Hiya! Citrine here. Fish couldn’t make it and asked me to fill in for him. He said to tell you he was recruited as a gunner for an alien defense force, but will be back as soon as he single handedly saves the known universe. ((/me whispers “he’s really just swamped with work, but we’ll let him have his illusions” :) ))
While trying to figure out what to write for this, I got an email that made me think (among other things) “FPG is the Spinal Tap of indie game development”. Only instead of losing drummers, we’re going through artists.
When we were putting together Flowerpot Games, we asked several artists if they wanted to be a part of it. Some were interested but not willing (or able) to take a chance on an indie start up and some just flat out said no. Of the rest, we narrowed it down to one guy (let’s call him M) that had the skills, showed talent, and worked well with the rest of us. Things were going along good until we got the email from M saying he is going to have to leave FPG. Seems there wasn’t enough time to work on the art for FPG and go to Med school.
We got out the contact list and started making inquiries. After a couple of weeks of emails back and forth to different people, we finally convinced M (oh wait, we already used M, let’s call this one P) … we finally convinced P that we could work with his schedule and got busy bringing him up to speed on what was needed. Weeks turned into months waiting for things to get done when we realized we couldn’t work with his schedule.
Next up we have R. Talented, creative, and actually able to produce faster than we had hoped. Things were moving alone well. The ideas were flowing, we were building off each other, and more importantly, things were getting done. That is until they slowed down and the email eventually arrived. We lost R to school work and the need for a steady pay check.
Which brings us to G and the latest email. Super talented, we had worked with G a little on a previous project and after some communicating, G became a part of FPG. In the short time with us, G helped redesign our main web site and started redoing the GUI elements for Canyon of Desolation. But then the email came. This time it wasn’t as simple (or as benign) as school work or a job. G and his family had to flee due to political unrest and military actions in his country of residence. I can’t begin to imagine what that must be like, but we’re all glad that he’s safe and our thoughts and prayers go out to him and all those caught up in the craziness.
And while the needless deaths and devastation to people just trying to live their lives far outweighs any inconvenience we may experience, I’m still left feeling a little like Spinal Tap when it comes to FPG and artists. Time to break out the contact list and see if we can find another drummer .. I mean artist.