I have a talent for game centric pixel art, so I was curious to ask:
Would anyone be interested in buying packages of sprites for their game dev projects?
I’m talking about big packages with about hundred or more images pixel art images of generic, reusable and flexible art assets from things like seamless textures, plants, trees, rocks, fire, technology and anything else. These packages would be sold on the Unity Asset Store, neatly organized in folders and categories that make sense, all at a reasonable price.
Here are some examples of my work so you get the idea:
I would be interested in buying these packages because I am a developer and I find the lack of sprites is fairly annoying. I will mostly use the game effects, textures and if possible to have animated characters.
Although right now, I’m more interested in fantasy pixelart. If you had a fantasy spritesheet that looked like that - also maybe a bit more colorful and less gritty - I would be throwing money at the screen.
So:
Yes
Objects are a bit harder to create, so specific creatures, vehicles, characters, etc. are helpful. Seamless textures are nice, but less valuable since I can more or less throw them together myself.
PNG is nice - lossless, alpha channel, etc. PSD would be cool as well, if you have any interesting layering going on.
I use 2D Toolkit, which takes separate sprites and generates an atlas itself, so I’d prefer separate sprites.
Would you be interested in buying packages with sprites like these?
→ Yeah
What specific art assets would you like to see? Seamless textures or specific objects like nature?
I also would love to see packages of objects, maybe animated characters. It’s important that all objects within a package are consistent in style / size / theme.
E.g. This one sheet could work as a “Future Weapons and Items” pack. Or another package with space ships, astroids, shield and plasma effects.
I’m also less interested in “simple” textures as there are already a lot of sources and tools for those. More complicated tile maps (e.g. for Mario like jump&runs) however would be also interesting.
How would you like the assets to be made? Any specific format?
What Dallon said.
Do you want the sprites as seperate images or all in one large spritesheet?
The easy way would be to just go with separate sprites.
If you provide sprite sheets the atlas data should be available as well and compatible to the most used 2D frameworks.
Alright, sounds good. About the characters though, what do you prefer?
-Are the characters made up from individual pieces that are connected together and animated by code, or are you looking for more traditional animated spritesheet with frame-by-frame animation of the complete character?
-Are you looking for generic templates that you can color yourself or unique instances that are more well defined, so that they stand out?
Depends on the project and what kind of art you require. I’ll need to think about this, since I haven’t put much thought into freelance work (how much to charge, what type of workflow organization etc…), so while I could technically be up for it, I don’t have a framework for that.
Very interesting, when you say fantasy, can you be more specific to explain what you mean? If I’d take a guess what you want, its something in the vein of World of Warcraft style fantasy, which is colorful and while not entirely cartoony, is still somewhat semi-realistic in terms of proportions. Am I correct?
More to the point, what objects (or types of objects) exactly are you looking for?
And those objects, do you want something more generic and modular or more unique instances of objects? By unique, I mean it has defining details that make it stand out from a crowd (like a scar on a creature’s face), so its not as reusable or flexible as a more generic asset.
EDIT:
I see what you mean, I really value consistency, so thats no problem for me.
About the animated characters and say spaceships, same question for you too:
What type of animation system do you use? Are the animations made up from individual components that are connected and animated by code or is it the more frame-by-frame style of animation you’re talking about?
Also, what perspective are you looking for; Topdown, Sideview, Isometric or other?
Yes, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Legend of Zelda, etc. Usually when I’m going for a cartoony art style, I’d prefer to have a dedicated artist, since there’s a lot of interesting ways to do “cartoony”, so colorful and realistic proportions is the best way to go for an Asset Store package IMO.
As for objects: Useful characters and creatures would be knights, wizards, peasants, goblins, spiders, zombies, dragons, etc. Other useful things might be medieval-style shacks and houses, castles, towers, maybe some terrain elements like mountains, effects for arrows, spells… things like that.
I personally would tend to prefer simple and generic assets rather than specific and unique ones. The way I’m almost certainly going to use assets like this is first to tell myself that I’m just going to use them as placeholders - I’ll make my own art when the game’s closer to completion. Then, after a few miserable attempts to make original art, reality will forcefully remind me that I’m a programmer and not an artist, and the best I can do is make modifications and add details to art that somebody else has made.
In short - I love the idea of modular pieces that I can put together to make a game that looks like my own. Things like scars on a creature’s face, like you mentioned, would be things that I would want to paint on myself, or at least select from a kit of similar decals.
Same, they are very nice indeed, unfortunately, I have no need for it at this moment. Although depending on the price - I would grab it if it’s priced “right”
Ok, now I have a much better idea in terms of types of items and style.
One thing though, what perspective type are you going for; Sideview, Topdown or Isometric?
Heres a quick image to demonstrate the differences, since the perspective means a lot on how the sprite will be drawn and what types of games it will fit:
Which would be the most useful for you guys?
I suppose I could make specialty packs for different types of games with different perspectives, but what would be the most common type you’d need?
That example is isometric too just like the other examples I showed.
Topdown is when the camera is pointed straight down on something, like in the old GTA games or shmups. Isometric is when the camera is not pointing directly from the side or directly from the top. If its viewed from a diagonal angle, consider it isometric.
Speaking of which, you want to see that specific type of isometric sprites like the ones in the example picture you posted?
EDIT:
Understood.
What about perspective in your case? Sideview like the examples I have up on the first post or something else, like isometric or topdown?
Edit: By the way, I really like your sprites. I can’t say that I’d be interested in buying them but I love to look at this kind of oldschool game art. Hopefully they will sell nicely.
Huh, learned something new today, thanks. Never heard of the 4 lower perspective types before.
@ ahaykal
I see.
Those are very specific types of sprites, both in terms of what states the character has, but also the style. Usually this is something more of a custom made project than a re-usable package I can sell, but I think I can strike a balance between a somewhat generic character, combined with swappable modular parts to allow lots of variations and an easy system to change their colors.
I’ll make a pack like that.
@ Everyone:
Also, one more question popped into my mind: Scale.
What scale are you looking for in the sprites? The ones on the first post are modeled after a humanoid character that has the default height of 40 pixels, so while there is less detail, world spaces are much larger you can have more visual range as a character.
What would you prefer as the size of the sprites I would make?
Post an image or pixel size of a human character so I know how large/small everything should be drawn in relation to that.
Regarding the angle: If I’m buying a pack of sprites, I would prefer it to be very versatile so I can use it in multiple games, even if as placeholders for some, so isometric or something like it is probably best - with the side views given special attention so that they would at least look ok in a side-scrolling game, if that’s even possible.
@Scale: Well, I’m working on a game where you can zoom in and out at the moment, so scale isn’t super important to me as long as it’s consistent. It would be nice to have sprites on the smaller side, so I can at least attempt to make custom matching sprites as needed.
I think what would be useful would be animated sprites… I don’t know that people would really want to buy the same main game character as everyone else is using, but other objects would be useful.
