Good Ideas Someone Else Thought of - or - Stupid World of Warcraft *grumble*

So I like designing games and thinking up new systems and such. I actually have one for a table-top game that will most likely make no money for me, but is kin of a fun project and gives me some good direction for both my art and feeble attempts at coding browser based online games.

Recently, I finally gave up all resistance and started playing World of Warcraft. I had been a bit gun shy after wasting so much of my life on Diablo 2 and FFXI, and resisted WoW for something like, I dunno, three years or more.

In an odd way, it's a good thing. Actually, there are two reasons why this is good.

1. First, I'm getting into Warcraft now that most of the technical bugs and balance issues are all long sorted. I've learned the hard way that jumping into a game right after the beta run is usually a terrible idea.
2. Second, I learned, much to my simultaneous disappointment and satisfaction, that many of the ideas I've had for gaming settings have already been done. This is both a bit of a confirmation that my ideas are at least halfway decent, but also a bit of a kick in the nuts when I realize that it's a bad idea to develop any kind of creative environment in a vacuum. :banghead:

So anyway, the good things is I didn't get too far with throwing myself into the concept or finished art for the project, and I have much better, wilder, and more creative ideas that I can go after now.

The project also gave me a damn good excuse to cut my teeth on far more complex Photoshop techniques than I would have ever considered in the past. The little goblin sniper dude up top is an early example, as are the troll and kobold below.

There are actually a ton of concept sketches I worked up that I'll probably use as blog filler art while I get back to fleshing out a new batch of art for the game, so at least the two or three people who read my blog can get a look at the stuff I've been holding back for the past year.

The Kobold here was a later PS piece, I think I actually did it after the Goblin.

This Troll isn't actually that good, but it was a key piece of work in that I had one of those "Eureka!" moments regarding some of my shading and coloring techniques. I worked on him long before the Goblin or Kobold, and actually went through a bunch of revisions for him. The rough below is where I left off.