First Meeting

Tonight was the first step of our journey. We mostly talked about how things have been going with the engine and what we need to establish and work on. I had NDAs for everyone to sign and gave everyone a peek into the story of Dawnshine. I had typed up about 12 pages of the history of the world and each faction, as well as each of the four classes of each four factions. That's 16 classes total that will each play fairly differently from each other along with the back story on how each class fits in with lore of the world. The concept artists want even more information from me, so I'll be preparing design documents to detail the culture, religion, and goals of each faction in much greater detail. Wow, this is going to be a lot of work, but this is exactly what I love doing.

At the meeting, we started some of the delegating. It's a little scary to give people I don't know that well complete control over something. But it's also inspiring. All of the people working on this project have the skills to be at a traditional, well funded game company doing their thing, but would never be given that chance--not right out of college, or while still in college atleast. So we're the outsiders. There's power in that.

I think it's important to stress this. Yes I started this project. Yes it's based off a stories I have been working on for over a decade. But it's important to realize that I'm just putting in one piece of the puzzle. The story of this effort is not about me, but rather a story about Sacramento and making our own opportunities. We want to make the games we all grew up playing and continue to play. That's what we went to school for. That's what we spend most our free time doing.

We still have some pitfalls. I don't have a character modeler recruited, and although we don't need one right now, I'd feel happier knowing one is lined up. We also don't have an Art Director. This is something I'm concerned about. I'm a "I know what I like," kind of guy when it comes to art. That's not good enough. The Concept Artists on the team need better feedback than, "Hey, that looks cool," which is all I can really provide for them. I can say what I like and don't, but we're not making a game for an audience of me. So whether I personally like it is a little irrelevant. I'm really just concerned with if it fits culture of the civilizations or not. In the meanwhile, the hope is that the Concept Artists on the team can collectively decide what they like and don't like and work out a consistent style from there.

All and all, a way more productive meeting than I thought the first meeting would be. This is really exciting. I can't wait to start posting some stories and concept art for people following this project to check out.