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Thread: Resources for new projects: what to do?

  1. #1

    Resources for new projects: what to do?

    When you start a game project, which is your choice for graphic and audio resources?

    I must confess that I'm not a very good graphician neither musician or sound effect maker, what I do best is coding. So what to do, try make some not so bad graphics and audio, hire someone else to do that job or use free stuff? Take in mind that not every coder has a big budget (usually we don't have budget at all) for a starter project.

    The other question is, do you start building the game or the resources?

    If your thoughts tell to go the free way, which are the recommended tools of trade for graphics and audio?

    On graphics I think that The Gimp is one of the best choices, maybe I'm wrong, but I know it well.

  2. #2
    Co-Founder / PGD Elder WILL's Avatar
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    It depends on what kind of game you are going for; commercial game project, for fun or just experimenting?

    Even if it is any one of these, you don't have to use your initial graphics as your final. In many solo-indie game projects a lot of us just use placeholder graphics or what is called programmer's art. It's not meant to be the final graphics, but good enough to get the message across of what's going on and puts something in the hole that will be filled later with free/public domain stuff or volunteer artwork later on. From there you want to get your game to a playable state and work out all the features and gameplay as well as you can before seeking better graphics.

    Music, you could wait until the end. This is very common with most games. However if you want to make some of the art or gameplay work with some music music you picked out, you could start adding music and sound effects to your game earlier. If you have not done a lot of game projects before, I'd recommend just adding the music after you've nearly completed the game and are tweaking/balancing and polishing things for release.

    My self, I create the programmers art using either Photoshop or MS Paint (which is free!) of course there are others you can use, find which is best! Then after I've made my, not the best looking assests I need I plug them into my project's folder and begin coding my idea.

    GIMP is pretty good though there may be some bugs depending on platform and there are some great tricks you can learn to make great graphics using filters and tricks with GIMP or Photoshop. Another option could be using something like Poser where you just buy or find free models that you can plug into Poser and create your sprite animations that way.

    There is fan art/sprite websites out there that you can use for either a fan-made project or just to prototype your game. To get your game concept made can be done for free. To get the custom graphics you want for a project you need to find a person to make them for/with you or hire someone to create the graphics you need. Either has their good and bad points. Don't count on the total free option to always work!
    Jason McMillen
    Pascal Game Development
    Co-Founder





  3. #3
    I have learned to use Gimp very well, and as far as i can see, have never found any bugs. Using layers is like a second language to me But sounds (free) i need to google...

  4. #4
    if you dont have a big budget buying graphic assets would be to expensive, it depends on how much you can spend
    a good way is to look at turbosquid or some other sites for cheap or free assets, note that if you found a good asset you have to look after the artists homepage cause if you directly buy from him you can avoid the turbosquid fee and save 30-50%

    i also found 99designs but havent tested yet, you can make an offer and look if anyone will take the job

    another choice may making the assets all yourself, free tools for 3d would be Blender for example
    and for 2d i highly recommend Inkscape and Gimp
    you can learn from various tutorials on the web for example here
    also the Pixelprospector resource page may help

    for music you should go royality free with sites like Melodyloops
    same goes for sounds
    if you dont make a commercial project you can also find free music and sounds trough google

    EDIT: i also recommend what Will said, if you dont have a short timeframe even when you go commercial you should use placeholder and polish things up later
    i also do this for my prototypes
    in bigger projects i create them on demand cause i make the graphic assets myself but still using placeholder for music cause it would consume to much time to do them myself too
    Last edited by Daikrys; 26-03-2012 at 12:15 PM.

  5. #5
    For graphics editors, I can't go past Paint DOT NET (Windows only though...) - I find it really easy to use, has lots of plugins/extensions to expand it, and has layers just like photoshop
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by pitfiend View Post
    When you start a game project, which is your choice for graphic and audio resources?
    Graphics: a graphics artist, Music: hiring a music composer, Sound effects: purchasing some cheap/commercial sound effects and then modifying them. There is also a tool that can generate some basic sound effects, but I've lost the link to it. Perhaps someone else has it?

    Quote Originally Posted by pitfiend View Post
    The other question is, do you start building the game or the resources?
    This question is not formulated properly. What you should be thinking is: what work you should be doing that will give you the highest impact with the lowest cost/time. So basically, do what you do best and fast!

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Lifepower View Post
    There is also a tool that can generate some basic sound effects, but I've lost the link to it. Perhaps someone else has it?
    Perhaps you are refering to SFXR?
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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by paul_nicholls View Post
    Perhaps you are refering to SFXR?
    Yes, thank you!

  9. #9
    Try to find someone on a graphics/music forum.
    If you promise to share the potential benefits from your game, you will surely find someone.


    Type of Work ..........................| Commercial Tools ....................| Free Tools ................
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    3D Graphics ............................| Max3d, LightWave, Maya, ... .....| Blender ....................
    2D Graphics, Post-Processing .....| Photoshop .............................| Gimp ........................
    Scalable Vector Graphics ...........| Corel Draw ............................| InkScape ..................
    Freehand Painting ....................| Corel Painter ..........................| MyPaint ....................
    Music Composing .....................| Cubase, Fruity Loops, ... ..........| LMMS .......................
    Sound Effects .........................| VSTi plugins, Microphone, ... .....| Free VSTi plugins .......
    Programming ...........................| Delphi XE2, ... ........................| Lazarus, Turbo Delphi ..
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Cost: ..................................... > 7000$ .................................. 0$ ...........................
    Satisfaction: ............................ ......................................... .........................
    Last edited by mobilus; 27-03-2012 at 03:38 AM. Reason: I forgot about Turbo Delphi.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by mobilus View Post
    Try to find someone on a graphics/music forum.
    If you promise to share the potential benefits from your game, you will surely find someone.


    Type of Work ..........................| Commercial Tools ....................| Free Tools ................
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    3D Graphics ............................| Max3d, LightWave, Maya, ... .....| Blender ....................
    2D Graphics, Post-Processing .....| Photoshop .............................| Gimp ........................
    Scalable Vector Graphics ...........| Corel Draw ............................| InkScape ..................
    Freehand Painting ....................| Corel Painter ..........................| MyPaint ....................
    Music Composing .....................| Cubase, Fruity Loops, ... ..........| LMMS .......................
    Sound Effects .........................| VSTi plugins, Microphone, ... .....| Free VSTi plugins .......
    Programming ...........................| Delphi XE2, ... ........................| Lazarus, Turbo Delphi ..
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Cost: ..................................... > 7000$ .................................. 0$ ...........................
    Satisfaction: ............................ ......................................... .........................
    haha! nice
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