Amateur Game Assets

[Humodour]

Suppose, and this is purely hypothetical, that one was creating a 2D pre-rendered game engine.

 

What would be the best way to create/acquire assets to populate that engine with to create a game world? This includes things like the mouse pointer, the interface, the monsters, the NPCs, the items, the items on the ground, the floors, the trees, etc. Ideally the source would be non-proprietary and allow said assets to be packaged with the game and sold for no or minimal royalties.

 

I'm a 20 year old uni student who can barely draw stick figures, so I have no hope of both coding a game engine, thinking up dialogue and plot, and also creating reasonably playable game art by myself.

 

Here's what I've made so far (still adding more). It's just placeholder, and whilst not stick-figure level shocking, required a few hours to create from drawing, cropping photos, etc (I got bored). Click to enlarge.

 

 

Also, and this is less important, but still a goal, what would be my best bet for audio creation? Weapon sounds, character voices, ambient music, etc. Again, ideally non-proprietary stuff because I'm a uni bum who's just starting out.

 

I have a feeling the answer to all this is "make friends with artists", but I figured I'd pop the question anyway to see if anybody has some insights I missed.

 

Interesting note: the gun in the main hand is actually an air gun version of the Desert Eagle, made from engineering plastics.

[Nightshape]

For audio try flashkit, as for artwork... Meh, use basic shapes to build the game (programmer art), meanwhile... find someone who is interested in generating artwork for games, tie them up, and force them to work on the artwork until you're happy, then tie them back up for use again later on.

[Kaftan Barlast]

There are lots of "game maker" programs out there like multimedia fusion and torque2D that doesnt require any skills at all and contain loads of readymade content. This lazy jerk at my Uni even managed to sneak an MF game past the review board and get credits for it

[Nightshape]

Torque gamebuilder is a bugger horrible piece of streaming *BLEEP*.

[Humodour]

Oh well, thanks guys.

 

I just got into a game programming degree (my first preference was environmental chemistry, but oh well). Maybe I'll pick up some talented friends there.

Edited January 21, 2009 by Krezack

[Humodour]

In case anybody is wondering, I stumbled upon some awesome open source programmes and plugins for creating at least two important art assets:

 

Trees/grass/shrubs:

http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

then exporting the model to a 3d software (Blender) and rendering it

or http://dryad.stanford.edu/index.php (Windows only)

 

And seamlessly tileable floor tiles (e.g. desert dirt, room walls, carpet):

http://gimp-texturize.sourceforge.net/

or http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/resynthesizer

[Nightshape]

Oh well, thanks guys.

 

I just got into a game programming degree (my first preference was environmental chemistry, but oh well). Maybe I'll pick up some talented friends there.

 

[sarcasam]

All you nee to do now, is realise why Python isn't really worthwhile for games .

[/sarcasam]

Edited February 2, 2009 by Nightshape

[Humodour]

Oh well, thanks guys.

 

I just got into a game programming degree (my first preference was environmental chemistry, but oh well). Maybe I'll pick up some talented friends there.

 

[sarcasam]

All you nee to do now, is realise why Python isn't really worthwhile for games .

[/sarcasam]

 

I don't know why you posted that but I'll bite: Python's great for games - from Bloodlines, Freedom Force, ToEE, etc using it for scripting and modding to FIFE's flexible C++/Python synergy and the superb rapid development capabilities of PyGame and Python-Ogre or Panda3D. It's gravy that you can bring Python performance as arbitrarily close to C performance as you require (assuming it isn't already).

 

And it's spelt 'sarcasm'.