bit positively, I'm just trying to bring a different view of events, I may be totally out of line compared to what you imagine, but right now it's the only way I can help you. The only thing I can hope is that you like it and you like it enough to eventually use it in the game, or create new ideas with it.
UnknownError
I'm not going to hand off the art to anyone else. At best (or worse, depending on your taste), I'll give people 2 options: Bitch Breaker Classic, and Bitch Breaker Pretty with Sexy New Art. You'll always have the choice to fap to my cross-eyed monkey scribbles.
UnknownError
That's nice, man. Thanks.
UnknownError
I actually like my art style quit a bit, it's just not really suited to masturbation. That may change as my skill improves. Also, your fetish requests are pretty far from the WEIRD weird stuff people send me. Not that I'm complaining. It's all interesting stuff.
UnknownError
My art is abstract, is it?! First of all, how dare you. Second....actually you have a pretty good point.
UnknownError
I'm sure I'll get a lot better by the time I'm finished with Bitch Breaker. No worries. Thanks for the support, man.
UnknownError
Thanks, man. I don't have any plans to ever stop making the art for the game, but IMO giving people more options can only be a good thing.
UnknownError
Fans like you are one of the only reasons I keep working on this game. You guys are amazing. I'll probably wind up needing your help before too long. Hopefully I don't make you regret offering it!
RRRRRR
Please keep your art style
Lyk
Picasso learned how to draw classically beautiful drawings before transitioning over to more abstract art though.
acac
Mate, I hope you keep your art! I think it really makes your game unique. I think it also really adds to your artistic message.
spavon
Hi To answer the question I would say NO, definitely no, the only thing I regret is the lack of definition, you're bad at drawing, whatever, are Picasso's drawings good? I would say no, yet we all know the reputation of this Artist, art is a more or less abstract concept. As I said before and as the comments say, I share their opinion. Call it what you will, Soul, charm and so on... I consider it the identity of the game. The real question is, would it really be profitable for you to invest a lot of money, to pay a professional artist? Will the people who are put off by the drawings, be ready to support you once this investment is made? Personally I don't think so, the times have changed, today people are used to get everything for free, it's the current way of consumption, when they have to pay, they turn to other things. I know, but words are easy, after all I don't pay you for having fun playing, no matter what my excuse is. Working in teams is obviously beneficial, people do not all have the same skills and sensitivity, his opens up new perspectives, new points of view and stimulates the mind. But we must remain realistic at this stage, it would certainly be a financial drain. ps: "I can be pretty bad about checking messages here, since my inbox is usually filled with weird fetish requests for the game, but I will get back to you eventually." I must be one of those weird guys, i sent you a message on f95
waffel
I find your art kind of soothing, it could be better of course, but I would still prefer it to be your artist line that got better, instead of it being butchered by some bloke! :)
Lyk
I like your art and think that at this point I'd probably prefer it over the art of most artists. It's part of the charm of your game. Though I understand that it might create a barrier of entry. Most people seem to like your art once they get used to it, but plenty of people are attracted to the art of a game at first.
lolred
I know this isn't what you're asking, but I *love* your artstyle. I'm reminded of Defenestration, which had a low-fi pixel art style (though not quite as low-fi as Bitch Breaker). They've been remaking it with "higher-quality" art, and I miss the old style, I feel it had more soul. Another thing that this post isn't about: if you're struggling with coding, I would love to help. I'm a professional software dev who's made small games before, and I have experience with both Python in general and Ren'Py specifically. Godspeed!
