Artists: Looking for a way to build your portfolio, or get your work out and into games? Got a whole stack of sprites you created for an old project which never got off the ground?
Zapcoder, the Glasgow-based company which is creating an app which will allow anyone to build and create their own games and apps, is looking for input.
The company is offering artists the chance to have their content featured in the Zapcoder app when it launches – putting sprites in front of designers, developers and players around the world.
Artists will retain all copyright over their work and receive full credit in each title.
Zapcoder users will be able to select from a catalogue of sprites and artwork to feature in the games they create. The company hopes to put their new technology in the hands of millions of users. So artwork could be picked up and included in dozens or hundreds of games in the near future.
All assets must follow these standard guidelines:
- Backgrounds must be provided in landscape (960px by 640px) and portrait (640px by 960px)
- Sprites must be provided as a 640px x 640px PNG and SVG
- Sounds must be provided in .MP3 or .WAV format
- A .CSV file should be provided to support tagging
You can find full instructions, specifications and contact the Zapcoder team here.
It’s my opinion that we all have a social responsibility to improve the industry that we are involved in. Not to encourage a culture of exploitation.
Zapcoder has a greater moral burden in this matter as it’s received public funds from an organisation (Creative Scotland, £70,000) that was established to promote growth in the creative industries.
If you value the work, consider valuing the human being creating it enough to pay them.
Hi Dave
I appreciate your feedback.
I’m bemused at the notion that we’re encouraging a “culture of exploitation”. We are providing a platform for quick & easy game & app creation. We will encourage users to allow their creations to be used by others, but that is optional.
We have received substantial public funding, and every penny of that is going on building our platform to (in the words of the CreativeScotland award) “substantially increase participation in game and app creation”. I had specifically asked Scottish EDGE for funding to pay freelance artists, and they saw fit not to give it to us. So unfortunately we’re limited in what we can do right now. We’re working had to secure further investment – and as you’ll appreciate that’ll mean more jobs in Scotland and more chance of our platform being a success.
In January I interviewed over 20 graduates for our paid intern positions, almost all of them from a computer graphics background. Most had no portfolio to speak of, no finished games featuring their art, and no experience working in the industry. What we’re aiming to provide is a very easy way for artists to show off their work, to use it in games, and (we hope) to let other people use their artwork in their games.
We have content to build our platform – we have access to loads of open source content, and the services of three paid interns from design and graphics backgrounds to help us churn out assets. What we are asking for is engagement with young creatives in the Scottish industry to help us spread the word, user test, and get feedback on what we’re doing – the hope is that we can use that engagement to grow our community and make it a success for them as well as us.
We’re not perfect, our business model is new and untested, we will get things wrong, and we’ll never be able to keep everyone happy, but we are absolutely not out to rip anyone off. We could certainly work things better – and even change our approach – but Brian Baglow is very supportive of what we’re doing, we’ve had support from other figures in the industry and in education, and ultimately we think we’re going to provide an amazingly cool platform, highlighting Scottish programmers and artists in particular to a worldwide audience.
We absolutely are out to be the Instagram and Vine of Interactive Content. Ultimately we will live or die on what users provide to and create with our platform: so we need to get users involved from the outset. That’s what we’re trying to do. Eventually we’ll bring in a way of users monetising their own content, and automate as much of the submission process as possible – but for now everything is free.
We’d love to have you as a supporter going forward – if you’ve any further comments and suggestions please let us know.
R