I know as well as most of you what a pain it can be to get decent art on a tiny budget.
In fact, for me at least, finding art is one of the biggest hurtles between a good design and a finished game. It's expensive, it can be hard to find, and it's stressful. And if you're like me, it's really hard to barter over the price of another creative's services; You know they're pouring out their heart and soul for your game, and that's priceless. But at the same time, most of us game designers don't have deep pockets, and anywhere we can save a few dollars gets us that much closer to actually getting your dream out there.
Because of this struggle, I've compiled a list of some of my favorite resources for getting %100 free art, no strings attached. Of course, it won't be tailored to your game, and you probably will need to commission some of your own stuff before all is said and done, but it can get you pretty far with your game, and might save you a pretty penny in the end.
I'd like to point out here that most of this stuff is provided via the Creative Commons, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a free, public source of knowledge and culture, which includes art and other images. If you want to support the Commons, I'd encourage you to consider donating, or releasing some of your own work into it.
Finally, make sure to attribute the creators of this stuff; Just because it's free doesn't mean it wasn't a lot of work!
Enough said about that, let's get to the stuff you came for!
Indie Conquest Art Assets
Created by fellow designer Jason Glover of Grey Gnome Games, Indie Conquest's Art Assets Page has a bunch of free black-and-white drawings of various fantasy themes, compiled from his works from this- and last-years' Inktober challenge. As of this post's publication, there are 47 images on the site, with 15 more to come throughout the month.
Freepik
A site full of user-created photos, icons, graphic design templates, and more, Freepik is a great place to find graphic resources and placeholder art. With almost 1.5 Million free images, there's almost certainly something there you can use. It's worth noting, however, that there is a premium version, but unless there's a certain premium image you really want, it's not worth it.
Game-Icons.net
A wonderful repository of free icons and SVGs, game-icons.net might be my favorite on this list. At the time this post was made, the site had 3701 free icons for use in your games. It has images in pretty much every category you could want, from swords to laser guns to tanks to food. The files are customizable, both on the site and after downloading, which provides extra versatility. It's pretty rare for me to get too far into the graphic design of my games without visiting this site.
N.A.S.A.
If you're designing a space-themed game, there's some excellent public domain photography on N.A.S.A.'s gallery. Being a government organization, everything the have must go to public domain, and they have a lot of really cool stuff.
The Mindful Geek Art Assets
If it's hand-painted textures you're looking for, I have a few on this very site. They're free, just like everything else on this list, for both personal and commercial purposes. I made them for a RPG I was working on, but put on ice for now, so I thought I may as well let you guys use them! There are only a few right now, but I intend to put more stuff out soon(because giving feels good!).
Free At Last
That's it for today, I hope you can find a use for some of this stuff! I'll note here that I have no affiliation with any of these sites(with the obvious exclusion of my own!), I just found them helpful and thought I'd share them. So what do you guys think of all this? Does any of it fill a need you were having? Or did it inspire something new? Perhaps you have another resource that you'd like to share? If so, please comment below, subscribe above for more stuff like this, and, as always, keep on geekin' on!
In fact, for me at least, finding art is one of the biggest hurtles between a good design and a finished game. It's expensive, it can be hard to find, and it's stressful. And if you're like me, it's really hard to barter over the price of another creative's services; You know they're pouring out their heart and soul for your game, and that's priceless. But at the same time, most of us game designers don't have deep pockets, and anywhere we can save a few dollars gets us that much closer to actually getting your dream out there.
Because of this struggle, I've compiled a list of some of my favorite resources for getting %100 free art, no strings attached. Of course, it won't be tailored to your game, and you probably will need to commission some of your own stuff before all is said and done, but it can get you pretty far with your game, and might save you a pretty penny in the end.
I'd like to point out here that most of this stuff is provided via the Creative Commons, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a free, public source of knowledge and culture, which includes art and other images. If you want to support the Commons, I'd encourage you to consider donating, or releasing some of your own work into it.
Finally, make sure to attribute the creators of this stuff; Just because it's free doesn't mean it wasn't a lot of work!
Enough said about that, let's get to the stuff you came for!
Indie Conquest Art Assets
Created by fellow designer Jason Glover of Grey Gnome Games, Indie Conquest's Art Assets Page has a bunch of free black-and-white drawings of various fantasy themes, compiled from his works from this- and last-years' Inktober challenge. As of this post's publication, there are 47 images on the site, with 15 more to come throughout the month.
Freepik
A site full of user-created photos, icons, graphic design templates, and more, Freepik is a great place to find graphic resources and placeholder art. With almost 1.5 Million free images, there's almost certainly something there you can use. It's worth noting, however, that there is a premium version, but unless there's a certain premium image you really want, it's not worth it.
Game-Icons.net
A wonderful repository of free icons and SVGs, game-icons.net might be my favorite on this list. At the time this post was made, the site had 3701 free icons for use in your games. It has images in pretty much every category you could want, from swords to laser guns to tanks to food. The files are customizable, both on the site and after downloading, which provides extra versatility. It's pretty rare for me to get too far into the graphic design of my games without visiting this site.
N.A.S.A.
If you're designing a space-themed game, there's some excellent public domain photography on N.A.S.A.'s gallery. Being a government organization, everything the have must go to public domain, and they have a lot of really cool stuff.
The Mindful Geek Art Assets
If it's hand-painted textures you're looking for, I have a few on this very site. They're free, just like everything else on this list, for both personal and commercial purposes. I made them for a RPG I was working on, but put on ice for now, so I thought I may as well let you guys use them! There are only a few right now, but I intend to put more stuff out soon(because giving feels good!).
Free At Last
That's it for today, I hope you can find a use for some of this stuff! I'll note here that I have no affiliation with any of these sites(with the obvious exclusion of my own!), I just found them helpful and thought I'd share them. So what do you guys think of all this? Does any of it fill a need you were having? Or did it inspire something new? Perhaps you have another resource that you'd like to share? If so, please comment below, subscribe above for more stuff like this, and, as always, keep on geekin' on!
Great list thank you
ReplyDeleteNo problem, I'm glad it was helpful! Thanks for reading!
DeleteHey Ethan,
ReplyDeletePer your request on Reddit, I'm leaving this here:
I also release free artwork almost weekly via Patreon.com/Jeshields if you would like to include that as well.
Just click the Free Stock Art button under 'Featured Tags'.
-Jeshields
Thanks, Je! Always nice to see someone giving back to the community.
Delete