Have to echo the sentiment that Mario Galaxy is hardcore. Once you get in the later levels (purple coins and comets) things start to get really challenging... and FUN!

well, you've got a prototype, right? but that bodiless dude could be a troubled teen from russia who uses his imagination to escape the reality he's created for himself or it could be an old grandmother from brazil looking for her lost spouse. Turns out she has Alzheimer's and her spouse died years ago and this is something she does inside her mind once in a while to occupy it. Or maybe it's not a human at all but some amorphous collection of red blood cells attempting to mimic the form of its universe by looking like a human being. They travel upwards into the fabled land of the liver where they will seek high council on what they should do on this new invasion of mysterious antibodies. Call it Antibody!

Point is, there's plenty of wiggle room with what you've got.

ps. rev. share is short for "revenue share" and that's basically just a split of the profits. Say you sell this on XBLIG, then you'd set up some kind of 50/50, 40/60 rev. share between you and the artist and split it accordingly.

i wouldn't recommend paying a set fee. work with the artist on a rev. share basis. definitely try and get a feel for each other before you totally commit to something. Every collaboration i've been involved in has worked that way and I prefer things like that, it's much more like working on my own stuff than a "paid contract".

I wrote a post awhile ago on this very thing. It might be still relevant: http://mile222.com/2009/09/how-i-find-good-folks-to-collaborate-with/

what are we drinking there? an IPA of some sort i trust...

This is how i catalog 'em. Just posted with most recent at the top. Should be releasing a new guy very soon, probably early june!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aeiowu/collections/72157616390247015/

hmmm, i have to disagree. i'd really recommend you collaborate with an artist that can bring both style and theme to the core gameplay. Even if there is no explicit story/narrative in place, I think your issues would be resolved if you decided on a thematic direction. Sometimes artists think in those terms more than most and it'd especially help the collaboration if the artist you work with has a hand in determining that theme/direction/story so they can own it rather than have it dictated to them.

practice on what. i wanna learn how to make lines like that.

dude, really? are you just being indignent or what? check out some tutorials and draw with the pen tool, then select those shapes and fill them or make them adjustment layers. here's a basic run through to get you started, the first result on google search "photoshop pen tool tutorial" http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-pentool.html

If you are actually having issues and not understanding what's going on, elaborate on that instead of firing off a one-liner cluttering up what should be an image heavy thread. Sorry for the lecture. Maybe i'll start up a adobe tutorial thing where people can do Q&A on stuff like this. I'm sure plenty of us could chime in whenever someone has a question like this.

can you show some examples of the art you've done that you're talking about?

ps. i really dig the game concept (via video).

here's a quickie, had an issue with the composition so i tried to expand the canvas size, but yea... maybe it'll lead to somethign:



here's hte psd: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1350983/SynaesthesiaBlankCover.psd (you'll need P22 De Stijl, but the other is lucida grande. Tried to use something widely available. You could try bank gothic, or a freebie de stijl-like.

hey theo, could i give the magazine typography a shot?

But I only have Photoshop. Is there a way to do this in Photoshop?

yep, the pen tool is in photoshop and behaves the same way.

PS. theo that looks awesome!

how about just using the pen tool?

these look like a good start: http://www.illustratortips.com/index.php/Instruction/Beginner-Tips/5-essential-illustrator-pen-tool-tutorials.html

it's pretty easy to use. I haven't vetted any of those tutorials so don't hold me to their quality.

i KNOW! And can you believe it?! This one is about SPORTS!!!!
 

oh MAN! I can't believe it's finally out! I've been waiting for a Virtuo game for ages...

Thanks Virtuo! 

woohoo! see you all there

where you gonna be on June 5th? We're having a game jam in des moines. If you can't make TIGJam: Winnipeg, maybe you can make it to Iowa then?

RE: Dante's Inferno.
I think it's kind of a personal thing, and it's also something that's pretty isolated to us nerds. Most people out there could care less, but when I see interviews with developers talking about "tits and blood" like they're 12 years old it really pisses me off, mostly because i'm a game developer and that kind of behavior spoils folks opinions of what video games are and what it means to be making them.

Now. I like tits and blood and I think a lot of games can use it to great effect for all sorts of intentions but it was such an egregious patronization of their audience that it left me ticked off and in a boycotting kind of mood. So it's not so much the content as the way it was presented/marketed. Also, it's Dante's Inferno and they're just piggy-backing off of a classic and side-stepping any and all actual content/influence in favor of a beat-em-up brawler. Give me a brawler but don't tell me it has anything to do with Dante's Inferno. At least God of War doesn't call itself The Odyssey or whatever...

Yeah, it was EA Pogo that didn't pay him for the game Gate Crasher. There was a bunch of trouble with how many levels the payment had to be approved on and such and it just didn't end up going through. It's a bit late now, but if you want to follow it up you can send me an email.

I haven't tried out GamerSafe, I'll look into it! I just did a bunch of implementation on site specific API's like Newground's and Kongregate. It would be awesome having something global though. Sounds cool!

how long has it been since you were supposed to be paid? I know some large businesses have a net-30 or net-45 type thing (due to payroll), so it could be more than a couple months...