I have never made a video game of any sort before and have someone creating artwork for the master document and a small game I plan on making once the concept art is done. I have experimented a bit with putting art in small games that have already been created such as 'Stick Soldiers 2' but beyond that I know nothing.
What I am unsure of is how exactly does the artist collaborate with the programmer? Does the artist just create all the artwork and send it to the programmer in a particular format he is using? Or is there more to the process that the artist needs to know and be involved in? Does the artist need to have any knowledge outside of his box such as some minor programming or is that something the programmer handles on his own? Does the artist need prior experience working with games?
The artwork we're going with is 2-D.
What does an artist need to know?
I have never really had the pleasure of working together with an artist, so you can't really call it communicative experience, but from the times that I made my own (crappy placeholder) graphics to mess around with, there was certainly a relation between the dimensions I chose for my 'artwork' and my code.
Since you are working in 2-D, you'll most likely work with sprites or tilesets, graphics often found in one image file, as in the folowing example for a sprite sheet:
http://gamesprite.fi...008/01/iris.gif
And here for a tileset:
http://wiki.themanaw...and_Tileset.png
Which can be used to make maps with a woodland theme.
Often when you will load these images into your game you'll want to just select a rectangle-shaped part of it containing the sprite/tile you want to use/display, and you'll probably do this using an offset and order that is hardcoded into your game. For example:
TILE_GRASS = getGraphics("Woodland_Tileset.png", 0, 0);
Or you could first make a matrix out of your tileset, which results in:
TILE_GRASS = woodlandMatrix[0][0];
Of course, you don't have to keep to only one file, I'd think a tileset per theme and sprite sheet per moving object are easy to work with, especially if you make sure your artist keeps the same movements or theme-appropriate graphics in the same respective place as the other files, this would allow for general load functions and a very smooth collaboration.
Your artist normally doesn't need to know how to code, but it's handy if he understands the above concept and understands how he can make both of your lives easier. And unless from you wanting an experienced artist, I'd say no to that question as well.
EDIT: Good luck on your game!
Since you are working in 2-D, you'll most likely work with sprites or tilesets, graphics often found in one image file, as in the folowing example for a sprite sheet:
http://gamesprite.fi...008/01/iris.gif
And here for a tileset:
http://wiki.themanaw...and_Tileset.png
Which can be used to make maps with a woodland theme.
Often when you will load these images into your game you'll want to just select a rectangle-shaped part of it containing the sprite/tile you want to use/display, and you'll probably do this using an offset and order that is hardcoded into your game. For example:
TILE_GRASS = getGraphics("Woodland_Tileset.png", 0, 0);
Or you could first make a matrix out of your tileset, which results in:
TILE_GRASS = woodlandMatrix[0][0];
Of course, you don't have to keep to only one file, I'd think a tileset per theme and sprite sheet per moving object are easy to work with, especially if you make sure your artist keeps the same movements or theme-appropriate graphics in the same respective place as the other files, this would allow for general load functions and a very smooth collaboration.
Your artist normally doesn't need to know how to code, but it's handy if he understands the above concept and understands how he can make both of your lives easier. And unless from you wanting an experienced artist, I'd say no to that question as well.
EDIT: Good luck on your game!
When you have a team of seperate artists/programmers it is important that one understands the limits of other. Let me tell you my current problem from a programmers viewpoint.
We are making a isometric game (Graphics is 2d it just uses tricks). I create the placeholder art for the actual game world and our artist started on item art that will be in the inventory. Our inventory system is very similar to the dungeon siege games and the like so items can be different sizes. He can create great art. But he creates it BIG. I mean high resolution artistic goodness. Or he does it in 3d and takes screenshots. The problem is that it will have to be resized for the game. A lot of quality is lost. And i mean a lot more that if he just started doing it the size it was supposed to be. For 2d games more so for tiled/isometric games at least some some form of pixel art must be used if not all. Most artists are not pixel artists. They don't get it that a 54x54 tile is not so hard to make pixel by pixel. Hell i even made some. They feel it looks bad or just have a hard time looking at it as making art. When in fact no matter how good they make their big art it almost always looks worse when resized. And they blame the programmer for that, and the programmer blames the artist and so on so forth. It is important for a game artist to know how games work with art. They should know what the limitations are from the beginning and not try to make art AND then worry about that.
Work close to the programmer. Listen what he says. He will not judge your art but rather your skill to make it useful in a game. And limitations will be set by your game. Work within it's confines! Or you will be set for failure.
For 3d texture/model art this is a bit different story and i have no experience with it.
We are making a isometric game (Graphics is 2d it just uses tricks). I create the placeholder art for the actual game world and our artist started on item art that will be in the inventory. Our inventory system is very similar to the dungeon siege games and the like so items can be different sizes. He can create great art. But he creates it BIG. I mean high resolution artistic goodness. Or he does it in 3d and takes screenshots. The problem is that it will have to be resized for the game. A lot of quality is lost. And i mean a lot more that if he just started doing it the size it was supposed to be. For 2d games more so for tiled/isometric games at least some some form of pixel art must be used if not all. Most artists are not pixel artists. They don't get it that a 54x54 tile is not so hard to make pixel by pixel. Hell i even made some. They feel it looks bad or just have a hard time looking at it as making art. When in fact no matter how good they make their big art it almost always looks worse when resized. And they blame the programmer for that, and the programmer blames the artist and so on so forth. It is important for a game artist to know how games work with art. They should know what the limitations are from the beginning and not try to make art AND then worry about that.
Work close to the programmer. Listen what he says. He will not judge your art but rather your skill to make it useful in a game. And limitations will be set by your game. Work within it's confines! Or you will be set for failure.
For 3d texture/model art this is a bit different story and i have no experience with it.
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