Bitter Sweet

I'd like to thank infraberry, Carolina Eade, and 6x3zetsubou, Kevin Andersson for being two first official contributors to our little business. Not only is their art amazing, it also looks really good in our template.

Thank you Carolina and Kevin!

Our project is still moving, although slower than I would like. Going live on the 15th is not going to happen. I feel that the 30th can happen, so that is the new goal.

In this project there are a lot of unknown areas for me. One of those areas is how to handle artists. Meaning that, I have never acquired, or attempted to acquire, the rights to an image before. I have made two conscience efforts when writing our Image License Agreement:

   1. Allow the artist to keep the copy right to the image. Why? That's simple, it's their image. It's their hard work. It's their passion. I don't need to own the image to do what I want to do. I do however need the rights to it.
   
   2. Make sure that our Image License Agreement protects the artist. I want them to know that I cannot resell those rights, and that I am using those rights not abusing those rights.

We have sent out quite a few emails to artist with our Image License Agreement, and so far only a few artists have gotten back to us. So I did a little brain storming as to some benefits that artists get from having their artwork featured on our product.

   1. Promotion, your art work on our product will get your art seen by people who might not have ever stumbled upon it by themselves. The people who play games are a very large and diverse group. There really is no telling who could be holding your art and what they may be able to do for you. Also we, on our website (which will go live when our first batch of tokens are ready) we have set up an Artist page. On this page we have a room for a personal bio, pic or image of you or representing you, and links to your deviant art page or personal web page (or both).

   2. Adds to your portfolio. I am not an artist. My eye is only looking for bad ass art. Sometimes when you remove an image from its native environment the feel changes. Like adding a quality frame or lighting our templates might just add a little something. If nothing else it shows your willingness to work with other people, and have your art used in a manner that you may have never considered before.

   3. Money. Sure, there's that too. We are a small startup. There is no guarantee that we will even get this project up and moving. So, at this point if I put money on the table I have that thought in the back of my head. It won't injure your position to ask for compensation for your hard work. Worst case scenario I say "that number is above where I feel comfortable at this time." Or, I might just make a counter offer. In an ideal world I would take up a business loan and pay top dollar, however I don't live in that world. This entire endeavor is built on our love of gaming, hard work, and personal earnings.

So, there it is. I hope that for some of you who are waiting to step up this post will inspire you to take a chance.

Thanks

- Michael