Freelancing

[koipond]

Can I just take a little bit of space to complain?

I've been trying to get Gaesa out for like the past four months. The biggest snag is that I haven't been able to find someone to do the layout for me to the degree that I think the game needs. I can do some stuff, but I can't make it look really all that good (I think). I've gone through three layout freelancers right now and had run into different problems.

Freelancer the first, didn't do anything and then blamed me for lack of communication.
Freelancer the second was awesomely professional and told me he didn't have time to do it (which is totally fine, which is why he's the only good one)
Freelancer the third has handed me something which is nothing like anything we talked about. It's amateurish and it made my heart sink because I'm going to end up paying for this and not using it because we have mutual friends and I'll need to be politic about it.

Seriously, I ended up making a cover in 30 minutes that was so far ahead of what I was given that I was ranting at loved ones, who listened to me patiently, for the next hour.



Let me know what you think about it?

[Groffa]

I like it, but on the other hand I know next to nothing about layouts. The cover for me says "adult game" and "serious", which maybe contradicts with the whole faery aspect (and the quote from the 11-year old on the back, which I love by the way). On the other hand, I haven't played the game, so it may be just what you are after!
But as I said, my knowledge about layout is nil/null/zilch/(void *)0/ingenting.

[Rob Lang]

Are the images 300-600DPI? They will need to be if to look ok when printed. You need to include your name somewhere and a web address so people can find out more. Apart from that, I like it. You might want some more quotes from adult gamers too or at least names people can google and find out who they are (try some bloggers - not me).

[thedeadone]

Wow, that's so much better than my effort on my own game. It does feel very much like a literal novel front-cover than an RPG, but it's striking/dramatic enough to catch the eye. It does, like everyone else has already mentioned, suggest a more adult game so the quote on the back from the 11yo is a bit disconcerting. To me the cover suggests an RPG where the players exist in the mundane world but the weird and mysterious stuff of the Fae leaking in. Is this what you intended?

[vulpinoid]

I've just had a bad run at being a freelancer...due to a long and drawn out period moving house, and some other issues that meant I couldn't commit as strongly as the client had hoped.

I'd be interested in giving the page layout thing a shot (you've probably seen the kind of thing I do in some of my recent contest entries...FUBAR and Walkabout are probably some of my better examples), but if you're still after a November deadline, I can't meet that due to my own projects.

[I'd be tempted to throw some freelance Cybergeneration stuff your way in the near future...images and text...but that's another topic entirely.]

[koipond]

[Rob Lang]

Definitely put the web address on the cover as many stores shrink wrap their books and don't really allow people to open them.

[misterecho]

[koipond]

Added, I'm thinking of adding a 2d barcode so that smart phones can scan and go to the website.

[misterecho]