June 2014 – Update

It’s been a busy past few months. As I mentioned in the previous post, there were a few things that I was working on. Here’s where things are at:

The Website

The site has undergone some major updates with a bunch of new additions. The most significant update to the site though, has been the addition of the Store. This will allow me to sell current and future products from the website safely and securely, using Paypal. I’m happy with the end result, and think that the foundation is there now so I can shift my focus back to other important things – like making actual products!

Unorthodox Game Dev Tools

Speaking of products, I just created one! The Unorthodox Game Dev Tools is a Photoshop add-on that helps Texture Artists and 3D Modelers greatly improve their texture creation workflow. Speaking from experience, many Studios use similar tools as part of their texture creation workflow. I initially created the product for myself, but decided to make a commercial version in hopes that it could aid other artists and game development studios out there that may not have the resources to create such a tool for themselves.

The Unorthodox Game Dev Tools are more refined and polished than something you’d typically see in a studio environment. Tool creators often have to leave things in an unfinished and often unstable state when developing within a studio environment. This is partly because of time restrictions, but also due to the fact that the tools are proprietary, so artist can simply ‘work around’ any issues. Sadly, important time saving tools like these are usually considered ‘low priority’ for companies, despite the fact that they would actually save their artists hundreds of hours, and prevent many hassles, bugs, etc.. Most companies would rather burn out their artists than invest internally by providing them with competent tools to help them out. The reality is the cost and time investment in developing good tools will more than make up for itself by allowing artists more time to focus on a better quality product.

That being said, why bother, when you can save even less time and money by purchasing tools externally for even cheaper! I’m hopeful that other Artists and Developers will see the value in such an inexpensive tool (especially when comparing it to how much it would cost someone to create a similar tool ‘in-house’). I am also open to expanding and improving on the tools if there is enough interest and demand for it.

Next

This week, I will be reaching out to various websites in an attempt to promote the Unorthodox Game Dev Tools to other artists and developers. If you are able or willing to help me out by spreading the word (through Twitter, Facebook or whatever), it would be greatly appreciated!

After that, I will be moving on to my next project. Please check back soon for more details or follow me on Twitter to stay informed. Thanks!

 

Lee