[Recruiting] I require an artist

edg3

Hey guys,

So I have an extremely interesting project that I was brought onto that will require the assistance of an artist if anyone is keen to have something really cool on their portfolio.

The Cons
- There will be no monetary reward for this unfortunately
- The deadlines are in a very short time span (first week of next month)
- You would most likely need to sign an NDA to join in on the project

The Pros
- You will receive full recognition for your work on the project
- Making games is fun yo!
- I promise not to steal all of your sanity
- There are various opportunities for your work on this project to be shown on an international level to some really awesome game related people

I know this is vague, and doesn't explain much, but the project is real, the scope is small enough that it should be quite easy to make within the time period.

If you are interested please send through an email to v-erlov{at}Microsoft{dot}com as soon as possible explaining your interest and give me a screenshot or two of art you have made in a game or in a form that is suitable for a game (not concept art or general art please). I will respond as soon as I get the green light to go ahead with the project and bring in an artist.

Some vague information that could be useful to you about the project:
- It is an "action-puzzle" platformer (Think Super Meat Boy, Spelunky, Contra) of sorts
- There are a few ideas that need to be incorporated into the art for the game for branding purposes, though you will be encouraged to provide input on how best to incorporate them into the game world
- The visuals for the world can be tiles or a large hand-drawn image if you prefer, both are manageable for the mechanics
- We are going to need to make the game as juicy and stable as possible in the shortest time possible, most of that will be my job, but any art juiceyness you can provide will be awesome to include!

Questions?
Thoughts?

dislekcia

Why is this a branding game with no budget? Surely if this is an internal thing (as in, internal to some company that's already paying you personally for your time), there should either be other internal people that can work on graphics - or it shouldn't be impossible to motivate for cash monies to pay an external specialist with.

Tuism

I know how @dislekcia feels about the "work free for exposure" pitch, and I tend to agree. Unless you're taking interns (and even interns get paid, I did all through my varsity interning career, which was every year over the December holidays), a company should really pay for work done. It's even a brand exercise - and brands ESPECIALLY should be paying as it's marketing there's nothing but budget in advertising. If someone says there's no budget it's usually cos they've got the budget themselves :P (not referring to you @edg3 cos you're not the agency here, I refer to the source of the job.)

kidult

^ this and receiving full recognition for your work on the project, is a norm not a pro and neither is exposure

Gibbo

A light-hearted take on artist exposure offers:



But agreed, if this is for a company/brand rather than a personal project then there definitely should be some sort of budget involved, however small it may be.

edg3

Well, I'm not being paid, I'm doing my side as a favour for a friend, I'm working on it in my own time. I unfortunately cannot offer any money from myself or on behalf of who I am doing this for.

Tuism said:

Unless you're taking interns (and even interns get paid, I did all through my varsity interning career, which was every year over the December holidays), a company should really pay for work done.)

I disagree, I did many unpaid internships which gave me invaluable experience that I was not paid for.

If nobody is interested nobody will respond. I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

danelle

edg3 said:

Well, I'm not being paid, I'm doing my side as a favour for a friend

That is not the artist's concern. That is between you and your friend.

edg3 said:

I did many unpaid internships which gave me invaluable experience that I was not paid for.

Expecting others to be willing to do it because you did it is really unrealistic. Valuable experience via internships is awesome, but as I understand it, it is actually illegal to have someone work for you for free, even if it is an intern. At the very least it's immoral.

edg3 said:

I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

We're not accusing you of lying, we're trying to explain why the culture of "work for experience/your portfolio/exposure" is really toxic and desctructive to freelance workers everywhere. The bottom line is you are using resources while you work for people; you're eating food, using electricity, using art materials, and most of all you're using time and energy that could (and should) be going into other things. If you are not being compensated for those things, you are in fact losing money, and instead of breaking even on all that stuff, you are in fact running at a loss. You are essentially paying someone else for the privilege of working for them. And, on top of that, being promised an unrealistic return on an investment. It is because people work for free, that professional artists struggle to be taken seriously. There's never a shortage of cheap and unpaid labour, and it drags the entire market down.

This is why you're being met with some hostility - it's because just about everyone here has been burnt by the pipe dream that is working for exposure.

dislekcia

edg3 said:

Well, I'm not being paid, I'm doing my side as a favour for a friend, I'm working on it in my own time. I unfortunately cannot offer any money from myself or on behalf of who I am doing this for.

...

If nobody is interested nobody will respond. I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

I was merely trying to give you motivation and a possible angle to use to get funding from whoever is commissioning this project.

If there's exposure value, there's probably money in it somewhere, the trick is finding it ;)

Tuism

dislekcia said:

edg3 said:

Well, I'm not being paid, I'm doing my side as a favour for a friend, I'm working on it in my own time. I unfortunately cannot offer any money from myself or on behalf of who I am doing this for.

...

If nobody is interested nobody will respond. I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

I was merely trying to give you motivation and a possible angle to use to get funding from whoever is commissioning this project.

If there's exposure value, there's probably money in it somewhere, the trick is finding it ;)

Exactly that. If there's value, there should be compensation. Recognition is a default. Noone making work for payment is being told "You shall never speak of this to any living souuuuullll"

Asking for money can be super daunting when you're not experienced in doing it. I'm not even experienced in doing it, but I know it's the right thing for everyone involved. The more anyone does work for free the more other people will expect the same of you, because the world is actually quite small and word does get around.

That said, there ARE good reasons to do work for free, and it's different for everyone. I mean... Honestly, we're all doing stuff for free for MGSA aren't we? :)

dislekcia

I think, if anything, @edg3 just wrote this in the wrong tone... It sounded very "corporate". If all that's going on is he's helping a friend out for something he thinks is neat, then that tone really didn't serve the post well. Sorry man :(

AngryMoose

We sure are lucky to be living in a day and age where Universities and other educational institutions pay students for their time so that they can take courses and study there.