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s we re humble folks scraping by and doing what we can that is why i am writing these too many words if you want to have a small business or make a living as a humble artist i have kind words for you because i really want you to succeed the inspirational ending i got yelled at a lot for the previous article it was basically a massive expression of contempt at me for being such a hack that i was content writing such ugly games and if you want to get extremely mad online and dunk on me more it s cool whatever is fun shine on you crazy diamond but here s the thing if you want to be a game writer or creator or small businessperson you should find my story to be inspiring i write games so ugly that i am showered with contempt and yet i make money i ll have a full lifelong career if i can have so many flaws and still succeed you can too figure out what you are really good at doing sell that make your dream real get it out the door whatever it takes whatever corners you have to cut if you re better than me and who isn t really you have a chance good luck i am writing these blog posts to get attention to our newest game queen s wish the conqueror you can also follow me on twitter posted by jeff vogel at 3 00 pm 45 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels advice business stuff everyone will hate this shameless self promotion what cruddy graphics whistling past graveyard wednesday august 21 2019 why all of our games look like crap we spent years working on this game we re betting our family s future on it so why does it look so bad we ve been writing indie games for a living for 25 years my wife and i run a humble little mom and pop business we make retro low budget role playing games that have great stories and design and are a lot of fun also they look like crap the first game i released in january of 1995 looked like crap it achieved financial success among the blind apparently which funded many more games that looked like crap enabling me to build a solid reputation based on this reputation we had a successful kickstarter for queen s wish the conqueror an exciting upcoming rpg that will look like crap we hope it will be a gateway to us making games that look like crap for many years to come we have no complaints we are in the middle of a long successful career and everything is rosy however sometimes i like to write about the indie game business and help people understand how it works and give advice to younger developers this article is about why our games look the way they do whether you like them or not probably not most importantly i want to advocate for the right of indie developers to be weird if an indie dev has a wild creative idea and is scared of trying it and thinks i might as well do it at least i m not being as crazy as jeff vogel i ve done my job so if you are interested in why we write games that look like crap and will always look like crap read on this is what i grew up playing a true classic this is what looks normal to me first let s just get one thing clear i think my games look good and they contain a lot of really good art all of the art in queen s wish was made by extremely talented freelancers doing really solid work to my specifications i feel very lucky to be working with them if you think my games look bad any blame for that rests with me entirely second again i think queen s wish looks really nice and comfy maybe it s a generational thing people who grew up with nintendo and sega really like pixel art i grew up with atari and intellivision and i am very used to having art that leaves a lot to the imagination my art is the sort of game art i grew up with just with more modern color and detail designed to give the feel of a tabletop dungeons dragons game that is my goal so when i say my games look like crap i am maybe being a little clickbaity video games are art art is hugely subjective and there are lots of people who genuinely like how my games look i certainly do this article is an explanation for those who disagree exile escape from the pit the first game we ever released queen s wish is meant to evoke this old style which yes i like what brought this post on people have criticized the art in our games for decades i have had indie developers normally a mild and supportive lot make fun of my games to my face we have a pretty thick skin about it still when we announced queen s wish the conqueror i got this message on reddit jeff i really like what you do and geneforge 2 is one of my favorite games ever but why not get a better artist it s not even about technically impressive art just about something that is pleasant to look at and doesn t alienate people so many of my friends have told me they d love to try your games but just can t get over the sloppy and cheap art style ouch what fascinates me here is that the guy seems to think he is telling me news like i m smart enough to keep a software company running for 25 years but i am unable to notice qualities in my games that are instantly obvious to joe q rando apparently my games are so ugly that looking directly at them without protective gear will turn you into this guy so yeah this message bummed me out a bit but it shouldn t have i have seen countless variants of this criticism over the last 25 years at least he didn t threaten my life or call me slurs or wish horrible fates on my children which happens what is wrong with our art if you think my art is fine and don t understand what the problem is bless you i ll tell you what some think is wrong as best i understand it 1 queen s wish has a very retro square tile top down view reminiscent of old ultima games old pokemon games spiderweb s first games tabletop d d that sort of thing for some that old style is really unfamiliar and or alienating 2 queen s wish uses art made by a lot of different artists that means that the style is not quite consistent we ve done our best to make it blend well but it s a little off 3 all the characters only look in diagonal directions i made this choice because i once thought all the art would be hand drawn and i desperately needed to reduce the number of icons i needed this was a mistake and i ll probably try to fix it in queen s wish 2 4 it s not in 3 d some people will only ever be happy with 3 d i m sure there are lots of other problems these are just the most common complaints all these problems can be fixed all they need is money lots of money our previous game avernum 3 ruined world why didn t i just write another game that looks like this because i didn t want to nyeah so why do my games look like crap or more accurately why do my games look the way they do when other more fancy more expensive art styles are available style that would i freely admit increase my sales these are the reasons i don t change if you want to make a living in the games business or run any business these ideas might be useful to you this isn t just me whining there are a lot of key basic principles here and ignoring them is very dangerous for a small entrepreneur 1 i can never be good enough remember we re a tiny company like most indie developers suppose i want to change how i write games and run my business fine maybe i should the first thing i have to ask is what is my goal it s to convert non customers into customers there are players out there who look at my games and say i don t want to play a game that looks like that that is totally their right but suppose i