Mr Sun Studios - Just another WordPress site

If you create anything, from works of art, to flash games or books, you should know that your work will accumulate over time. These works should all be precious to you, no matter the age or quality. You would never throw out a diamond, just as you should never throw away your work.

Pretty cheesy introduction, ain’t it? But, I wrote it because it’s true. You should always keep everything that you make, even if it isn’t your best work. You’ll never know when you’ll find inspiration from looking at them. I know I have.

I’ve written about this experience in a previous post, but I’ll tell you about it again. When I was a newbie at programming flash games, I decided to develop a pretty complicated game. I know that I’d have trouble making the game, so I took great measures to make sure I could do it right. I made a huge list of the features that the game would have, and a great storyline to go along with it. Then, I actually began developing the game. It was a nightmarish experience and I eventually gave up after a month of development. It didn’t get very far.

A few weeks ago, I rediscovered my brainstorming and resolved to develop my game again. This time, however, I actually knew what I was doing, and the development process is so far going very nicely. You might have had to go through something like this as well. If you still have that old project, I suggest that you dig back into it. Maybe you can turn it into something useful. You might even be able to make money from it.

One way I’ve seen this happen is with Go Media’s vector sets.

Their projects turned out not to be worthless at all. They simply took their old vector images that they had laying around, polished them up a bit, maybe created a bit more, and sold them in packs. I’ve actually used some of their vector sets in some of my web designs and they’ve been very useful. If they can do it, so can you.

If you’re an artist or a photographer, you can do the same thing. Even if you don’t think your work is of enough quality to sell, you can still give them away for free under a creative commons license. Maybe you can try tacking them onto your wall for inspiration. Just don’t throw them away.