Looking for an artist to collaborate on a shooter

[Lochlan]

Hi!

I have a working game engine for a horizontal shooter and I am stuck on the art.  I'm fairly far along, the engine supports multiple enemy types and objects through a kind of primitive polymorphism, has collision detection, etc.  It's also fairly fast, I can support a pretty large number of objects on-screen simultaneously.  A lot of the finer points haven't been handled (how I handle player death, points, etc.) but that's largely because I've been trying to figure out the graphics myself...and failing to come up with satisfactory results!

Are there any artists here who might be interested in collaborating?  I want the game to be a fairly generic space shooter, thematically and visually.  I would need to maintain creative control of the project.

I'm not ready to show off to the forums at-large (my graphics suck!!) but I'm happy to e-mail a ROM of my WIP to anyone who might be seriously interested.   I am willing to do some kind of profit sharing with an artist who works on this project with me through completion, although any interested party should be aware that this a labor of love and realistically there is no money in this.

Anyway, if this sounds like something you (or somebody you know) could be interested in, please send me a PM (preferably with a link to some kind of portfolio).

Thanks for looking!

[Punch]

While I'm not an artist I'm looking forward to this game. Come on, share us some screenshots (:

[Tatsujin]

i would if i could but i can't 

hope you will find some nice artists for a soon awesome shoot'em up on our beloved system d'obey

[sunteam_paul]

Get the game in a serious state of readyness, use crappy temp artwork for the time being.

If you build it, the artists will come...

[lord_cack]

Man, I have been working on some art for action side scrollers,  ARPG's, RPG's, platformers..... but shooters, not my thing. I hope some one comes around to help you out. Also, I have tons of stuff on my plate at the moment and more that I would like to do.

[Tatsujin]

I vote for paul as one of the most amazing "pixel artist" I have seen

[Lochlan]

Get the game in a serious state of readyness, use crappy temp artwork for the time being.

I don't know what constitutes a "serious" state, but it's already quite far along (engine-wise...level design still needs to happen).  IDK if Arkhan has showed you the ugly demo, but all the major components are in-place.  I haven't handled stuff like explosion animations etc. etc. but I feel stifled by a lack of art when it comes to that stuff.  My crappy temp artwork is seriously crappy!  I need something good!  Temporary artwork is fine, but I think people underestimate the role of graphics as a component of the mechanics.

Anyway,

Do you know of a better place to find a collaborator?  Maybe a pixel-art-centric site?  I'm totally ignorant of that world.  So far I've gotten only one very friendly but half-hearted offer, with many disclaimers of "I probably don't have time for this."

[TheOldMan]

My crappy temp artwork is seriously crappy!  I need something good!

If you really feel that way, why not look at some games you like, and 'borrow' the sprites, etc. from them? That should at least give you a feel for how you want the graphics to look, and how much VRAM they are gonna use.  They should be easily replaceable when you find an artist, and will allow you to sort out all the things that are missing.

[Lochlan]

^ I've been trying to avoid that route just because I think it's kinda lame...not to mention copyright infringement.  (Yeah, yeah, I know I'm not going to get sued--I'm just not into the idea.)  But maybe I'll just bite the bullet and move that direction anyway, something is better than nothing!

[TheOldMan]

My bad. I'm not advocating taking sprites from another game, so much as re-creating something similar to what you want. There aren't that many ways to draw a ship (or explosion, or shot) and still have it recognizeable. If you re-create it, it is unlikely you will have the exact same palette, etc.
AFAIK, it's not (yet) illegal to mimic someone elses work....

As far as copyright infringement: as an unreleased work, using the graphics as placeholders, I don't see a problem with that - but I'm not a lawyer. As long as everyone who plays it knows that the sprites are based on another game and will not be in the final, released version, I don't see a problem.

And you might actually come up with something you like from trying to copy something else
Fwiw: I'm sure there are free-to-use sprites out there. You just have to look long and hard in google

[Nando]

What paul and the old man said. Proof of concept and mockups help a ton.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Placeholder's are no problem.  For instance, I haven't worked on the Title Screen theme for Jungle Bros., so in it's place, we have the Sanford & Son theme until I do!

[touko]

@lochlan: You have ari feldman's sprites lib.
It's GPL and free to use for commercial or not .

http://www.widgetworx.com/widgetworx/portfolio/spritelib.html

[Siskan]

I might be able to assist. Some stuff by me:

(24*) (24) (9)
The original pocket watch design belongs to Daisuke Moriyama. The singer depicts Joey Tempest. Others are my original characters.
*Color count.

Currently working on this piece (the lake was previously a sky, so it needs some adjustments to mend the messed up perspective):


If you're interested, I'd like some more info myself before promising anyhting.

[touko]

Wahou,beautiful.