New Commissions
Flare received a generous donation this week, so we’ll be kicking off new commissions!
The Wyvern texture commission is in the works (WIP preview), and I’ve contacted our lead sound guy to do the Wyvern sound effects.
I’ve also contacted some voice actors to do new recordings. We’re looking at getting a “female merchant” voice and some verbal cues for the hero (e.g. “I can’t do that”, or “Not enough mana”).
Art Direction
When I started Flare, it was exciting to get ANY art working in-game. I threw together models of a handful of my favorite classic creatures. The models weren’t that great, as I still had a lot to learn about 3D modeling and animation. Still, they have served well for testing Flare throughout Alpha engine development.
Now that the engine works well and has all the necessary features for making simple games, my focus is shifting. There’s no reason to keep the bar so low for Flare art.
The wyvern is the first “transitional” asset towards a much more polished game. It’s made completely in Blender 2.6. It has real textures, more frames of animation, and movement that reflects combat design. It has better lighting, and we’re taking care to avoid black shadows in the model. Animations in the Blender file are properly separated, for easy export into 3D engines. The shadow layer is rendered separately. All of these features make for a much more polished asset.
I’m pushing new art to be higher quality than the existing alpha assets. Much of the current art could be obsoleted, and that’s okay. We’ve shown what the engine can do, but it’s time to really show what the art can do.
You Can Help
I can’t do all of the art alone. When it comes to sounds, textures, concepts, and digital painting, I rely heavily on other artists.
If you’re interested in contributing your artistic skill to Flare (and to the Free/Libre game community), please contact me with a link to your portfolio.
I do sometimes accept unsolicited art contributions to Flare, and that’s great. But often there’s a specific piece of art we need now, often to move the engine forward. For these must-have pieces I like paying commissions. So far our Flare artists have been amazing and generous in kind.
If you like Flare and what it can become, please consider donating via Paypal. You won’t just be helping Flare; this project’s art can be found all over the Internet in demos, tutorials, proofs-of-concept, and more. We’re giving more than just good gameplay; we’re enriching the pool of Free/Libre art. Endless thanks to those of you who have already contributed.