What are your 2D asset needs, if you want to release apps quicker, and more often?

Mells

Hi,

from what I understand a lot of people in this community are programmers, and many said that they struggle to release apps because in most cases they can't create the art assets themselves, or they've already invested too many hours (=money) working on it.

There are many sources where we can buy music and sounds for our games, but where do you buy 2D assets (sprites/backgrounds)?
All the sites that I have found are either used by too many people (Lost Garden - great assets btw) or lack of quality (Open GameArt and others)

Links

• Can you give links to 2D stores of quality, where you like to buy assets?

Your needs

1. What would be the top 3 of your 2D needs (icons? characters? backgrounds? other?), that would help you release apps quicker and more often?
2. What have you tried/searched and why wasn't it satisfying enough? What's preventing you from buying 2D assets online so that you could finalize the apps you've been working on?

ar2rsawseen

1. As a program my needs would probably be everything from identity (icon, bg/featured graphics) to in game graphics (UI, characters, etc)

2. Well first thing stopping me is probably my 0 budget. All coding I can try to do myself and all graphics I can try to pin on my friends for free, by agitating them to join my imaginary team that someday may earn something together
But even if I could buy, I would probably buy services and not ready to use graphics, mostly because ready to use graphics are not original and might have been used by many others before.

OZApps

@ar2sawseen, just a few things from experience.

1. There are 24 hours in a day, you can only allocate so many hours to doing what you are doing unless that is your 9-5 and after hours
2. While as a developer I can manage to make some art and muster some music, etc it takes away from those number of hours
3. While the cost is $0 if a developer does everything themselves, the real cost that they fail to calculate is the time they could have used for what they do best -> Development.

However having said that, I have asked a couple of graphic artists and designers for quotes on a couple of projects and I have received quotes from $5,000 for designing an UI to $20,000 for graphics, which was I guess $100 per graphic (static, not animation) In such a case, it might be better to disregard point #3.

It is interesting to note the kind of pricing that exists...

moopf

The only things I ever buy "off the shelf" are sound effects (and even then I sometimes create my own if I want something very particular, or treat purchased ones to get a consistent feel).

With art, however, there are many problems with buying stock art assets, such as:

1. Your game will have very particular needs and the chances of finding a resource or quality material that covers all those needs is slim which means that...

2. You'll suffer from a lack of visual consistency. I see this a lot - it sticks out like a sore thumb, you can pretty much always tell that an app has used mixed stock imagery. Or...

3. You'll end up compromising your idea to fit in with what is available. But...

4. You run the very real risk of the same imagery being used in other games which isn't great. And finally...

5. Unless the app looks the business, don't expect it to be a success. It's kind of self-defeating and I'd question whether it was actually worth developing and releasing it in the first place if it doesn't look smooth.

It might seem harsh but if you're looking for stock art assets for a game then it's time to sit back and really think about what you're hoping to achieve. I'll admit it, it is a massive stumbling block to developers with ideas, but it's one that really doesn't have any adequate short cuts. You can get away with licensing music, if you must, and sound effects, which you will undoubtably have to do, but where the visuals are concerned - that's just not something you can cut corners on.

Mells

What I think is :
there is a limit to what one can produce alone (quantity & quality).
That's why I believe it's wise to buy assets, even when you are able to do it alone if it's taking your business further.
In my opinion time is more valuable than money.

For example I can create my own 2D assets, but I would be willing to pay for UI, or to have one of the illustrator that I really like featured in my apps.
There is something amazing when you work with people that are either better than you (specialized) or produce something very different.
You can pay an artist/designer for custom work (premium) or buy 2D assets (less expensive but your app won't look unique -> But don't forget that there are two hundred babillion apps in the app stores anyway).

About music, I don't even think twice : I could create it myself (would be of average quality though) but it would take me too long. I prefer to work with professionals.

But I agree 100% with @moopf : chances are that you will have to search a lot if you compose your apps with graphics from different sources.
That's why assets from Lost Garden are used a lot : with all the characters, tiles, buildings provided, it looks far better than a majority of apps in the stores.

I have shifted my mentality from "indie who wants to control everything" to opening my business to more people, specialists, and I feel my role is to manage those things instead of being stuck in the middle.
Actually, I believe that this strategy has more potential even if it involves taking *far* more risks (financially).

@OZApps

It is interesting to note the kind of pricing that exists...

I know that you didn't mean this applies to designers only.
Same for programmers, musicians, etc. right?

@moopf
I totally agree about visual consistency.
I do think that if you have an eye for that you can compose an app from different sources and still make it work. But it's very difficult.

I opened this discussion because I have seen in lot of places programmers talking about having tons of prototypes functional, in need of graphics, but they are stuck and don't invest.
I was wondering : where can a programmer buy 2D assets that provide visuals that are consistent and would cover all areas (ui, bg, sprites)?
Does this site exist?

OZApps

@OZApps

It is interesting to note the kind of pricing that exists...

I know that you didn't mean this applies to designers only.
Same for programmers, musicians, etc. right?

@Mells, yes it can be applicable to all professionals, like I would end up paying more to a plumber than I would to a doctor.

However, in this scenario what I meant was that there has to be some sort of sanity, if you are going to get an application/game made that has a budget of $X, then it is difficult to justify to the client that the Graphic Designer will take $2,500 per scene/screen for an app of 10 screens then the Graphic Artist will take $200 or more for static images, what is left for the coding part of things, which is what puts it all together.

Which brings us back to the conversation, while apps work, they don't sell due to bad graphics, so we need to have good graphics.

In my ideal world of apportioning here is what an ideal budget would look like
Coding & Code Design -> 50%
Wireframe/Design -> 10%
Graphics and Animation -> 25%
Music & FX -> 10%
Misc -> 5%

Marketing is a budget that is not included in this development budget. This could differ from person to person, but this is how I would look at the budgets.

plamen

...to justify to the client that the Graphic Designer will take $2,500 per scene/screen for an app of 10 screens then the Graphic Artist will take $200 or more for static images

I am going outside to shoot my self in the head...

X_X

OZApps

What was it, the client, the budgets,the pricing, the graphic artists ...

plamen

$2,500 per scene/screen (

OZApps

When I had seen that I had almost felt that I was in the wrong line of business, but then I guess no one can replace the joys of development.