Original Post
Just wondering if anyone could help me out with this somewhat general musing on game art...
As a game programmer, you're probably not going to double as an artist but you're still always going to need some sort of graphics for a game to work at all, hence poorly-drawn functional programmer art that acts as a placeholder for later proper art done by somebody else.
However, it's clear in recent years in the independent sphere that more stylized, simplistic, often retro style graphics have become somewhat fashionable and despite their simplicities have served some commercially successful games quite well even for 1-person development teams such as with VVVVVV or Minecraft.
What I'm looking for is some sources of inspiration on developing such a visual style and producing quick but functional and not distractingly poor graphics. Also guides or tutorials on creating this sort of thing would be great too. I've seen some pixel art tutorials but they tend to be geared toward producing proper artist-quality sprites like you'd seen on a SNES.
What are some games with interesting, effective and simple art styles? What are some good pieces of advice to take into account when you're trying to create a simple set of sprites like that? Any techniques like... only use a certain number of colours perhaps, etc. etc.
I'm probably asking a very general and possibly poorly-worded question, but I've been thinking about this for a while, and unable to come up with much myself... I thought I'd ask and see if other people could point me towards something that might inspire me.
As a game programmer, you're probably not going to double as an artist but you're still always going to need some sort of graphics for a game to work at all, hence poorly-drawn functional programmer art that acts as a placeholder for later proper art done by somebody else.
However, it's clear in recent years in the independent sphere that more stylized, simplistic, often retro style graphics have become somewhat fashionable and despite their simplicities have served some commercially successful games quite well even for 1-person development teams such as with VVVVVV or Minecraft.
What I'm looking for is some sources of inspiration on developing such a visual style and producing quick but functional and not distractingly poor graphics. Also guides or tutorials on creating this sort of thing would be great too. I've seen some pixel art tutorials but they tend to be geared toward producing proper artist-quality sprites like you'd seen on a SNES.
What are some games with interesting, effective and simple art styles? What are some good pieces of advice to take into account when you're trying to create a simple set of sprites like that? Any techniques like... only use a certain number of colours perhaps, etc. etc.
I'm probably asking a very general and possibly poorly-worded question, but I've been thinking about this for a while, and unable to come up with much myself... I thought I'd ask and see if other people could point me towards something that might inspire me.
