how to find your game artist

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/how to find your game artist

Many thanks ford escort for your gfx. It's not exactly what i want as gfx style.

i begin write a text to explain to an artist my project : English is not soo easy to me. First attemps, sure, there are mistakes and gramatical errors ! Please copy the text inside notepad to read it.

My project is an vertical space shooter, with modern gfx and sounds. . The game target is 

the young players.

Some keyword :
cartoon, fun, colorfull, pixelart but antialiased, photoshop layers, mysterious, funny. 

cybernetic, mecanic, organic,insects.

Me :
i'm an hobbist programmer. i'm 33 yers old. I'm french. I code this game as a dream. I hope 

it will be fun to play. The game is a freeware. I'm not interesting to earn money with it.

The game :


I've an in-game introduction. Score table. Settings. Game timing code. Menus. I've drawing 

four characters (with photoshop and illustrator). The operator, the commander, a girl and a 

boy. The girl and the boy are the pilots ! I've buy a Christopher Hart book to produce them 

'how to draw retro-style characters' ! I use Blitmax langage (by Mark Sibly) to produce the 

code. When i've a problem, the blitz communauty help me ! The project started early 2006. 

I'm the only man who works on it ! I've a dedicated site for the game. Game and site are 

translated into english and french. 

The game music is already produced by some artists. Have the right to use some tracks and 

the others are created especially for the game. The actual gfx are all mine. Is use 

photophop and illustrator to produce them (i've read some tutorials). Often i'm drawing a 

form with illustrator and next apply a layer style with photoshop (to avoid  flat gfx !!!). 

For my gfx, i'm trying to consider that the light is at the top left screen corner. I'm not 

an artist, so i think thaht my gfx are no so bad, but without artistic imagination ! I need 

your help !

The game editor :

It's easy to change all the gfx inside a level without modify the code. Finally the game is 

'skinable'. All the in-level gfx are into the 'map' folder. For example for the world 

'classic'. Inside this folder the modele.ini file describe all the animated and static 

images used for the objects (cannons, chained balls, prisoners bases, ...) and player hud. 

You can also  choose the enemy gfx with the game editor. With the game editor you can 

create a level without a line of code : set Parameters, enemies trajectories, position the 

tiles (on three layers : back, middle and front). You can also create multi-part enemies 

(bigboss), in this case you can describe for each part a movement (with a pseudo langage). 

You can describe for each ennemi three type of shoots (laser, ball which move to player 

direction, guided missiles). Enemies are animated from animstrip images. You can choose 

with the editor the animation frame numbers, the frame width and depth and also an animatio 

preview. From the editor you can also use five 512x512 tileset inside a level. From french, 

i've translated the editor into english (first attempts these days).

I'm searching :

an hobbist artist. Hope you are cheap to produce the gfx as i not earn money on this 

program ! i've a low budget, so i can't pay as an professional artist ! But i'm ready to 

study with you what i can pay you for your work (via paypal). I prefer a modern 2d pixel 

art artist,than a 3d artist. I've no short delay time to produce the gfx. I just want some 

examples of your progress. Generally, i'pay at the beginning of the work, the rest at the 

end when i have the media. i just want the possibility to use the gfx inside my game, but 

the media cant be used into another custommer project if it reduce the price ! Please not 

to old school pixelised gfx ! I'm not interested if you produce only graphics that i can do 

! Really need an artist. I appreciate photoshop artwork.

For the first world i need :

1) a tileset :
2) objects design (cannons, prisoners base, ...)
3) 15 animated enemies 
4) middle boss : serpent.
5) an final muti-part boss enemy


1) 

my game use 32x32pixels tiles. In a level you can use five 512x512 pixels tilesets. The 

game can display three layers. Back, middle, Front. Player ship is displayed on the middle 

layer. So if you design a bridge i can put the tile on the front layer, and tthe player 

ship is displayed below. You can also display animated 32x32 tiles (always on the three 

layers)

I want mix alien mecanic technology (machines) on asteroids. Perhaps some organics gfx. 

Strange and mysterious. Some humour also. Bridges (front layer). I want colorfull gfx. No 

dark ! i don't want a realistic word : just fun to discover.

2) 
At this time, their gfx is very basic. Perhaps it should be a good idea to re-design them 

to fit with the new tileset and enemies design. Some can be integrate as an tileset 

extension. In my mind, this is the turnings and rectilign objects.


3) 
They are animated from the game editor. I don't know how many frame you musts to proper 

animated an enemy ! i can load them with the game editor with any number of frame, or frame 

size. There are flying enemys. aLso Hope insectoid, mecanic, organic. Mix of this three 

thing. Minimum size should be 64x64 pixels. They can fire rockets, balls or laser (i can 

change the shoot image inside the editor for each enemy).

4) cybernetic snake. In fact three enemies. A head. A body part. And the queue. I've 

already mine, but it's crap. The player should begin by destroy the queue, the bodies parts 

and the head at the end.


5) a big animated insect, multi-part. With the game engine you can link each part so the 

player must kill a part before it can destroy another. The bigboss follow a trajectory 

(along splines). Each part can also cumulate another movement with the main trajectory (via 

editor movement pseudo langage, for example t=60a=100r=100 the part advance by 100 pixel 

following a rectilign line, angle = 60 degree, next go backward also to 100 px). FOr 

example the boss could have some part shields. Next when the player kill them it can see 

the mecanic below. All parts be killed and finaly the head. It's just i idea. Also with the 

game engine you can choose where the enemy shoots starts for each part. So the enemy could 

have some weapon part (canon) to destroy. The laser can start from a leg...

Hope this is clear.


i'm tired. Must re-read it tomorrow. It's time for me to go to bed ! Bye !