Gamedev is hard: dealing with the exit of some subcontractors from the project

Hi there, friends and foes of democracy,

I write this entry to comment on the hardship of managing a team of when producing a game.

As reported in previous devlogs, I consider the game here at itch io to be a prototype, and have been working on making a new and much improved version of this game to sell commercially. The new game will have new characters, better art, lots of new scenarios, some cutscenes, a dialogue system, and fully realize the vision I have for this story. Knowing my limitations as an artist, musician or scriptwriter, I have been looking for subcontractors to help me on these areas.

Last year, I had 6 people contracted to do specific assets, such as making characters, background scenarios, music, or sound effects. I thought that the most important assets for the game would be ready by mid-2024. Enough assets to produce a prototype of the new version of the game.

To my surprise, however, three people left the project in the last 6 months. 

One of them, hired through Upwork, simply stopped answering my messages. I do wonder if this person is ok or if something happened. This exit did not cause any loss, as she had barely started and had received payment for a single asset, which she did produce.

The two other people who left the project are artists hired to work on the background scenarios. Unfortunately, our relationship soured over time. On their side, they accused me of asking for too many revisions, way beyond what I was paying for. I do agree that I asked for too many revisions. But I feel that, while the art they produced was very good when finished, they were making simple mistakes along the way and not reading my instructions, which explained why I had to ask for so many revisions. I also learned (from them) that they were working on more projects than they had promised when hired, making them tired and explaining their difficulty in doing the work. We eventually had a meeting, where they asked for a significant raise of 200%, I believe this was not a real demand, but just a way to convince me to finish the contract. And so I did.

At this point, they had completed 11 out of 37 backgrounds, or about 30% of the work. I am glad to have these assets, as they define a clear and simple style for the game and, well, 30% is a good start. However, I know it would be very hard to hire another artist to complete this work in the same style. And thus, I decided to check if I could make the background art myself.

In the last four months, I have studied drawing, making it my main hobby. My Friday nights are now spent working on Krita, learning new tools, and improving fine motor skills and perception.  I have watched several Ghibli movies for inspiration and observed some early 20^th century drawings from (mostly) Japanese artists. Besides learning more about drawing in general, I have also studied the style of the 11 backgrounds already produced. This effort is unfortunately limited, as I lack time. I am in the middle of a major life changing event, trying to move back to Brazil (from Ecuador, where I currently live), as a result of family issues. And I have a day job that is very consuming (university professor).

After working on this for some months, I believe I can make art that is similar in style, but not equal, to the art used in the 11 existing backgrounds. Similar enough that I could make a prototype mixing assets made by them and by me, but not enough to make a final product out of it. I will eventually have to remake their scenes a bit to achieve a consistent art style. And, in some ways, I prefer my style over theirs. So, I will be glad to modify a bit the already produced backgrounds when time comes.

But I do wonder if I am not kidding myself. Thus, I ask  what do you think. 

The image below is a 90% finished scenario. Do you think it is good enough? What would you change about it?

Cheers,

 Pedro

PS: I will make another entry explaining what happens in this scenario during the game.