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[Reelya]

Hey, as probably next to nobody knows, I'm currently studying a bachelor's degree in game development. What fun! Well, the short story is that I have about 7 weeks to produce a game for my current trimester, and it's kinda of short on artists around here. So I thought, where better to ask for help with making a cool looking demo than on Bay12's creative projects?

I'm basically an impoverished student, but still, I don't like asking people to help me out for free, so I can sling people some Steam/Humble Bundle gifts and the like for helping me out here. Long-term I'm looking to release on of these games on Google Play, and would be looking for people to help create a substantial amount of artwork for it.

At the moment I'm just looking for people willing to express interest in helping out, even just a little (a few tiles, sprites or even one 3D model). As for the actual game, currently I'm tossing up two possible projects. One is more code-heavy and would basically need a smattering of 3D models, and the other is more art-heavy, and would need some mix of models and pixel-art.

Spoiler: Space Game (click to show/hide)

The code heavy one is a space exploration and trading game within a procedural-generated galaxy. This would require a number of art assets - menus, splash screen, cockpit view and HUD display, different ship types, space stations, debris and explosion effects. The code would be based on the planet generator code I already wrote several years ago. This one is more destined to stay a game demo though: I don't seriously see my homebrew open space exploration game competing with the latest stuff like No Man's Sky and Star Citizen.

Spoiler: Roguelike Game (click to show/hide)

The other game idea is a roguelike (in Unity3D) This is one that I actually want to try and get onto the app store one day, but it needs a lot more artwork and fine-tuning than the other one. Basically, you fight through a dungeon and it becomes increasingly "retro" looking as you progress.

there's one core game mechanic that I have in mind that it seems nobody has ever thought of doing before, and it's the type of stupid idea that can be described in just a few words (perfect for viral marketing). Additionally, I have a 1-word name picked out that nobody has ever used before, and this name just happens to perfectly describe both the art-style and the game mechanic. But, since it's a one-shot idea, I want to secure it before blabbing to the WWW what this crazy marketing idea entails.

For this game, I ideally need someone who knows how to create animated sprites, and ideally someone who can render the action in 8 directions, even if this is from 3D models. I could do straight-overheard, but some sort of 2.5D is the goal here, though that would require many more individual frames to be rendered.

So, the minimum goal here would be 1 player type and ~8-10 enemy types, and a dungeon going down 5 levels with more of a "SNES" look as it goes down.

Let me know what you think, and I'll take on board any suggestions regarding feasibility and other ways to get the artwork I need.

[Trapezohedron]

Bullet hells may be a better project considering the time allotted to you.

[Reelya]

I already made something 2D shooterish last year, so I need to make something different now.

The 3D space game is my "easy" option. It's based on this code I wrote from scratch back in 2011 for procedurally generating solar systems. Since that's all proc-gen graphics for the planets, I only need to expand the exploration part and add some game features, such as space-station docking, trading and battles. All the assets needed are HUD, UI, space station/ships, menus, splash screen etc. So that's my backup plan, since it's almost all dirty coder greasework I can do anytime.

However, the graphical roguelike is the one I actually would prefer to make right now, so I can incorporate a lot of nice graphics (and also because of that marketing thing I hinted at. I have a good hook for this one, and roguelikes can be successful for a small team, but right now epic proc-gen space games is a saturated market with huge budgets).

BTW one of my lecturers is the author of Sprite Lamp. It's basically a utility in which you can import a number of flat sprites "lit" from different directions, and it works out a 3D normal map so that you can have dynamic lighting on your pixel art. Check it out it's really cool (though it's not free sadly). This is one thing I'd love to incorporate into the roguelike's look. There would be nothing better than to have a torch cast dynamic lighting onto the 2D game. Hmm, I'm wondering whether I can hit my lecturer up for a cheaper copy.

[Shook]

Oh wow, Sprite Lamp? Nice! I got that thing in a Humble Bundle, it's pretty cool. Unfortunately, my typical cel-shaded style doesn't work very well with it, if initial experiments are any indication. :v
Anyhoo, even if i do have a few projects going on myself, i could probably (try to) supply some pixel art things, depending on the size of them. This leads directly to my first question: How big are the sprites/tiles going to be, roughly? If they're like way big, i'm probably going to have patience problems.

[Reelya]

for the roguelike idea:

The main parts are
 - environment (floors and walls (2D), wall torch (3D) and treasure chest (2D) )
 - enemies
 - UI / menu

If you have limited time to invest, then you'd want to do something like environment. My idea for this is different dungeon surfaces that have been lit with sprite lamp, so I can have wall torches and character lighting that lights up the ground and rear walls. You'd be able to contribute as much or as little as you have time for.

For characters, my current thinking is to make them sort of look like Binding of Isaac level of detail. i.e. at minimum, three directions of view (up, down and mirrored left/right), with a handful of animation frames per character (walk, attack and death). So these would basically involve the creation of sprite sheets. These would then be billboarded sprites in a 3D-rendered level. The overall size of the individual image then wouldn't make too much difference: they'd be drawn as line art.

[Shook]

Environment it is, then, at least for now. I'm not quite sure i understand what you mean about the image size, though? I mean, usually, resolution is very important for 2D pixel art sprites, since it both has a huge influence on the time required to make them and the possible level of detail. That, and they scale very badly in comparison to vector- or 3D graphics. :v

[Trapezohedron]

16x16 grids?

[SalmonGod]

I think rendering out some character sprites from simple 3d models would be pretty easy for me.  If you want to offer some design direction and target specs I could put out a sample and see if you like it.

[Dorsidwarf]

I can supply pixel art of both fantasy and scifi types .

[Rose]

I can help out with 3d models. I could use the practice with something other than just buildings, which is what I do for work.

[Dorsidwarf]

Any updates on this?

[Reelya]

Ooh yeah sorry I've been pretty busy and didn't get much feedback. In the end I decided to go with the 3D space game, because I could make that with less art assets than the 2D/Roguelike idea (though I plan to work on that in the future). I'll have some demo's uploaded sometime to show everyone.

After that I've teamed up with several game designers at the college who didn't have a project to work on, which is a mixed blessing. I'm spending much more time doing project paperwork because of it, but hopefully we'll get some great artwork out of it to spice up the final game.

[Zonalar]

I wish you good luck with your project