Creating Game Art and Sounds
KEY TOPICS
- Choosing a Look and Feel
- Getting Royalty-Free Game Media
- Working with Artists and Sound Effect Engineers
- Tools
- Creating Sounds
- Creating Textures and Sprites
- Creating Splash Screens and HUD Graphics
- Creating UI Graphics
- Creating Your Own Fonts
- Summary
So, you've got your great game idea and you've started coding, but-uh, oh-there's no art or sounds! Maybe you'll get lucky and find an artist or sound engineer to work with who's willing to devote free time to the project. However, a lot of the time, this isn't going to be the case. This chapter is oriented toward creating "programmer art," the type of game art that might not be the best looking but that is good enough for a demo. When making any type of media for a game, keep these rules in mind:
- Half of what you make is crap.
That's it. Personally, I've spent hours creating that perfect texture, only to realize later it's just not working and throw it away. That's the important part: Throw it away! Maybe not literally-you could save unused art to refer to later-but don't include it in the game if it doesn't work. And don't let it bother you if you create some game art or sound that doesn't work. It just means you're one step closer to creating media that does work. Consider the crap you create a badge of honor, not a drawback. If half of what you make is crap, then the more crap you create, the more usable stuff you create. So let's get started on making some crap.