This jam is now over. It ran from 2019-09-30 14:00:00 to 2020-01-04 13:00:00. View 10 entries

Introduction

Welcome to Diverse Art Jam! This jam focuses on creating stock art for games featuring underrepresented character types such as:

Non-white characters.
Transgender or intersex characters.
Fat or obese characters.
Non-sexualised female characters.
Characters with disabilities.
Elderly characters.
Characters wearing religious/cultural garments such as veils.
Characters that combine multiple traits from the above.

The intent of this jam is to create assets which can be used by indie game developers without art skills, and as such, submissions must include some form of licence permitting commercial use. This jam was inspired by a lack of diverse representation in TTRPG stock art, however participants are welcome to also submit other types of game assets to address gaps in representation.

Please note that irrelevant or offensive submissions may be removed from the jam - see the FAQs below for further information.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I retain rights to my work if I submit to this jam? Yes. Nothing in this jam contemplates transfer of rights, only the inclusion of a licence for commercial use on any terms you specify.

Can I submit preexisting work? Yes, so long as it is in keeping with the theme and with the guidelines below, existing work can be submitted to this jam.

What sort of art should I submit? You are welcome to submit art from any genre, in any style and for any medium that interests you, though please focus on either humans or humanoid characters for this jam. If you are submitting art for use in tabletop roleplaying games, note that these are generally published on either US Letter or A4 paper size, most commonly in portrait format with the title in the top quarter/third of the page and a smaller credit line in the bottom quarter/third. Useful art may include full-page illustrations, cover art or quarter/half page spot art with a transparent background.

Do I need to submit on Itch? No. There are some advantages to doing so, such as easy access to developers and the ability to choose your own licence, however if you prefer to upload to another platform, please leave a link to your content in the forum. You can also choose to post your work on multiple platforms.

How should I price my work? For this jam, try to balance fair payment for the artist with accessibility for developers. This may include price tiers based on usage rights or end product volumes, offering volume discounts for a bundle or even unbundling and allowing purchase of individual assets. Creative Market provides one example of a tiered licensing model, where the "standard" commercial licence allows for 5,000 end products: this is sufficient for most indie game developers. ZapSplat offers non-attribution rights at its gold tier. As further context, the DriveThruRPG metals page provides an overview of indie RPG/supplement sales by tier, as well as the pricing of individual titles, where "Copper" means 51+ sales, Silver is 101+ sales, Electrum is 251+ sales, Gold is 501+ sales, Platinum is 1001+ sales, Mithral is 2501+ sales and Adamantine is 5001+ sales (with ~5% buffer for each as only direct sales are counted).

What sort of licence should I include? You can either use an existing licence such as Creative Commons or create your own. The licence should specify in clear terms how the asset can be used, including any volume or product type limitations, whether or not modification is allowed, whether the asset can be included in a format that allows direct copying (e.g. in a zip folder or as part of the game files) and any other relevant terms. You may want to include a code of conduct provision stating that the asset cannot be used to create content which is racist, sexist, queerphobic, ableist or otherwise hateful or discriminatory.

Is sexy art allowed? Explicit or overly suggestive art is outside of the scope of this jam, but you can choose to depict "sexy" characters so long as you comply with the rules of the platform you are using (e.g. Itch) and so long as the art is consistent with the spirit of the jam. “Chainmail bikini” style art is generally out of scope, especially if the character in question is white, cisgender, thin and female, as are any over-exaggerated depictions of gender/sex diverse characters or fetishised depictions of PoC. If in doubt, consider the following questions:

Is this character type underrepresented in the games industry?
Does the art depict the character in a positive and empowering light, or in a position of weakness?
Is the focal point of the image the character's face, or somewhere else on their body?
Does the character's clothing make sense for the climate/weather, environment and social context?
Have I performed sufficient research into this depiction, or am I basing my art on assumptions?
Does my product description contain any of the following words (typically a bad sign for stock art): exotic, oriental, sensual, coy?

I’m not an artist, but I’d like to contribute. What can I do? Firstly, please share this jam on social media, using #DiverseArtJam! Additionally, you can contribute suggestions in the jam comments: please note that artists will need a full licence to use and commercially exploit those ideas without attribution. Some artists may also benefit from inputs from the marginalised communities they attempt to depict – if this is something you can help with, please post an explanation of your skills or links to any relevant resources in the jam comments.

itch.io

Diverse Art Jam

Introduction

Frequently Asked Questions

Further Reading

Submissions(10)