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[pabloruiz55]

Hi!
I've put together a few tips for designers that have to deal with programmers in their everyday life. Most tips are what to do to avoid annoying developers or how to have a better communication and workflow.
Here is the article.

If you have your own tips, I'd like to hear them as well!

- Pablo

[Quarry]

Thank god I'm a lone all-in-one dev

[xrabohrok]

Here are some other thoughts I've garnered in years past in my group:

Be aware of the usage of the asset:  If you spend a ton of time working on a little sprite that is going to be used in the item shop and isn't going to be bigger than a postage stamp, you are wasting everyone else's time.  Also, make a point to check out how the asset looks in its final form.  What looked great in a .psd may not look so good in a .png, and then when it goes into the engine it doesn't look good at all. 

Do not look to the programmer for tasks:  With the exception that the programmer is also the designer, they will not know what enemy you should be working on, how big the asset should be, what colors are good, etc.  Do not look dejected when you ask about how something looks and you get back a half-hearted "super".  They just don't know.

Be aggressive in negotiating final asset constraints:  If you do not say that 64 x 64 gifs looks bad in the game, the game will consist of 64x64 gifs.  You must let the programmer know that presentation perameters are not ok.  I joined a project halfway where the lead programmer thought it was OK that nothing was animated in a top down shooter.  It is not.

[EdgeOfProphecy]

When in doubt, talk to a programmer:  We're wizards, no joke, and we can do some snappy stuff with code.  You might be trying to animate some crazy complicated effect in a sprite while a programmer could whip something up in code that can do the same thing in 5 minutes.  There are some things code is better for, and some things art is better for, knowing the distinction will make everyone more efficient.  When you have the experience to make your own judgement calls with great authority, then you can skip this step, but until then it's a good idea to run something you want to do artistically past a programmer to make sure there's not a more appropriate code solution.