We’ve been at this for a few years now and I’ve gone through several artists and one art director in the process.
I originaly worked with a local artist, Erika Swanson and thought she had a strong feel for the Secret Letter story and characters. We hit a few snags in art direction and she moved on.
I then started working with an art director, Will Capellaro, and that was a fantastic experience, except for the part where he decided to move on and do other things. But before he left, he helped me find Goni Montes, a great artist that also had a strong feel for Secret Letter. Goni unfortunately found other work and moved on as well. His wife stepped in and drew the game map, but we were in dire need of someone to do the artwork for the release of the game.
I contacted Erika, wondering if she still felt some ownership for the work and she did. With the experience I gained working with Will and Goni, I was finally able to communicate properly with Erika and we’re now getting sketches ready for the release. Eventually, the game will have several dozen professional sketches.
I could have delayed releasing the games until we had stronger artwork, but my advisors suggested this was not really the core of the product and that we can always add artwork in patches and updates, which is what we’re planning to do.
The image I’ve shared of Jack looking down at Grubber’s Market done by Goni is great, but it will not appear in the final product.
We’re working like crazy to get everything ready for Friday. I just wanted to share this last bit of production news before we officially launch.
The Textfyre Times 