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Graphics Software Entertainment Games

Game Assets For Open Source Games? 42

Posted by simoniker from the nes-sprite-rips-not-counted dept.
Ron Harwood writes "As a developer of an open source game - and having zero artistic talent - I find one of the biggest challenges is finding graphics (and potentially sounds) that can be distributed freely. Are there any good repositories of game assets (tiles, sprites, 3D meshes, sounds, music, etc.) out there?"
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Game Assets For Open Source Games? More

Game Assets For Open Source Games?

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  • Have to plug my own project (Score:5, Informative)

    by MrAndrews ( 456547 ) <mcm@1889.BOYSENca minus berry> on Sunday June 15, 2003 @07:45PM (#6207812) Homepage
    (You understand I can't pass up an opportunity like this to plug my own project. I'm sorry it's so self-serving)

    I've recently 'opened' the creative guts of my animated series (including concepts, technologies, artwork etc), and am in the process of releasing content bit by bit, and it so if you're interested, you can use and modify the stuff already up there at Dustrunners.com [dustrunners.com] or request new assets in the games stream [dustrunners.com] on the site.

    It's just getting rolling, but I'm sure there's something there that could help you...

  • This seem to be a big problem for a lot of open source games. Using the Warcraft II data files, Freecraft is a very good game, but when you use it's own art, it looks pretty bad. It is getting better, and pretty soon should it should have a complete set of artwork to make the game look okay.

  • If there isn't one, there should be. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tom7 ( 102298 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @07:52PM (#6207875) Homepage Journal
    Someone with a bunch of bandwidth (sourceforge?) definitely should do it. I'd be happy to contribute my game data from days past...

  • Rip sounds from GPL projects (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Christ-on-a-bike ( 447560 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @07:53PM (#6207879)
    I have a little GPL'd game on Sourceforge as well (It's a 'Space Hulk' clone, in case you care: Sulk [sf.net]) and I've found that for smaller parts of the project, ripping from other GPL'd games can be worthwhile.

    Specifically, I took a couple of sounds for my user interface from Powermanga [linux.tlk.fr]. The license allows this kind of thing, so why not? In this sense my game is a 'derived work'.

    There are of course public domain sounds, and indeed graphics, around. It seems pretty hard to find good ones that you can be sure are genuinely PD.

    • If you ripped sounds from another project, aren't they included in the "artwork" for which you claim copyright on the page?

      The least you could do is give credit where credit is due.

      • If you ripped sounds from another project, aren't they included in the "artwork" for which you claim copyright on the page?

        Fair comment, 'artwork' can be taken to include sounds.

        I don't plan to put such credits on the front page as it is already cluttered with 'mandatory' copyright information. TLK Games are credited in the README and other files that come in the distribution, as are the font creators (I am distributing non-free fonts, in fact) and co-authors. I've now updated the page to more accur

  • Is The Opposite Out There? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Sunday June 15, 2003 @08:15PM (#6208016) Homepage
    I, like the poster, have no artistic skill, but I love to program and would love to work on games. Is there something the opposite of what the poster asks, in a way? Is there a site that has the art and game ideas where the people are looking for programmers to make their game? So the concept and all the art would be there, I would just have to make the engine?

    • Re:Is The Opposite Out There? (Score:5, Informative)

      by FrenZon ( 65408 ) * on Sunday June 15, 2003 @10:49PM (#6208970) Homepage
      Is there a site that has the art and game ideas where the people are looking for programmers to make their game?
      Check out the forums at garagegames [garagegames.com] - there are heaps of people in there with great ideas just DYING for people like you.
      • Moreover, there's a GarageGames thread about a site which will host assets of "dead" projects, with a very permissive license.

