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[ninjascience]

In my intro post I mentioned I'm currently using ripped and edited sprites for my hobby game project.  I was curious what the tigsource community thinks of this practice.

Deadeye already chimed in...

Quite frankly, I hate it.  If good art can't be made, then I'd much rather see crappy MSPaint stick figures or plain boxes and circles than ripped sprites.

But I suppose this conversation might not be something to get into in the introduction thread.  You could always start a new thread to discuss it Smiley

My own perspective is that I'm making a game for my own enjoyment.  I don't have the skills or the time to do the programming and the art for my project.  If I release it, I wouldn't monetize it.  I make a distinction between using unedited ripped sprites and edited ripped sprites.  And I make a distinction between using ripped graphics from a game like Castlevania SoTN (would use) and a game like Aquaria (wouldn't use).  I realize that distinction in principle is kind of artificial, but none the less, I see it.

[team_q]

I've always done my own Graphics, I found it adds a personal touch. You get better the more you do it, and it makes for more appeal to potential fans. I dunno, I guess ripping sprites are fine, but its easier to just try your own hand at it.

[Gravious]

I'm really not looking forward to doing my own art, i was thinking of ripping some sprites, just to give my early work a bit of gloss to make me feel better :D

[Akhel]

Ripping graphics usually makes your game look terribly amateurish. I agree with Deadeye in that I'd rather see bad graphics than ripped ones.

[Inane]

I agree with Akhel and Deadeye. If worst comes to worst, you could try to recruit an artist onto the project .

[Robotacon]

I think people (me involved) think too much about what the game looks like too early in the dev process. I've just switched to using colored rectangles for all my game art just so that I don't have to worry about it. Honestly, it's quite liberating.

I agree with all previous speakers, and seriously, if you got a game running there will be tons of people that would like to draw original sprites for you. There are more people making sprites and mock-ups than there are people coding games.

[ninjascience]

I must have been secretly hoping you'd talk me out of it, because you did.  I re-read the article on Lost Garden about what to do if you don't have graphics, and I realized that I've been spending way too much time worrying what my game will look like (i.e. tweaking pixels) than worrying about what it plays like (i.e. not coding).

[the_dannobot]

I agree with all previous speakers, and seriously, if you got a game running there will be tons of people that would like to draw original sprites for you. There are more people making sprites and mock-ups than there are people coding games.

Yeah, but those people are usually really flaky.  I've worked on lots of projects where a bunch of artists will sign up, do one or two pieces of pixel art, and then vanish.

[Melly]

The best really is to first get something of your game coded and ready to be shown to the public, even if it uses squares with Wall and Player written on them. If you post on the right places and you have a good concept there may be people willing to drop a sprite or two your way for fun.

Ripped sprites is something I'd use as last resort. Doing so can make your game look bad in the end, even for yourself, especially if you have sprites and tiles from different games mashed together.

But it's really up to you. Like I said though, worry about how the game plays first and foremost, then when you get that done worry on the aesthetics.

One thing that comes to mind is how some artists approach game design with the same mistake. They sometimes make large mockups and sprite sets, and then see that they can't code for shit and end up frustrated that all that work's gone to waste.

And like dannobot said, if you're making a free game and won't be paying anyone don't trust artists/musicians/etc that you never seen before that suddenly say they wanna help you. Unless they're close friends of yours I wouldn't bother with them, but there's no problem with having the community post a couple of custom sprites on your game's thread cause they feel like helping a bit.

[Farmergnome]

Don't neglect your graphics though!  Its good your thinking about what the game will look like early, just don't put too much emphasis on pretty shit unless thats a key selling point.  Anyway consistency is more important than uber looking art, pick a style that you feel comfortable doing the whole game like and run with it. 

I would rather see a whole game with stick figures from one source than ripped graphics from several sources, just a thought.

[deadeye]

I think people (me involved) think too much about what the game looks like too early in the dev process. I've just switched to using colored rectangles for all my game art just so that I don't have to worry about it.

The best really is to first get something of your game coded and ready to be shown to the public, even if it uses squares with Wall and Player written on them.

I realized that I've been spending way too much time worrying what my game will look like (i.e. tweaking pixels) than worrying about what it plays like (i.e. not coding).

I tend to worry a bit too much about how things look at the beginning too.  I get to a point in my code where I can tie the animation routines in with the controls, and I say to myself "hey, I could set this aside for a bit and draw some sprites to plug in."  It's a bad habit that I really need to break.  I've noticed that if you set something aside "just for a bit" to do something else, it's likely to stay set aside a lot longer than you intended.  I realize now that I'm falling into the same trap (again) with my current project, so thanks for the wakeup, guys.

@ninjascience:
When it does come time to create graphics, you could try spending the time you normally would tweaking someone else's graphics on drawing some original stuff.  I'm sure by now you've looked at enough sprites at 1600% zoom to have a general idea of what works.  I've tweaked a few ripped sprites in my day too, and it doesn't take much more effort to create them from scratch*.  You just have to get a good workflow going.  Take time to set up your graphics program to handle spriting the best you can.

For instance, I set up Photoshop to use a 1x1 grid, change the scaling to Nearest Neighbor, set up layers and folders for different parts of my sprite ahead of time, and make a palette that I can pull colors from quickly.  Doing some small prep-work like that can make the spriting process a whole lot easier.

*(Yes, I realize it takes a whole hell of a lot of effort to get good at it, that's not my point.)

[Eclipse]

Ripping graphics usually makes your game look terribly amateurish. I agree with Deadeye in that I'd rather see bad graphics than ripped ones.

I agree.
Ripped sprites just make your game fall to indie right on the amateur side. It's okay if you're not a pixel artist but you can do your own graphics in a very simple way: open paint, do a rectangle of the side you want for your sprite, zoom 4x or 8x on it, choose a color you like, and have fun.
I'm bored to see games using FF snes characters, Sonic, Mario characters and so on. Also if you rip graphics from different games 1) it will look awful for sure 2) your game will lack of personality, you can do the best gameplay around, but it will lack an own soul, and will sucks.