Greetings and salutations to all the people that may read this article. The time is fast approaching where we can finally showcase the results of many hours of dedication and work put in by a lot of very talented people, and I am very excited for you guys to finally see what you have been eagerly waiting for. But for some reason, the head honchos thought you guys would be interested in my story. While I doubt the validity of this statement I will go ahead with it on the off-chance they are right.
I suppose that the best way to tell you how I became a member of the Equestrian Dreamers team would be to start from the beginning. When I first became interested enough in the fandom to the point that I could accept the term “brony” for myself, My Little Investigations was already many months into development. At the time, I had been fascinated with the level of skill and creativity in the fandom, and it inspired me to give back to this community that had already done so much. A few Google searches lead me to a number of projects, and one of those was My Little Investigations. Unfortunately, I was a few months too late, as they had already filled the positions that they needed at the time, but it was a project that intrigued me nonetheless. I decided to stick around on the off-chance that a position opened up for a voice actor for a background pony or something.
Not too much time passed, and I stopped looking for projects to join and started doing my own things. I had taken a Computer Illustration class or two, so I tried my hand at vector art. At first it took hours to make even simple traces, but before too long I figured out the process and found some shortcuts that let me do traces in under an hour, as well as some modified or original work without too much hassle.
It was about the time that I was starting to get comfortable with Illustrator that a position opened up for My Little Investigations for a field animator. I almost passed it over completely, because I didn’t think I quite had the skillset for animating. I was a vector artist, after all, and a very new one at that. But then I looked into it a bit. Flash had come alongside Illustrator, so I could experiment a bit. I remembered that I had learned the basics (emphasis on “basics”) of Flash and keyframe animation in high school during some boring lunches or unrelated computer classes. Eventually I decided that, even though I was woefully inexperienced at best, I would give it a shot anyway. Besides, what is Flash animation if not just vector art with the minor addition of change over time?
How hard could it possibly be?
As it turned out, there’s a bit more to animation than just “change over time”. The animation I made to accompany my application was… well, let’s just say that Equestria Daily would’ve been less than impressed. But it was as “done” as my understanding of basic principles of animation could make it, and all the other work was done, so away the application went. I then went back to my vector art-ing without expectations.
Not too much later, I got an email from ZeusAssassin wondering if I would like to be taken on as, of all things, a vector artist.
I don’t pretend to know why this team of people, all of which are much more talented and experienced than me, thought I would be in some way useful to this project. All I know is that my wish had come true. I was a member of a group of people brought together with the sole purpose of giving back to the fandom and community that had brought us so many good times. And I got to do it under the tutelage of such crowd favorites as WarpOut and TehJadeh, who have both taught me so much of both how to make art and what it is to be an artist.
Now, I believe it is customary in these autobiography things to impart some of the knowledge we have gained over the course of our work. Granted, my journey might be a bit shorter than that of my peers, but as I must not break with tradition, here are my few pieces of wisdom.
Stop planning and start doing
One of the biggest hurdles for a first-timer of anything is the transition between preparing to work on a project and actually working on said project. There are a lot of really good ideas in the world that end up becoming regrets because the people that came up with them spent too much time planning the whole project out in meticulous detail. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have every single facet of the project drafted out beforehand. It doesn’t matter if you have some doubts about if it will work. The solutions will come during your work, when you are in the zone and you can see your project coming to life within context.
No one is going to be moved or inspired by a mile-high stack of schematics, least of all you. Your idea is something that deserves to materialize into an actual thing, and you are doing a disservice to yourself and to everyone that will love your idea if your well-laid plans never become anything more than plans. So stop working your brain and start working your hands. That’s when you will really have something to show off.
The first step to being good is to be slightly less bad
Contrary to popular belief, skilled artists were not born into this world with pencils in hand and perfect drawings at their disposal. When anyone first puts a drawing implement onto a drawing surface, it is going to look like chicken scratch. And so is the second, third, tenth, and likely the twentieth time. The goal isn’t to go from drawing stick figures straight to painting cathedrals, so don’t get disheartened if after reading every how-to-art book under the sun you still can’t immediately draw to the level of skill that others can.
You will go through many scrapbooks and the project folder on your computer will be full of doodles and scraps before you are at the level of making things even close to the level. And, contrary to popular belief, that isn’t a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. With each drawing, sketch, painting, or whatever, you will get a little better. You will notice certain things that you could improve, and improve them you will. Little by little, your inner sense of what makes a drawing “good” will broaden until you can look at and fill in details that others wouldn’t have even considered. And at the end of it all, you can partake in one of the most fulfilling activities an experienced artist can ever do – look back through your scraps and see the clear progression of your skills getting better over time. And even if you look at your earlier work and laugh, cringe, or cower (or a combination of the three), those feelings will be undermined by a much stronger and more important one: accomplishment. Be proud of your progress, because you damn well earned it.
