So I've never published a game before and have no visual art or graphic design skills! The version of my game, Pixels & Platforms, that I'll be publishing for DREAMJAM is artless (maybe I'll commission art for a "Deluxe" addition in the future), but I'm pretty happy with the layout and presentation otherwise (although I'm sure it could be better).

That being said, I'd like to at least make a simple logo / "cover art" for the game to get it noticed and to make the itch.io page look better, but I'm struggling really hard with how to do it. I've considered scraping something together using open source pixel art from Open Game Art, but again, no visual design skills.

I've also tried finding an online logo generator with an appropriate text or font-style, but haven't found anything free that I felt good about. How do people make their logos / cover arts?!

Hello! Hmmm I usually make my stuff by downloading pictures from either unsplash.com or oldbookillustrations.com, and then laying out on the first page with a table and fancy fonts. For the itchio icon I use Canva to throw something together! Canva is a free app and you can throw together some shapes/clipart I think.

I hope some of this helps! Someone else may have more specific advice about logo making 🌸

I've become a fan of this site, too. It's public domain magazines & comic books from last century.

https://comicbookplus.com/

If you have no design/graphic skills currently, there's no better way to learn than a practical project :-) 

You mention wanting to stand out on itch.io, so the first thing I would suggest is finding what your neighbors art looks like. Whatever categories you might fit into and find yourself competing with, scour through them. If everyone is doing detailed, Swords&Sorcery style cover art, do something simple. If everyone is using a multitude of colour, opt for something with a minimal palette. I think you can see where I'm going with this.

For the logo itself, try to really figure out what you are looking for style wise. Look at other logos to try and find the feel you want. Go to https://dribbble.com/ and search for "style of game + logo" and most likely there will be stuff to see for inspiration. Then start drawing those logos yourself by hand on a piece of paper, and doing variations of them once you get comfortable. Don't worry too much about details, just get the basic shapes right. Just get used to drawing these sorts of objects.

Then, just jump into drawing your logo. Take your ideas and distill them down as much as possible. Feel free to explore, and do as many variations as you can. Do it until you never want to draw another logo again.

Then from the mountain of them all, look through and start taking notes of the ones you like. Make note of what it is you like about them, and try to figure out specifics. Make notes of ones you don't like, why you don't like them, what you might be able to change so they were better.

Then, take all your notes and re-draw all those logos a few more times, tightening up the design, and see which ones are starting to stand out more now that you have refined them a little.

When you've got something you think you can work with, take one of the free software options out there and start learning how to convert your drawing into a digital file with your chosen software. 

If along the way you need some help, let me know. It'd be hard to teach you everything about logo design in the remaining time, but I'm willing to help out as much as I can. :-)

P.S. Another art-asset option worth looking through, all sort of different packs available. https://www.kenney.nl/

Thank you everyone for all of this advice! I've chosen to commission a piece from an artist on fiverr who I've worked with before and does good work, because I just don't have much skill or passion for visual design. We haven't finalized the deal yet so if it falls through for some reason then I will make a mad-dash with some of this advice haha, but if this commission does work out, I think it'll look really good.