Has anybody else has this problem?

I am fairly good programmer but I am bad at creating game assets like the graphic part of the game.

Any suggestions and tips?

 

2D -> Affinity suites
3D -> Blender

Hours and hours of practice = no longer a problem.

[I also use affinity for concept art first.]

 

https://assetstore.unity.com/?category=3d\2d&orderBy=1

 

I have a bachelor degree in asset searching, you get that over the years if you make a game with only devs on the team. My tip is, either find a stylish asset pack that hold absolute everything you need for the ENTIRE game. Or go realistic look.

Stylish look and kit bashing always look amateurish and bad because of the missmatch between packages.
With realistic you just need to make sure the assets use PBR and have a matching quality. Which can be hard sometimes, I always check the content explorer and check that the metanless map is looking good before I commit to buy.

 

Don't be afraid to do your own stuff, even it looks "bad". Bad is a matter of how people look at things.

I'm not good at graphics either so I took images on the web and used them as models for my little sprites. Making animations if not difficult either; you can find tutorials about that on the web.

All you need is learning how to use an image editor like The GIMP for 2D graphics or Blender for 3D ones and make a leap of faith in your capabilities.

I made the images below using an image editor for my 2D game.

 

Early on, don't worry about it. Learn to do what you do well, and either buy the rest, use open-source stuff (eg: opengameart.org) or be happy with whatever simple stuff you can put together yourself.

Once you're good at your bit of making games then start to look for others to work with who are good at different things. Together you will be greater than the sum of your parts. Long term this is a must if you want to make bigger games. Even if you could do everything well yourself, actually doing so will take a usually unavailable amount of time.

 

The Asset Store is a ridiculously good deal on art compared to paying for custom art. If talented artists choose to undervalue their hard work, you might as well support them and take advantage of the deals. (But take the advice above to be judicious about matching art from different artists so they harmonize rather than clash.)

I've come to appreciate the value of game designers. I think many programmers and artists who are new to game dev disregard design as "just talk," compared to the concrete deliverables that programmers and artists create. But a clever designer can make a game with unsophisticated art into something really great, like Thomas Was Alone, Dwarf Fortress, Papers Please, etc.

Participate in game jams and local meetups (e.g., on meetup.com). These are great ways to meet other devs, including artists.

 

Btw, you can also find alot of good assets on artstation its gonna costs you more (still a fraction of the actual time it took to create the asset) but you can find almost anything there.

 

There are plenty of artists out there who are good at creating assets and graphics, but hate creating code. Team up with one of them.

Game dev is a collaborative effort. Their are very, very few games of any scope that were made entirely by individuals.

 

It will take as much time to become a good artist as it did to become a good coder.

If you determine to become a better artist, I would suggest not to watch game art tutorials but rather begin by studying art theory and fundamentals. Practice with painting in Photoshop is a very easy way to work on the fundamentals.

The reason I say that is because learning the technicals of 3d is another bear entirely. If you focus only on starting to see and evaluate like an artist, then learning how to apply that to any medium is not so hard.


Like tony is saying, assets are not art. The complete game is the art. Individual models, textures, and scripts are just components, in the same way individual pixels are only part of a digital painting.

For that reason, I don't think relying on asset store for art is a solution if you are serious about making a quality game. Even if you cannot make a model or texture, you must be able to design, which means you must know the fundamentals of art.

In other words, you can buy all the best art. But if you lack the design sense to use it skillfully, you can make it look bad. And vice versa. You can make gray cubes look beautiful if you know composition and value.

 

Be aware that, unless you make some ultra low poly or basic 2D game, you'll spend far more time on art than on programming. You can code a player controller in a day, but creating ten different characters to put that code to use will take much longer. Unless you love creating art 10x more than you love programming, you're going to be in for a rough time.

I'm good at both 3D art and programming, and I've practiced both for years. However while I really enjoy modelling and texturing, for me it is something that eventually tests my patience and loses my interest after a few hours, which isn't the case with programming. I could probably get through months of creating art if I wanted to, but frankly I don't know if I want to spend so much time on something that a lot of other people are better at and which doesn't bring me a lot of consistent satisfaction. I'm looking into the asset store and hiring artists instead.

So unless you really like art, like @Kiwasi said just find an artist and learn to work together.

 

Actually, each can be used as a derivative; if you spend your time just coding or just creating art, you risk a burn out. Alternating one with the other helps avoiding boredom.

 

Is a question of what quality and complexity of work you doing too.

I can make a character in a day. I can also make one over five months.

 

It's not really about burnout. I've freelanced both art and programming and I just don't find creating art pleasant outside of when I'm inspired. Programming is fine, I can go for days programming, and the only point where I need to stop is for basic human necessities. I don't even have to be that interested, the logical part of my brain doesn't need to be specifically engaged to function well.

You've got a good point about switching things up. Although, at least for me, there is a definite psychological cost to switching from my logical to emotional brain and back. I actually need to meditate for a bit to make the switch reasonably smooth

 

I dont think you can be a Triple A artist and a excellent programmer at the same time. Both fields are a full time job to stay at the top.