[TRENCHES] Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - Cowbunny
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Cowbunny
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/cowbunny
Art Outsourcing Manager
AnonymousYou guys post stories from people other than testers, right? If so, cool. I’m writing to you from the outsourced world.
You know how so many games outsource a lot of their code and art to countries where the living rates are much more humble than our entitled western asses? Well, some of them also operate through this new thing catching on called “virtual offices.” It’s cheaper, since everyone works from home on their own PCs, plus you aren’t limited to hiring in you local area, or even in your country. An outsource group in Asia can employ some aspiring pixel artist in the US, even.
Which is pretty much how I fit in. Companies hire out the group I work for to make additional 2D art for their games, who in turn pay me to draw and animate stuff. Mind you, my work is almost exclusively shovelware. Nothing cool here. Though when we don’t have a client, we work on our own indie games. Well, my boss’s indie games. No one else really gets any say in what we make.
For example, my boss asked me for any phone game ideas. I’m overjoyed he might actually listen to me. All of my ideas are rejected. He says we need something casual and simpler, so we end up doing a clone of an unsuccessful open source phone game. He said that to be successful on the iPhone, you need to steal someone else’s idea, and just make it prettier. I didn’t necessarily think that was the formula for profit, nor for establishing some solid integrity, but I’m typically not heard. My boss decides the art style should look like high-resolution, high-color, animated concept art. Not exactly practical, and I express that, but again, I don’t matter. I still got it done at least. A few month later, I’m told to revamp most of the art and add more levels, because we can’t get a publisher. Turns out, no one wants simple games anymore, so we were going to start slapping on extra levels and features until we can get a publisher. Mostly means more detailed animations for a game that’s still crappy.
So, I get the long hours typical of game development, no respect from my boss (typical of most jobs I’ve had though), no satisfaction in my work since I don’t like any of the games I worked on (I’m not picky, I like all genres… I just don’t like bad games), and I do it all for about $400 per month. It’s not all bad though… I’ve lost 20 pounds in the past year doing this work, which would be quite awesome if I wasn’t already skinny.
I try looking for extra work elsewhere. There just isn’t much demand for pixel artists or 2D game animators. Indies seem to want some, but tell me I’m overqualified, and they can’t possibly afford me. Most everyone else is content just outsourcing.
So why don’t I just go flip burgers, where I could make more money is less time? Honestly, I feel like this job is what I’m suppose to do.
Maybe not specifically with throwaway games, but the pixel art and animation for games. I’m not one for destiny, fate, or any of that crap, but I feel like I was made specifically for this. I’ve been doing this stuff for nearly as long as I can remember, and I’m going to keep stubbornly working at this. Hopefully, I’ll eventually get either respect, satisfaction, or a livable salary for this niche specialty. I’ll settle for any one of those.
Posts
I just spent $400 on pixel backgrounds for a fraction of what I need for a game I'm creating, outsourcing to Poland. I can't believe that is all he gets a month. Personally I would love to get in contact with Anonymous and give him a fair amount of money for a fair amount of work.
Steam: pazython
It's not easy, but before I finished my Associates Degree and got a job with the company that I was interning for, I lived on about that much (after paying tuition). If you can rent a room for $200 a month that's fairly close to an urban area (which isn't easy but you can usually share rent with enough roommates to get it down to that in the South and the Midwest) you can walk to most of the things you need on a daily or weekly basis, and take the bus on the occasions that you need to go further. $100 a month for food goes a long way if you're eating ramen 3 meals a day every day. You don't really need a phone, but a cheap prepaid flip phone can be inexpensive if you only use it when you absolutely have to. You can also usually steal WiFi from your neighbors or the McDonald's across the street. Pixel Art does not take much in the way of hardware either. I usually do it with MS Paint, but there are also a number of other older graphics software (like old versions of Adobe) that will run just fine on an old used laptop.
Living like that is a sure way to make yourself sick especially if you are only eating Ramen, but the McDonalds value menu can also go a long way to getting you some protein, add in some canned veggies and you can be doing pretty OK. I certainly don't recommend that lifestyle though if you can help it.
Kudos for this post.
I gather that a lot of the people that are "too poor to eat well" are actually "too poor to eat out and don't have the basic skills to be able to prepare simple healthy stuff". I used to be one of those people, though I was fortunate to have more of a food budget when I was a student and I got by. Then I got married to a woman who is simply stunning in the kitchen, and made myself learn how to make stuff that is healthy and also tasty.
Making your own food takes longer than just nuking something frozen, but it doesn't really take any longer than hauling yourself out to McDonalds, eating and coming home. If you're working few enough hours that you're this poor and are not currently a student, you have some time to spend anyway. You should PM TychoCelchuuu or do some research on how to eat healthily, and it can be surprisingly inexpensive if you choose your food based on price. You'll also be surprised how easy it is once you get the hang of it- just don't halfass it and leave a pot of water boiling while you play video games. Not that I have a compelling reason for posting that very specific bit of advise... >_>
I salute this post too. TychoCelchuuu is absolutely right. If you have a stove and a little skill in the kitchen beans (the dried kind that you have to soak overnight) and rice (the kind that comes in the big bag and not the instant stuff in the little perforated one) as well as fresh veggies (particularly if you happen to be near a farmer's market) can be both cheap and nutritious.
I lived on Ramen and Canned Veggies because where I lived (close enough to school to walk, but cheap enough afford) didn't have any real grocery stores that weren't a bus ride away and all we had in the little two room apartment I was sharing with 2 other people was a hot plate and a microwave. The stove was a 50 year old relic and didn't work. I'm sure I could have still managed to eat healthy, but I'm mostly just lazy.
Even if you can't cook you can get quite a bit of food/variety from "nuking something frozen" as well
If you are busting your butt and really proud of the artwork you are producing (if not the game it is for) then you are on the first steps to building yourself a portfolio. Keep note of what you feel is your best work, and make sure it is somewhere you can access it. Having a solid portfolio can be part of your ticket towards creating art for a studio that will appreciate you.
While a printed portfolio is good for interviews, you can also keep one online. You can find free hosting sites to build a webpage on, or even sites like DA and others (although be careful with what artwork you do post, since your employers may have some sort of restriction on that). But getting your work online and where employers can find it is a starting point.