Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Illo Trove

So I was almost going to go to bed but then I had this idea. Here's the idea.

I start an Ed's Illo Trove service.

To join the service, you pay a one-time fee of N dollars. For those N dollars, I create one piece of art to your specification and add it to the Trove. N is significantly less than I might normally charge for an illustration.

That one-time fee entitles you to use all the Trove art forever, royalty-free, as many times as you want. All the art in the Trove is yours to command, to use as if it were clip art.

The Trove art is also available to anyone else in the world, but only under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. So anyone can use all the art, no questions asked, without even paying the one-time fee, as long as they are willing to pull a Clinton R. Nixon and share with the world just like I am sharing with them.

The result:

I get money.
I get published.
I get to contribute to the Commons.
Trove members get tons of art for their games for a small fee, the only downside being that it's not necessarily going to be unique to their games.

Anybody see any big holes in this plan?

Anybody have suggestions as to what would be a good price for N?

Now I can go to bed.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I second that awesome.

Ed H said...

Does "awesome" mean "I'm a game designer and I would totally buy into this system and not mind the fact that I will be sharing artwork with other game designers"?

Cause that's the $64,000 question.

Bankuei -- I'm not so concerned with nailing the number down right now, as I am concerned with whether art-sharing will bother people.

John Harper said...

Wouldn't bother me. In fact, I think it would be kind of cool to see how different people used the art in their games.

To get the ball rolling, why don't you go ahead and throw your Stranger Things art in there? That stuff could have all kinds of cool uses.

Ed H said...

Let's start N at $25. Work for y'all?

John -- you're a prince of a fella. Do you have all that shit lying around in what ever high res or vector form I sent it to ya? Can ya shoot it back to me?

Next question: what the hell kind of software should I use to set up a site for this stuff. I'm always stymied by the huge choice in content management systems available. :(

Unknown said...

Awesome = I'll buy in just as soon as I have a game worth attaching art to.

But wait... $25? That's not awesome. That's unbelievably fucking awesome. And Unbelievably Fucking Awesome means I'm ready to buy in today just on the idea that I -think- I have a game that -might- be pubished. Because $25 is worth the price of making my own personal playtest copy look the roxxorz.

Well, worth it to me anyway.

And where are the links to your current work? Papa needs some window shopping. :D

Matt Wilson said...

Yup. You already have the rights to the art you did for me for Galactic as far as I'm concerned, so make sure it goes in there, because it is awesome.

I'd still like more specific art from you for the game, but I'm cool with it going into the pool as well.

Troy_Costisick said...

Hell ya, I'd do this! $25 bucks right here.

Where do I sign up???

Peace,

-Troy

Nathan P. said...

Ditto.

Ed H said...

Rock out with your cock out!!! Sorry, I've always wanted to say that.

OK, current work is at http://www.edsillos.com/

I need to throw together a trove site. The fact that the art will be generally available under a Creative Commons license means I don't need to worry about security -- I'm not selling access to this stuff, I'm selling *more generous license terms than Creative Commons*. All the art can be publically available.

So hell, I could start with a big ass directory full of pngs and svgs for all it matters. That's huge. Low set up time.

I will host this stuff at http://trove.edheil.com/ (currently just an empty directory).

Anybody who wants to buy in, don't start with the money, start with the art request. For $25 I'm thinking of a piece much like the ones you see on the right on edsillos.com -- a single detailed figure or maybe a figure and a few bits of environment, or a simple landscape, or something like that.

Drop me a mail at edheil at-sign edheil at-sign com with your illustration request. When I complete your request I'll ask for payment and add it to the trove.

Sound good?

Troy_Costisick said...

Heya,

I'm sorry I didn't understand your email. What is it again?

Peace,

-Troy

Ed H said...

Troy,

that's because I'm a moron.

I meant "edheil at-sign edheil dot com." :)