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How do programmers like myself meet decent pixel artists with common interests? Art has always held me back in gamedev. I imagine there are people with the oppo

by ENTP 10y ago

How do programmers like myself meet decent pixel artists with common interests? Art has always held me back in gamedev. I imagine there are people with the opposite problem?

cousin_it 10y ago
They have proved their value but you haven't proved yours. Either offer money or capture an audience first.
- wott 10y ago
  > Either offer money And here we go...
  - golergka 10y ago
    Because in our day and age good programmers earn minimum wage and struggle to make a living, right.
    - vvanders 10y ago
      Yup, the disparity in pay when I was in the game industry[1] was always frustrating. They worked just as hard as we did if not more and the prospects outside of the industry are a lot worse than for developers. [1] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/221533/Game_Developer_Salary_Survey_2014_The_results_are_in.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/221533/Game_Developer_Sal...
      - golergka 10y ago
        I'm not sure I follow; who's "they" and who's "us"?
        vvanders 10y ago
        Artists vs Developers.
wott 10y ago
The problem is that, unlike programmers, artists generally want to get paid (insert here the millions of complaints about having to do a logo for free, etc.). So that's a no-go for most free software which don't have the means to pay anything or don't want to introduce a schism between programmers who gave hundreds of hours for free and a graphic artists who'd get paid for a dozen hours of work.
- SpriteAttack 10y ago
  I disagree and it's a complaint I have heard a lot and simply can't understand. I have worked with a lot of coders and it was always a "joined venture". We worked on the game for the same reasons - if it was for fun only, we both knew it was for free and if the game turned profitable, it was to be shared. A lot of artists do provide free art (e.g. kenney or the huge community at opengameart or myself with the tutorials and the freeart (http://2dgameartforfree.blogspot.de/ http://2dgameartforfree.blogspot.de/).
florianletsch 10y ago
Maybe just browse the right subreddits, start posting your own content and then get in touch with people? https://www.reddit.com/r/gameDevClassifieds/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gameDevClassifieds/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/ etc
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
lisivka 10y ago
1. Walk in the center of the city. 2. Meet some street drawers. 3. Talk with them.
edem 10y ago
It is not enough if you have a decent pixel artist who is interested in games. For example I have one but he has zero ambition even if he gets paid for his work.
hellbanner 10y ago
See Collaborations on The Indie Game Forums' Creative subboard. https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=5.0 https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=5.0
ingenieros 10y ago
Step 1. Open an account on itch.io Step 2. Join an online or local game jam https://itch.io/jams https://itch.io/jams Step 3. Introduce yourself in the forums of said game jam and you are bound to find artists looking for programmers.
brudgers 10y ago
Make the common interest a contract that pays the artist for their work. The trope of an 'ideas guy' who wants a programmer to build their idea is a pale shadow of the designer/artist experience of strangers and acquaintances who want free design/art. Finding things to work on for free is not a problem for artists, the problem is finding work that pays well. One reason for the asymmetry is that volunteering to work on an open source software project often produces systems or tools that make a programmer's job easier (i.e. they scale), for example algorithms or frame works or functions created while developing a game can potentially be reused by the programmer and their friends and associates many many times. On the other hand, the nature of art and design is that it is a one-off and creating art for the game doesn't make creating art for another game easier for the artist, their friends or their business associates. The closest analog in programming is writing documentation and tutorials.
- asrp 10y ago
  > On the other hand, the nature of art and design is that it is a one-off and creating art for the game doesn't make creating art for another game easier for the artist, their friends or their business associates. I have noticed this too. But why is it this way? Couldn't the process be made more modular? The artist sometimes gets tool proficiency and workflow improvement out of it but the gain and reusability is not nearly as important as with programs.
  - Namrog84 10y ago
    Kenney is one who does try and do modular artistic things. He even made a studio program to help non artist do this exact thing. https://kenney.itch.io https://kenney.itch.io His main site is down at moment or else I'd have linked that. Also I have no association with Kenney, only an appreciation for what he does.
    - asrp 10y ago
      Oh wow! Thanks for sharing this! Is there a write up on how the accomplish the modularity side of things? > Linux users: Kenney Studio works using Wine on Ubuntu and other Debian distros. We unfortunately can't give any support for this. Oh well, this is a rather unfortunate. There doesn't seem to be a video preview either.
sdegutis 10y ago
Our solution has been to raise them. My 8 year old loves drawing and enjoys Minecraft, so I taught him how Minecraft is mostly just pixel art. Now he's into drawing pixel art. And he's getting better every week! In just a year or so we'll have an excellent pixel artist for our games, for free :D
ENTP 10y ago
Thanks everyone for your feedback and pointers! It's really appreciated.

