The Spark & The Art

TheSparkAndTheArt.com/35 – When a project is over you have to decide if it’s reached an end or if it’s finished. Is it something you can come back to later if you want or are you just going to wipe your hands and move on.

TheSparkAndTheArt.com/34 – Steve Ogden is a serial creative with a long string of projects behind him: A book of short stories, an animated short, online graphic novel and web comics. All of these while working full time in the games industry at Cyan Interactive on the Myst family of games and currently at Firaxis games, home of the Sid Meirs Civilization series. 

In today’s chat we talk about the role childhood plays in grown-up creativity and how it influenced Steve's book of short stories. We also talk about the myth of ‘The Talented A-Hole’ and the importance of balancing artistic skill with technical skill.  

All in all it’s a jam-packed hour and a bit so settle in and enjoy today’s interview with Steve Ogden.

**Links from today’s show**

Steve’s Website: http://steveogden.com/blog/
Steve’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/steveogdenart
Pinkerton Park - http://www.gocomics.com/pinkerton
Bill Watterson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Watterson
Gary Trudeau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Trudeau
Croaker’s Gorge - http://steveogden.com/croakers/
Moon Town - http://steveogden.com/moontown/
Calvin & Hobbes - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes
Walt Simonson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Simonson
Mike Mignola - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mignola
Firaxis Games - http://www.firaxis.com/
Myst, Riven, RealMyst - http://cyan.com/ 
URU - http://mystonline.com/en/     
Animwatch - http://podlounge.com/podcast/the-official-animwatch-podcast
Rustboy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRms4B_iaSo
NPR - http://www.npr.org/
Flakes [animated short] - http://steveogden.com/flakes/graphics.html
Bully Entertainment - http://www.bullyentertainment.com/
Steven King - http://stephenking.com
On Writing - http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1439156816/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=390961&creativeASIN=1439156816&linkCode=as2&tag=soiwr-20
Neal Gaiman - http://www.neilgaiman.com
Headstones and Monuments - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0988570513/
Through the looking glass - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass
The Fifth Element - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119116/
Monument Valley - http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/
Blade Runner - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner
Dilbert - http://www.dilbert.com/
Scott Adams - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Adams
 

TheSparkAndTheArt.com/33 – It’s been a few days or a couple weeks and you are moving along on your project like you haven’t done in a while. It feels great. You’re happy and you reach your flow state and time flies by in a blur you pack up for the night and sleep like a baby. Then the next evening with your talent in hand and your face lit up with smiles you head down to do it again. 

Now for some reason … you got nothing. What do you do?
 

TheSparkAndTheArt.com/32 – Karyl Gilbertson is a web designer and dad who is creating a video game in his spare time. In today’s interview we talk about his little trick for getting to work on his project even when he doesn’t feel like it and how breaking his project into smaller chunks allowed him to get started without feeling overwhelmed. 

— Links for today’s episode —

@Karyl - https://twitter.com/karyl

Arkaia: The Mysterious Island - http://arkaiagame.com/

New Harvest Media - http://newharvest.ca/

Bioware - http://www.bioware.com/en/

ACAD - Alberta College of Art and Design - http://www.acad.ca/

Spencer Goldade - thesparkandtheart.com/2

WordPress - https://wordpress.com/

PHP - http://php.net/

Drupal - https://www.drupal.org/

C++ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B

Unity - http://unity3d.com/

C# - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)

Objective C - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective-C

JQuery - http://jquery.com/

JavaScript - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript

Flash - https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/flash.html

Actionscript - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActionScript

Unreal Engine - https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4

Trello - https://trello.com/ 
 
Myst - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-8CFun3nEw

Steam Game Market - http://store.steampowered.com/

Desura - http://www.desura.com/

Itch.io - http://itch.io/

Humble Bundle - https://www.humblebundle.com/

Mac Heist - http://www.macheist.com/

Kickstarter -https://www.kickstarter.com/

Steam Greenlight - http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight

Steam Early Access - http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Early%20Access/ 

Indie Game The Movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhaT78i1x2M
 

TheSparkAndTheArt.com/31 – That curiosity that drove you in the beginning can sometimes stop you in your tracks or keep you in a comfortable place once you get to a certain level of skill. What do you do when your blessed unrest is feeling more like a curse?