Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Stock Photo Fun

I'm doing some work on extra content for Rock Legend. One of these things is to swap the game from having a single "relax alone" option to three new ones (you get to choose them from a list if you select relax alone)

Relax at home (reduces stress a bit)
Relax at a bar (reduces stress more, costs money, and slightly boosts hype as you chat to people)
Relax in expensive luxury spa (reduces stress tons, costs a lot).

So far, so good, needs balancing, but that's no big deal. The current problem I have is background graphics for these choices. Because I use jpgs now, filesize isn't so scary, and each option has a full screen image to show the player what he chose, plus the effects (and a summary of how each band member feels).
I've chosen a lovely luxury image of a spa for the 3rd one, but I'm having real trouble with the other twop. Searching stock photo sites takes AGES, and is very difficult. Ideally I'd like some rock n roll people in a bar, drinking, and an image of a rock star type person asleep on a chair / sofa with a can of beer. Such images are not plentiful (at least not royalty-free ones on stock photo sites, where you buy the right to use the image).
I've spent hours searching for good ones...