How To Bootstrap Your Indie Art Needs
DanC has another outstanding article for game developers on The Lost Garden:

How To Boostrap Your Indie Art Needs

It's a quick how-to for programmers who have no clue how to get art for their games - with lots of suggestions. And an admonition to get over yourself, you aren't Blizzard and aren't gonna make a game that looks like Blizzard's.

He does restrict the discussion of ways that work to using free graphics, and hiring an artist to do custom work for you. There is (kind of) a third option, which is to license non-free content packs. This is sort of in the same boat as the free graphics content, but it's ... uh... not free. However, in many cases (at least, so they TELL me), the content pack creator may be willing to do some customization for you at a reasonable fee. So you may be able to get a little bit of the best of both worlds... a lot of content for cheap, and some customization for your game.

A fourth option is to learn the mad arts skillz yourself. This is a long-term plan. My own skills still suck, but I've definitely found that they suck less over time. Now, this probably won't make you capable of doing it all yourself without need of artists, but even so it can help you in several ways:

#1 - Allows you to better customize existing art without ruining it.

#2 - Enables easier communication with artists

#3 - Allows you to build stand-in content without having to wait for artists

#4 - You may be able to create some non-critical content all by yourself where needed (though it may not be the best use of your time if you are a l337 programmer).

I wish I had a magic formula for getting all the art I need instantly at no cost and of the quality I need. But while I'm wishing, I may as well wish for a million dollars, too. Getting art for my games has been a huge challenge from the beginning, and I don't expect that problem to go away.

Labels: game art

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