Dare 2007- Part 1

In 2007 I took part in Dare to Be Digital. This is a Video Game design competition where teams of 5 students form a team to make a video game prototype over 10 weeks during the summer. The teams are made up of Artists and Programmers.
The competition is very prestigious and the reward for the winning teams is a BAFTA nomination.
In 2007 I was very lucky. I was in a team that put forward an application which was unsuccessful. I was then fortunate, as a member of my team knew another team with a successful application who were looking for an artist. I joined this team and we pitched an idea for a motorcycle racing game to a panel of industry experts. The pitch was unsuccessful and the team never got in. I thought my luck had run out- but it hadn’t.
Another team who did a successful pitch were looking for an artist. The team Leader in this team knew the team leader in my second unsuccessful team. So I ended up joining Emergence Games who were in Dare to Be Digital 2007 with the game Forgotten Souls (turns out it isn’t what you know but who you know).
Forgotten Souls was to be a First Person Survival Horror game for the PC. The concept of the game involved a post- apocalyptic world where a child had survived. The world was roaming with daemons who wanted to steal the child. The player had to protect the child by using different found objects (boxes, debris etc) to build up barriers and ward of the daemons.

I could write at length about the competition and the problems the team had. Unprepared, badly organised, lack of vision and basically not knowledgeable enough to make the game the team pitch to the panel.
As I joined the team late I expected the current artist (the team was made up of 2 artists, including myself, and 3 programmers) to have done some concept work – he hadn’t. We were behind schedule before the competition began. This was annoying as teams had to prepare before competition starts and this was a pre-emption of what was to happen during the competition.

In Part 2 I’ll talk about the development of the game and the problems myself and the had.

An old 3D Poem

Here’s an old piece (from a couple of months ago). It’s a toy design with a poem written on it – 3D Poetry. The photo is not that great but it does show what I am trying to do with the 3D poetry. I doubt I’ll do anything with this so I though I’d post it up here. I don’t plan to do any more of these for a while, as I going to concentrate on sketching and updating the design section of my portfolio.

Sketches

I’ve done a lot of sketching recently – since I’m taking a break from toy design, 3D Graffiti and Poetry. I’ve posted some of them here. Don’t know what I’ll do with them. I might fix some of them up and add them to my portfolio.

Lomography Photos

2 new photos taken with my Diana Lomography camera. I was using a black and white film. I went out and took some photos around Dundee and I should have a few more developed soon. I’ll post them up when they’re ready.

New Showreel

I've update my animation showreel. Added a few short pieces. I probably won’t have any new work to add for another couple of months so I thought I’d post it up here.

PaperGirl Bristol - More Photos on website

Some Photos of the Papergirl Bristol exhibition over on their blog.
Eagle eyed viewers will see some of my images in the background.
They’re going to hand out the artwork sometime in May. Not sure when though.
Links to the photos below.
Photo1
Photo2
Photo3
Photo4
Photo5
Photo6

Polaroid Picture Illustrations

I’ve been messing around with Adobe Illustrator again – creating more detailed illustrations of sketches. This image is based on a piece of Flash Fiction I recently wrote. I’ll post up the story later. I wrote the story at an ‘Illustrate and Write’ workshop at the Two Dolls art shop in Dundee.
This image is a Polaroid picture taken by the girl in the story. I plan to create some more Polaroid picture illustrations with hand written text at the bottom. These will compliment the stories. Depending on the time I have I’ll try to do one a month. I’m taking a break from the toy design and the 3D Graffiti and 3D poetry for a while. I need a break from these especially since the recent Streetlands and Without Boarders Exhibitions.
I’ve included a scan of the original sketch and the new improved final image.