[URL=http://imghumour.com/assets/Uploads/Famous-Last-Words2.jpg]How hard could it possibly be?[/URL]
Seems like BBCode doesn’t work or at least not like you expected it to work.
Whoops! I’ll make sure to fix this upon my return online later tonight.
beautiful! just beautifull! i guess it’s time for me to go back to drawing then, i really want things done but i always plan them too much, so that wisdom will come in real handy.
this story is quite interesting, i just love how you became a part of the team because you ”tried” even if you had no expectaions, making that step was very important i see, and many should learn from you.
i hope you guys have wonderfull moments! and i must say i am eager to see how much of an advance you guys have put into the game, it will be very interesting to see! ^^
cheers toa ll of you good ppl!
God is just awesome!!! perfection I always try my drawings, and lthough all say they are very good and should devote to this, I for one do not see the potential that I say, always demand much as full of good idea to drawings, but without getting the result I want, although I must admit my great progress since I started as a child, without having studied anything about drawing, but I hope I can do something as awesome as my little Investigations, as brony I am, I give thanks for things as awesome as my little investigations.awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemy investigationsmy little little little investigationsmy investigationsmy investigationsmy little little little investigationsmy Investigations
duxloc adraps.
Its been a whole month is this dead or is just everyone just taking a break? I hope its just there taking a break because I been waiting for a whole year … 🙂 for this game to come out (New year Joke)
seriously though why hasn’t there been any information about the game recently. 🙁
Don’t worry; it’s definitely not dead. 🙂
I beginning to think other wise its been a week and no one is saying anything… of course I could be more patient … could but won’t I want it now… 😛 (I want my cutie mark now…)
The end of my heart is near for the dream of paradise is lost to within the darkness of oblivion. Save my soul from this this fate and deliver unto me the light of day where though has with Holden unto me.
🙂
Oh woo is me for the light of dawn is hidden from me still and my soul darkens with each passing day. Oh shinning light where art though and when shell the ray of the golden sun shine upon me.
🙂
I assure you, progress is being made every day, even if it’s not on Case 1. 😉
The wait will be worth it. We promise as soon as the game is done, it will be released. Here at Equestrian Dreamers, first impressions are extremely important. We want to set the quality standard for cases going forward.
When is the expected date when this game will be complete?
We don’t want to give an expected date, since the last time we did that it kind of turned out to be a bad idea that nearly resulted either in a broken promise or a sub-par product, which was only averted by my staying up for 30+ hours and thankfully finding that I was able to get everything done that needed to be done before release. As such, for the final release, we’re taking an “it’s done when it’s done” approach, to ensure that we don’t overwork any of our all-volunteer team and that we can reach a high level of quality comfortably before release. I recognize that that can be annoying and frustrating for fans who really want to know when it’s coming, but trust me when I say that the wait will be worth it.
this is the best game i ever played i makes me think like when i play phoenix wright games on my ds i cant wait until it is done and will the game have save files so more then one person can play it
?
Yes. Players will be able to make as many save files as they like, and save files will also be on a per user account basis, as well, so if a computer has multiple users registered on it, they’ll each have their own set of save files when each of them logs into the computer.
that’s great cant wait until is done oh and can i make a small request can u make the game be able to do full screen cause the demo 2 i was trying to find the full screen switch and could not find it? thanks for a fun game
Yes, full screen play will be supported in the final version.
hello everypony, my name is Duxloc and wondered if the final version will have option to change the language of the subtitles, because I’m from Spain, and although some English is unfortunately not too much, if whether or not the I will enjoy the same, thanks for everything, you are the best XAOOOOOOO
Unfortunately, we have not made the effort to translate the game to Spanish or any other languages. With the upcoming case creator, inserting new, translated text into official cases wouldn’t be too difficult.
But knowing the brony community, I’m sure there will be fans willing to translate the game for people around the world. We appreciate your interest in the game and I hope you are still wanting to play it upon it’s release.
Thanks, and I do not mind this in Spanish or English, I’ll wait and I will play with the same illusion, thanks for all the work they do for the simple question of who love MLP, many thanks from all the brony community
What is the estimated time for the next demo to come out?
There is no other demo coming out. The next update we post will be the full version of Case 1.
Due to previous experiences we had with setting deadlines, I cannot give a more exact date than that it’s coming out this Spring.
The last comment I made was deleted…
It was a poem not a good one maybe but It was about the game none the less lol
Okay joking aside is there any chance of any new knews of the game or is the game even still coming out its been awhile so I can’t help but to ask about it.
(please don’t delet this reply 🙂 )
Sorry about that. We get a lot of automated spam, and I was kind of on autopilot. 😛
The game is still coming. Be patient. 🙂