want to win those people over what is required the key problem here is that when most people say your art looks bad what they mean is i want art that is good they mean i want aaa quality art and i can t make that not even close i have had games where i worked very hard to improve the graphics spending a lot of time and money and they really did look better but when i released those games the vast majority of people who had said your games look bad still said your games look bad games like pillars of eternity and divinity original sin look infinitely better than my work those games also have huge teams paid for by big budgets and let s be clear if this is what you want there is absolutely nothing wrong with that hey i like good graphics too if you want really good graphics my games will never be for you i can t afford you writing story heavy rpgs like mine is still a total niche business aaa gaming has moved away from what i write very fast yes divinity original sin 2 was a big hit but pillars of eternity 2 very much was not i will never run a big game company i have to stay small both because of business realities and because of what my wife and i want from our lives so our games will never be fancy they will always be humble lesson before trying for a goal make sure that goal is possible to reach it might not be know your limits nethergate released in 1997 a huge improvement over exile before i released it everyone said my games look bad after i released it everyone said my games look bad but just because we can t shoot for the moon doesn t mean that we can t make some improvements hire a full time artist hire another programmer who knows unity why not do that 2 we want to run a profitable business when you want to run a small business managing your budget is vitally important right now our games only need to earn enough to support one family when you have a solid product and a decent reputation that is a very realistic goal we ve been doing it for 25 years suppose i want to hire a second employee that will double the budget for our game that means we have to double our sales to make up for it when you are in business especially one as competitive as video games doubling sales is hard would a second or third employee increase sales absolutely would it do so enough to justify the expense far more dubious and bear in mind i need to come up with the money to hire those employees in the first place that probably means a bank loan even if i get that loan if the extra sales from the new employees isn t enough to pay the loan that means the whole business can die can increasing headcount and making better games be a good idea of course businesses do it all the time it s how great games are made it is also a good way to lose everything i already have a long term profitable business and that is not unrelated to my risk averse personality i don t want to blow it lesson when you spend more money you need to increase sales to match those expenses make sure you have a good chance of doing this and make sure you can stomach the risk darkest dungeon has really good art that a small team can afford to do however the style is really distinctive finding artists to reproduce this exact look is hard but small companies make great looking games all the time the key is to get an artist to make a cool distinctive art style like hand drawn or pixel art my games have fairly standard neutral icon art why not have more style 3 we need to maintain a consistent look this is a very subtle but important point and it s one that people don t think about enough when analyzing or planning indie games suppose i want to make a game like darkest dungeon that doesn t actually have a huge amount of art but it has a really cool distinctive style a small developer could afford to write a game like darkest dungeon i have to get a freelancer who will develop an individual art style for a reasonable price because i can t afford a full time employee see above but there is a key problem with freelancers they have free will they will very rarely be able to work for you for a long time they get better jobs or they quit making art or they make art but for someone else or they just flake out suppose i get half a game worth of really neat funky art and then my freelancer gets a real job for big bucks i then have to find a new artist who can match the style of that art and make a lot of it which is very difficult and then suppose i write a sequel and i want to reuse that art and need more art made in that style then it is even more likely that my freelancer and any replacements will have moved on and then i either have to throw everything away and get it redone expensive in time and money or find a new artist who will try to match that art s style and probably not do a great job at it i can t stress this enough finding talented reliable reasonably priced freelancers is hard cherish them when you find them that is why all of my games have a more generic fantasy style i have to work with a lot of different artists it s the nature of the business thus i have to write games in a way that the artists can be replaced the generic style this requires is not ideal but it is necessary lesson always be aware of when you are relying on other people always be prepared to replace anyone people move on life happens this is a really good critically acclaimed successful indie game if a game that looks like this can be a hit maybe there can be room for me but you did games with a more 3 d look and i like those better your games looked kind of fine why didn t you stay with that 4 you gotta follow your muse game makers are artists artists are dependent on their inspirations sometimes your brain just wants to make a certain thing if you aren t going to do what you want and believe in why are you writing indie games i ve been writing games with that angled isometric look for twenty years twenty i just wanted to write something that looks different i have to change things sometimes to stay interested and keep from burning out period lesson not every artist can make every sort of art van gogh couldn t paint a renoir painting if something inspires you consider following that if you re writing things you don t want to write why not just get a real job you ll get a regular paycheck and benefits atari adventure one of my all time favorite games a true classic i still love this game if you don t like it maybe the problem is you but surely you can do something surely there is some hope can nothing be improved 5 again some people like our games remember we ve sold many copies of our games we have fans our games have a scruffy eccentric handmade look our indie games look well indie i like how our games look more or less and i get a vote too maybe i m a big weirdo but weirdos spend money too and honestly isn t one of the foundational ideas of indie games that there is room for all sorts of creative expression that having more dollars doesn t give you a better claim on the truth that you don t have to be a billion dollar company to be good to be right seriously if you think my games look bad don t play them believe me i understand but i got into this business to make my weird toys in my weird way if i ever can t convince people to buy them i ll quit and sell shoes lesson if you are doing something that is working keep doing it if you are comfortable with your success don t let anyone psych you out of it people have been hating on my art for 25 years i a...