Searching the art for a game: am I doing it wrong?

So I've created my first game with Unity. The question arose about how to make it look nice, where to find the backgrounds, music, characters etc. I've tried googling, but to my surprise I got almost nothing useful. For example, I need some scrolling backgrounds for the game. I've tried to google them a hundred of different ways with no result.

Am I doing it wrong? How can a beginner game developer get some free art for his game?

 

........the Asset Store?

 

the asset store exists for this kind of stuff, but most of it isn't free.
Most of it is, however, very cheap. A lot of the art assets are available for less than the cost of a pizza apiece*. Expecting to get things for free just because you're a beginner is kind of naive. Even if you have no income from your work, you probably have income from some other place (a day job, your parents, whatever)


*depends on the price of a pizza in your country and the value of your local currency

 

Well, there's also Open Game Art if you want free.

 

The issue with the asset store is that it's incredibly difficult to find the needed art with. Some jungle forest may reside alongside a desert landscape.

How do I find, for instance, a scrollable (tileable) evening countryside background for my game?

 

you could hire an artist

 

Yeah, that's pretty much the answer. Not all possible combinations and permutations of all potential art exist. If you want something that hasn't been made and/or shared yet then you have to either learn to make it yourself or find someone who can make it for you.

And yes, if you stick to pre-existing stuff then you're going to have to compromise, because chances that someone before you has already made your exact vision are pretty slim.

If I know I'm going to be working with pre-made stuff I either a) go with a fairly realistic style, since there's plenty available already or b) see what's available and then work from that instead of the other way around.

It's also possible that you can find something that's sort of what you want and then modify it, as long as its license is permitting of this. If you want an evening background but all you can find in your desired style is at daytime then you might be able to get away with some Photoshop batch processing and simple tweaks or additions.

 

If you're after 3D there are a lot of assets available both on the Asset store and at various 3d model sites. Unfortunately, that is not the case for 2D graphics. I have tried to encourage the 3D artists releasing models on the UA store to render them out as sprite sheets, tile sheets, etc. It'd be a win-win. Those of us needing 2D art would have a lot more options and the people making 3D art would have additional assets to sell: top down render, isometric renders and sideview renders. So far I don't think anyone has done it. But if some of them start that would be a real game changer I think.

In the meantime, I have hired two 2D artists to make graphics for my games.

 

I suggest learning Inkscape, it's free and easiest way to make art.

 

I have downloaded many free tools and purchased several commercial graphics programs. If a person is not an artist they're not gonna produce quality art. At least not without spending hours on each animation. I wish there was a graphics program that made 2D art for non-artists easy but have never found one yet. I tried Inkscape but that was simply a vector-based graphics program. One that continually crashed on my computer making it completely unusable.

I can spend hours drawing a spider and animating it or hire an artist to do it fast and easy. The artist's version looks much better having drawn and colored it in ways I never would have imagined yet to her it was just easy and common sense. Because she is an artist.

 

If you find a good experienced artist... I mean a true digital / game artist who enjoys drawing and animating they can knock out a nice background for you very quickly and inexpensively. Same for characters. A quality animated 2D character (say 5 different animations) shouldn't cost more than $75. If just a walking and attack animation maybe $20 or so. But again the key is to find someone who is very experienced highly skilled so the work is ultra easy for them. And I am talking about for exclusive content just for you. If sold to anyone and everyone then obviously it should be much cheaper. The prices I list are for custom work.

 

I have to agree. I too have access to lots of cool software, but the software doesn't make the art, the person does. And I just don't have the required experience or training to make anything particularly good unless I restrict myself to the most primitive stuff.