Castalia showed us the short film 'Click' that he made with friends. The clever plot twists are a credit to Drew's script writing.
Castalia gave us some advice about what to take from our experience at uni;
- Figure out what you love at uni and then learn the elements of it do you can reproduce it for others.
- It's about who you know and who you are yourself. Put yourself out there as well as your work.
- You need to create a product that employers will want to buy into.
The following address is a link to the contract Drew signed early on in his writing career which 'went bad'.
Hayena studios - www.hwstn.net/soul trader/markosia-contract.pdf
When Castalia found he had been taken off the credits for his latest work (graphic novel) he was faced with a tricky situation; Castalia's advice;
- When questioning your publisher, you have to consider your reputation. The way to avoid getting screwed over is working for and with people you trust.
Auteur - a game or film made completely by one person. This is how Castalia made his demo game Heaven and Earth.
Castalia had a constructive experience with BioWare when he applied to write a short (7,000 odd words!) epic adventure script for their up and coming game. His correspondence with them boiled down to them explaining that the thought his work was worth re-writing, but that Castalia had not quite hit the mark with their in-house style of writing and so his work was unsuitable.
BioWare information to look up;
Www.hwstn.net/soul trader/bio ware-guide.pdf
Castalia then showed us his work submitted to guava. When you submit your work for people to consider you have to sign away your rights to it (effectively). This is something you need to be prepared to do in the industry. If you are a freelancer, you need to accept that people could quite easily steal your ideas when you submit work - but this is simply part of the process of getting work - you cannot just sit on top of all your ideas without sharing - you wont ever be employed!
This is Castalia's summary of the process a film (and in most cases games) will go through from idea inception to sequel status. This is not my own work and any credit should be to Drew Castalia. I have reproduced it here for my own revision purposes and illustrative purposes as to how helpful his talk was.
Project Stages
Development:
Designer
Programmer
Producer
And Executive Producer and Marketer
There are many many lawyers and accountants working alongside too.
Financing:
The Talent Package (who your working with e.g. Steven Speilberg)
Executive Producers
Insurance and Completion
Production:
Programmer
Designer
Artist
Writer
Financier
Cast
Studios and Middleware - for tools and equipment.
Sales and Licensing:
Sales Agents
Festivals
Extra rights and Properties
Distribution:
Distributors
Exploitation:
Merchandise
Porting
Consumption:
Consumers
Demographic Shares
Word of Mouth
Reviews
Value Assessment and Recuperation:
Company assessed the games success.
Recuperation is getting money back from sales to pay for production costs.
Something to look into:
An example of an Indie freelancer - Avernum: Escape from the Pit.
-------------------------------------------
The following day Castalia returned to NUCA for a slightly different talk to the whole Media Faculty. We were shown a game called 'Aquaria', the game 'Cave Story' and the game 'Pegasus Prime - The Journeyman Project'. All of these games were made by one or two people.
The 'Journeyman Project' was the first photorealistic video game, which includes real video composites within the gameplay. They later developed as a company 'Mist 3: Exile'.
Look up Auteur; Jonathan Blow - Braid.
It was interesting to see how different collaborations can produce games which were tuned to focus on plot, art style, or programming. All tend to fall short in one area and this can be a criticism of small-teamed games.
Once again Drew was a great speaker and I thank him very much for coming to NUA.
-----------------------------------------------
How We Survived the Night:
Drew Castalia's website showing his blog, resume and has the option to download his game concepts. Castalia is interesting in that he seems to be a 'one man band' specializing in script writing. His work experience as a writer claims some impressive names, though on closer inspection of a few of his Fiction pieces - I cannot see the appeal.
Castalia gave us some advice about what to take from our experience at uni;
- Figure out what you love at uni and then learn the elements of it do you can reproduce it for others.
- It's about who you know and who you are yourself. Put yourself out there as well as your work.
- You need to create a product that employers will want to buy into.
The following address is a link to the contract Drew signed early on in his writing career which 'went bad'.
Hayena studios - www.hwstn.net/soul trader/markosia-contract.pdf
When Castalia found he had been taken off the credits for his latest work (graphic novel) he was faced with a tricky situation; Castalia's advice;
- When questioning your publisher, you have to consider your reputation. The way to avoid getting screwed over is working for and with people you trust.
Auteur - a game or film made completely by one person. This is how Castalia made his demo game Heaven and Earth.
Castalia had a constructive experience with BioWare when he applied to write a short (7,000 odd words!) epic adventure script for their up and coming game. His correspondence with them boiled down to them explaining that the thought his work was worth re-writing, but that Castalia had not quite hit the mark with their in-house style of writing and so his work was unsuitable.
BioWare information to look up;
Www.hwstn.net/soul trader/bio ware-guide.pdf
Castalia then showed us his work submitted to guava. When you submit your work for people to consider you have to sign away your rights to it (effectively). This is something you need to be prepared to do in the industry. If you are a freelancer, you need to accept that people could quite easily steal your ideas when you submit work - but this is simply part of the process of getting work - you cannot just sit on top of all your ideas without sharing - you wont ever be employed!
This is Castalia's summary of the process a film (and in most cases games) will go through from idea inception to sequel status. This is not my own work and any credit should be to Drew Castalia. I have reproduced it here for my own revision purposes and illustrative purposes as to how helpful his talk was.
Project Stages
Development:
Designer
Programmer
Producer
And Executive Producer and Marketer
There are many many lawyers and accountants working alongside too.
Financing:
The Talent Package (who your working with e.g. Steven Speilberg)
Executive Producers
Insurance and Completion
Production:
Programmer
Designer
Artist
Writer
Financier
Cast
Studios and Middleware - for tools and equipment.
Sales and Licensing:
Sales Agents
Festivals
Extra rights and Properties
Distribution:
Distributors
Exploitation:
Merchandise
Porting
Consumption:
Consumers
Demographic Shares
Word of Mouth
Reviews
Value Assessment and Recuperation:
Company assessed the games success.
Recuperation is getting money back from sales to pay for production costs.
Something to look into:
An example of an Indie freelancer - Avernum: Escape from the Pit.
-------------------------------------------
The following day Castalia returned to NUCA for a slightly different talk to the whole Media Faculty. We were shown a game called 'Aquaria', the game 'Cave Story' and the game 'Pegasus Prime - The Journeyman Project'. All of these games were made by one or two people.
The 'Journeyman Project' was the first photorealistic video game, which includes real video composites within the gameplay. They later developed as a company 'Mist 3: Exile'.
Look up Auteur; Jonathan Blow - Braid.
It was interesting to see how different collaborations can produce games which were tuned to focus on plot, art style, or programming. All tend to fall short in one area and this can be a criticism of small-teamed games.
Once again Drew was a great speaker and I thank him very much for coming to NUA.
-----------------------------------------------
How We Survived the Night:
Drew Castalia's website showing his blog, resume and has the option to download his game concepts. Castalia is interesting in that he seems to be a 'one man band' specializing in script writing. His work experience as a writer claims some impressive names, though on closer inspection of a few of his Fiction pieces - I cannot see the appeal.
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