        The thread is here [garagegames.com]. I'm not sure if it's in a public forum or not.
    • Hey, if you ever liked the game Actraiser (the first one, not the sequel) for SNES, and would like to re-create a game like it for Linux/Windows or whatever, look me up. I'd really consider putting aside time to work on art, music, and sound for a game like that.
    • There might not be people waiting for you to put their game together, but there's certainly an amount of computer graphic art people out there. Try Deviant-Art [deviantart.com] for starters. They offer a HUGE library of images made by PEOPLE. The images themselves probably aren't that useful, though there are a few people who make icons and pixel art that might be useful. The point here isn't to lift people's work but to find useful points of contact. Say hi, appreciate their art, and invite them to help. Expect a lot of re

  • See also (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 15, 2003 @08:20PM (#6208043)
    Previous discussion on free graphics [slashdot.org]
  • All you need is a couple blue super novas made in the gimp, a 3D model of tux driving a kart, some advertisements for Linux websites, and you're golden.

  • Polycount (Score:4, Interesting)

    by critter_hunter ( 568942 ) <(moc.liamtoh) (ta) (retnuh_rettirc)> on Sunday June 15, 2003 @08:41PM (#6208195)
    Polycount [planetquake.com] has lots of free graphics. Sure, you'll have to credit the author, but I don't think that's a problem. A friend of mine has an Hack'n'Slash game [sourceforge.net] written in BlitzBasic using a bunch of models he found there. Doesn't look half-bad, either (except for the GUI... that needs work)

    • Yes, but be careful (Score:4, Informative)

      by smcv ( 529383 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:51AM (#6211102) Homepage
      The community around Polycount tends to be strictly opposed to plagiarism, and it seems to a good idea to ask authors' permission before doing anything to their model (as well as being courteous - they like to know that their models are appreciated :-)

      Some models on Polycount don't actually have a permissions statement, meaning that if you want to be picky, it may not even be legal for Polycount to distribute them. Some have non-commercial clauses in the readme, or other encumberances.

      Some Q3 models use, or are based on, Quake 3 stock animations - I'm not sure about the copyright status of these, and whether they're a large enough proportion that the model counts as a derived work.

      As for "Free" rather than "free", I haven't seen a model on Polycount yet that's freely modifiable, or meets the FSF or OSI guidelines for free software/open source software - so if you want open-source code combined with unmodifiable graphics, that's fine, but if you want your artwork to be licensed in the same way as your code, Polycount is unlikely to help you unless you specifically ask the authors for more permission.

      • Quite true - on the other hand, the stuff on Polycount is a great way to have something to show. If your game is playable, you have a chance to build a bit of a fanbase, and to attract artists. Then you have a chance to get some really Free artwork.

        But seeing as how the ratio to "game projects" to "game that are actually written" is very low, and that programmers (or people who think they are programmmers) appear to outnumber artists, I'd venture a guess it's pretty damn hard to get an artist to do some st

  • GarageGames (Score:3, Informative)

    by _iris ( 92554 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @08:44PM (#6208209) Homepage
    While they aren't free, GarageGames offers content packs [garagegames.com]. I'd prefer something ala carte, but the screenshots are enticing.

  • Assets (Score:3, Insightful)

    by executebusiness.com ( 681094 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @08:46PM (#6208231) Homepage Journal
    Your best bet for assets is to study all aspects of game design yourself. I taught college game design and I'll tell you what I tell my students.

    If you want something done you have to rely on yourself. Don't wait for your key models person to come and save your project. Don't rely on anyone at all. Be sure of your concept, and allow it to grow via the process, but remember that it's yours and you are ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the project. Learn to do the aspects of the game you need yourself. Take the time to learn Maya, and learn Soundforge and learn Photoshop. If you really canâ(TM)t do art at all, you will need to team up with an artist, but I would limit your team to two members until you have a demo. Otherwise you spend all your time managing the team and no time producing your vision.
  • I'm not sure what kind of game you're doing, but if you're out to do an RPG, you might consider RPG Maker. From what I've gathered, you're making your own engine, but there's a big RPG Maker community out there (since it got translated by Don Miguel) and they contribute a whole bunch of circa 1995-style sprites and so forth.

