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Southwest Gaming ExpoWorkshop on Network and Systems Support for Games (NetGames 2009)ICIDS 2009 Interactive StorytellingGlobal Game Jam
Better Programmer Art
(or how to fake it as a game artist)
IntroductionI've worked building tools and engines for artists making games and visual effects for more than ten years, and I've always been baffled by the distinction that people make between "programmer art" and "real game art". Also, I've noticed that the only people who will give you a free pass for bad programmer art are other programmers. Regardless of how fun your game is, or how technically awesome your tech demo is, the non-programmers you show it to are going to think: Is that a jetpack or a tumor?Often, you can find a way to generate good art without having to create it from scratch. Mason McCuskey offers some excellent suggestions for sources of game art in his article "Creating Good Game Art When You're Not An Artist". But sometimes, you just have to create your art from scratch. Budgetary restrictions or game contest rules, or simply a tight deadline for a prototype might require you to set down the figurative slide-rule and pick up a paintbrush. But I can't draw...really.. I mean, look at this:
If that's what your programmer art looks like, this article is for you. I thought I'd share a set of tips for making better programmer art. These tips are intended to be useful to anyone, regardless of artistic ability or experience. While tips like "practice sketching everyday" or "visit an art museum" might be useful for the aspiring game artist, this document is meant for the non-artist, how to trick people into thinking that you--the left-brained, code-writing, math-loving programmer--have some artistic ability. In addition, none (mostly) of these tips require "practice", because, while practice is useful and even essential to being a true artist, it always seems like the your deadline is coming up with the sunrise and you just need some damn sprites. Some of this is aimed at Photoshop users, because that's what I know, but the same concepts apply to any paint program, and there are equivalent operations to everything I mention here in the Gimp, and probably in whatever package you use.
This is also aimed at participants in LudumDare or similar contests where you try to create a game from scratch in 48-hours. My compo games tend to fare well in the graphics category (alas, killer gameplay continues to elude me), even though I don't consider myself a particularly good game artist. Many of these example come from my LD entries, and much of this experience is stuff I learned by doing these contests and being forced to generate art with an insane deadline. Moreover, they should be valuable to anyone trying to produce quality art (or some approximation thereof) with a short schedule or limited budget. Page 1
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