by ENTP 10y ago

How do programmers like myself meet decent pixel artists with common interests? Art has always held me back in gamedev. I imagine there are people with the opposite problem?

cousin_it 10y ago

They have proved their value but you haven't proved yours. Either offer money or capture an audience first.

wott 10y ago
> Either offer money And here we go...
- golergka 10y ago
  Because in our day and age good programmers earn minimum wage and struggle to make a living, right.
  - vvanders 10y ago
    Yup, the disparity in pay when I was in the game industry[1] was always frustrating. They worked just as hard as we did if not more and the prospects outside of the industry are a lot worse than for developers. [1] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/221533/Game_Developer_Salary_Survey_2014_The_results_are_in.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/221533/Game_Developer_Sal...
    - golergka 10y ago
      I'm not sure I follow; who's "they" and who's "us"?
      - vvanders 10y ago
        Artists vs Developers.

wott 10y ago

The problem is that, unlike programmers, artists generally want to get paid (insert here the millions of complaints about having to do a logo for free, etc.). So that's a no-go for most free software which don't have the means to pay anything or don't want to introduce a schism between programmers who gave hundreds of hours for free and a graphic artists who'd get paid for a dozen hours of work.

SpriteAttack 10y ago
I disagree and it's a complaint I have heard a lot and simply can't understand. I have worked with a lot of coders and it was always a "joined venture". We worked on the game for the same reasons - if it was for fun only, we both knew it was for free and if the game turned profitable, it was to be shared. A lot of artists do provide free art (e.g. kenney or the huge community at opengameart or myself with the tutorials and the freeart (http://2dgameartforfree.blogspot.de/ http://2dgameartforfree.blogspot.de/).

florianletsch 10y ago

Maybe just browse the right subreddits, start posting your own content and then get in touch with people? https://www.reddit.com/r/gameDevClassifieds/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gameDevClassifieds/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/ etc

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

lisivka 10y ago

1. Walk in the center of the city. 2. Meet some street drawers. 3. Talk with them.

edem 10y ago

It is not enough if you have a decent pixel artist who is interested in games. For example I have one but he has zero ambition even if he gets paid for his work.

hellbanner 10y ago

See Collaborations on The Indie Game Forums' Creative subboard. https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=5.0 https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=5.0

ingenieros 10y ago

Step 1. Open an account on itch.io Step 2. Join an online or local game jam https://itch.io/jams https://itch.io/jams Step 3. Introduce yourself in the forums of said game jam and you are bound to find artists looking for programmers.

brudgers 10y ago

Make the common interest a contract that pays the artist for their work. The trope of an 'ideas guy' who wants a programmer to build their idea is a pale shadow of the designer/artist experience of strangers and acquaintances who want free design/art. Finding things to work on for free is not a problem for artists, the problem is finding work that pays well. One reason for the asymmetry is that volunteering to work on an open source software project often produces systems or tools that make a programmer's job easier (i.e. they scale), for example algorithms or frame works or functions created while developing a game can potentially be reused by the programmer and their friends and associates many many times. On the other hand, the nature of art and design is that it is a one-off and creating art for the game doesn't make creating art for another game easier for the artist, their friends or their business associates. The closest analog in programming is writing documentation and tutorials.

asrp 10y ago
> On the other hand, the nature of art and design is that it is a one-off and creating art for the game doesn't make creating art for another game easier for the artist, their friends or their business associates. I have noticed this too. But why is it this way? Couldn't the process be made more modular? The artist sometimes gets tool proficiency and workflow improvement out of it but the gain and reusability is not nearly as important as with programs.
- Namrog84 10y ago
  Kenney is one who does try and do modular artistic things. He even made a studio program to help non artist do this exact thing. https://kenney.itch.io https://kenney.itch.io His main site is down at moment or else I'd have linked that. Also I have no association with Kenney, only an appreciation for what he does.
  - asrp 10y ago
    Oh wow! Thanks for sharing this! Is there a write up on how the accomplish the modularity side of things? > Linux users: Kenney Studio works using Wine on Ubuntu and other Debian distros. We unfortunately can't give any support for this. Oh well, this is a rather unfortunate. There doesn't seem to be a video preview either.

sdegutis 10y ago

Our solution has been to raise them. My 8 year old loves drawing and enjoys Minecraft, so I taught him how Minecraft is mostly just pixel art. Now he's into drawing pixel art. And he's getting better every week! In just a year or so we'll have an excellent pixel artist for our games, for free :D

ENTP 10y ago

Thanks everyone for your feedback and pointers! It's really appreciated.