    But if you're looking for help with a more modern (i.e. 3d) game, if you're really on the lookout for talent, you should see if there are any universities around with graphic arts prog

  • Try here... (Score:3, Informative)

    by bluemeep ( 669505 ) <bluemeep@gmaOOOil.com minus threevowels> on Sunday June 15, 2003 @10:32PM (#6208883) Homepage
    The folks on the Game Maker [cs.uu.nl] forum are generally open with spriting assistance. You've usually gotta have something code-wise to entice them into helping out, but that'll probably be the case in a lot of situations when you need media handouts.

  • FPS/Quake type textures (Score:3, Informative)

    by pmsyyz ( 23514 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @12:24AM (#6209396) Homepage Journal
    Quake Retexturing Project
    http://www.quake.cz/winclan/qe1/

  • a few thoughts (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Most games these days are staffed for 75% artists and 25% programmers or so. This isn't the Atari 2600 days any more, where a programmer can do the art himself. A good game needs good art. Unfortunately, this problem of having no artists is going to happen a lot with open source games. Lots of coders know about the open source as itâ(TM)s talked about everywhere. But the traditional artist has no clue even what open source is. Outside of finding some talent for your own game, the best bet is tryi
    • One issue that artists face and programmers do not is the reusability of code. Many open source projects are spawned by the reuse of a project that has already made money as a proprietary project, or which can be used to make money but is not itself commercial.

      Often, a company making something Open Source needs a particular program to work but makes it open source to avoid development costs for something that isn't part of their core business.

      Finally, some companies Open Source a project simply because th

  • Do it yourself (Score:5, Informative)

    by erinacht ( 592019 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:37AM (#6209749) Homepage
    Don't give me "I can't draw" like you're proud of it or something.

    The last new programming language or algorythm you worked on took studying, right?

    visit Learn To Draw [learn-to-draw.com] and surprise yourself!

    you might not end up with the mona lisa, but you'll finish up with something better than the nothing you have right now.

    When your game looks reasonable, there will be a better chance of attracting an "artist" to help you.

    • How about open source spirit, the people who know how to do something well working on what it is they do well? If you are going to get uptight about someone claiming to have no talent at something, at least respect their honesty. One person can't build good software alone, so why should they be expected to provide good game assets?

      Not to mention that this utterly fails to address the need for sound fx.

      • Fair point I suppose, but you missed the point completely.

        The point was - do it yourself to some basic level to make it look good enough that an artist will be happy to help you along.

        My game [coralquest.com] looked like complete shit until an artist added a few touches - especially the logo

        Okay it still needs some work, but it's getting there.

        If the game didn't exist with my primitive attempts, the artist wouldn't have been motivated to help.

        On re-reading my intended helpful post does look a little cold - wasn't
  • I don't know about repositories of art, etc. It sounds problematic because people at least want CREDIT for what they've done, if not compensation. And art is somewhat different than code - it's difficult to open source.

    Although maybe you folks want to look at Gamasutra [gamasutra.com]? It's certainly more company-oriented, but you may be able to find someone there...

  • Try here (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well, I run a site devoted to Macintosh developers, called " iDevGames [idevgames.com]." We do host public domain game assets and donated game assets. I have also donated lots of free game assets which I created, however they fall under my special "iDevGame License." Which in a nutshell means, you MUST release a Mac game first before using any of my game assets. 8P I have made tiles, GUIs, backgrounds, sounds, etc. I have yet to make meshes as they take too much time. Well, that is my plug. There are many sites devoted to "
  • I do some 3D stuff my C4D site [preik.net], One other recent quick pic [preik.net], just a hobby, but if the right project came along it might be fun to do some 3D work. I had great fun doing Morrowind stuff, but it required a far too expensive program for graphic work. Cinema 4D [maxon.net] was more affordable for me but was incompatible.

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