I’ll admit it: I’m not a graphic artist by any stretch of the imagination.  But I do know how important visual cues are in games.  Even in the design stages of a game, it’s critical for the designer to relay all of those elements visually to the team working on them so they come out right.

In my case, that would be me relaying information to myself in the future about some idea or concept I had.  For the past few days I’ve had a really strong idea for a new game, and I had to promptly dump that area of my memory and get back on with writing my book.

So I fired up the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program for the uninitiated) and, using a few plugins, created a piece of concept art that would convey all of the various little pieces of information for the game idea.  So when I go back months from now to look at it, I’ll have at least a glimmer of an idea of what it was I was aiming for.

The next step for me in this process would be to flesh out the story into something complete.  From that, I’ll construct a basic engine and maybe a level to see how long it takes with the tools I have, and if it would make more sense to build some custom tools into the chain to make the process easier.  And since I’m the only one working on the project, I can work quickly.

The downside is, of course, that it will take much longer to do and I won’t get the expertise of another working on any number of different moving parts.  What most people don’t realize that making a game, even in your spare time, is not only a creatively draining process, but also a lengthy one.  You do this because you absolutely love it.

And just to drive home the point that I am not a graphic artist, here is the art I made in about 10 minutes in the GIMP.

Concept Art for Chromosphere