Animation Station

I am a gameplay programmer on Batteries Included, however I also volunteered handle setting up all the animations. In a studio as small as ours, the person that has the most knowledge about a subject typically ends up assigned the work associated with that task.  That is not to say I know anything about creating animations, but I do have experience with importing them and using them in engine.

Working with the animations meant that I worked directly with our external art team. At first, working with the art team was fine, they gave us work when they said they would and it was of good quality. However, things began to change when they started working on the animations.  At the beginning of May 2018, the art team told us they were having some technical problems with their motion capture studio, and it would be a few months before we would receive any animations. We understood and just asked to keep us updated.

Over the next 2 months there would be stretches of radio silence from the art team. On top of this, the only messages they would give us was that they still didn't have the equipment and they still haven't started.  It was the beginning of August that they decided they did not have to use their motion capture studio and they started hand-animating everything. At this point we were 6 months from launch and all our play-testers would tell us is that they liked how the goblins just T-posed everywhere.

I have no ill will toward the art team.  Once they started working again, they continue to produce quality work.  I tell this as sort of a precautionary tale to any small studios out there looking to hire an art team.  All of these problems stemmed from us not putting late penalties in our contract. If there are no penalties for not working, people will often not work. So make sure you are protected before going into business with any kind of external team.

• Keegan