Hi, I recently finished my first game and it will be available on Desura soon, so I decided to work on a new game.
My first game didn’t really have a lot of graphical style, because I’m not really good at drawing stuff as advanced as characters etc. For my new game it would be really awesome if I worked with someone who would be creative and suggested some ideas for the game mechanics and everything else. As title suggest, you should be able to draw decent looking sprites. The game idea I have is something around top-down shooter. The graphics probably wouldn’t need to be super high res (16-32-64 sprites probably or higher if you can manage it! :D)
I’m not looking for someone who wants to get paid for doing work. I’m looking for someone who would want to improve their skill set by making a game, which depending on the outcome would be free or not free.
I wish you the very best of luck finding an artist - they are spectacularly difficult to find. There are three qualities you will be looking for: talent, reliability, and communication. You will generally only get two of those, so choose your priorities wisely. IME artists are usually extremely unreliable, which is why they tend to language about sitting on huge piles of talent but don’t ever seem to have any money.
Don’t forget to search a lot further afield than Java-gaming.org, which is an extremely niche site occupied mostly only by programmers.
I’m sure that’s exactly what your artist wants to hear xD
Seriously though, if you want to get a real artist you have to show devotion and motivation, otherwise they’re drawing sprites for a game that will never be released.
Yeah, I am an artist, and that quote is very discouraging to hear. When you stop playing games and get back to making them, you can take a look at this post within this topic.
It says a lot about how to attract artists, and prevents me from rewriting things all over again. As said before, attracting artists is very difficult work because like programmers, they have their own personal projects that take higher priority than someone else’s project. There is nothing against working for new projects, it is just that there is nothing more rewarding than fulfilling your own dreams.
I’ve posted in a few sprite/art forums before. Even one time offering up to $500 for just a small set of sprites/background(less than 4-8 hours of work in my opinion)(I even offered to pay on a per hour(between $10-$50/hr or per sprite basis), extremely reasonable I felt like. The 3 main people who replied were scammers utilizing the names/artists of old non active real artists/portfolios.
Most of the others just either weren’t interested, not wanting
A lot more of the “talent” tends to be in 3D sadly. And I don’t really want to make a “fixed angle 3D game” or some 2.5D game, but maybe I should consider it for the artists
I realized how frustrating it can be to find someone. I know some “artists” friends, and they are usually either just not very good(and I have a pretty low bar/expectation), or extremely flaky and unreliable
Since everyone is saying that it is hard to find artists, I will have to do it myself. I h8 this world. Really. No one can do something for you. If you want something, just go and get it. Don’t ask others.
You hate the world because no artists have posted on a programmer’s forum that want to work with someone they don’t know for pay that may or may not be there?
Also, if no one can do anything for you in the world, then why do programming languages exist? Java was made by Gosling, and now you’re taking advantage. Whatever libraries you use, the creator is helping you. On a broader scope, you’re lucky to have a computer and the knowledge to use it and code - someone must have taught you, bought your first computer, etc. Be appreciative of what you have and don’t go emo, it reduces programming efficiency
I didn’t mean it literally. What I meant is if you have some kind of complains about how someone else did something for you, just go do it yourself. I hate some things about java and LWJGL, but I can’t do shit so I keep it to myself. If Java/LWJGL weren’t free and I bought it, then I would complain. That’s what I meant.
Actually complaining about LWJGL is a good thing… we can at least see how people want to use it and get it changed if it’s a thing that everyone likes or wants.
Erm, I suppose that is one way of looking at it. I mean, in many ways artists and programmers share the same philosophies. For starters…
We like to know that our work is actually going to be used.
We appreciate feedback, but we never get enough to improve our work.
We always keep company with others who show the same effort we do.
In other words, you have to gain an artists trust the same way you’d try to gain a programmers trust. You need to show effort behind your work, your ability to never give up, and have a firm plan on how things will be done. It isn’t impossible by any stretch of the word, it is just really hard because it actually requires people to have leadership qualities.
Obviously, worst case scenario, is do it yourself. But, you can always look at the free sprite art and pixel art. Trust me, there is a lot of it, and usually all we really need is a good placeholder until better things become available for us to use.
Even if you pay an artist to do these things for you, the same things apply. You still need to be able to prove to that artist the same things as though if they weren’t getting paid. So yes, it is fine to complain regardless of whether you are getting paid or not. The only thing you really must do, is show others that you have to ability to continuously perform.
