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Midnight Spire Games2 years ago (1 edit) (+5)

Leave the final art until later.  The reason is that you probably don't know exactly what art you need at the beginning.  If you buy or create art before prototyping the game, you are likely to find that some of it doesn't meet your needs and has to be redone or replaced.  It's generally best to start with placeholder art and fill in the real art as you go.  A five-second scribble or grey box works just fine at an early stage.

As for how to get started, if you don't have a programming background, I would probably just pick a free engine like Unity or Godot and start doing the tutorials.  They start out very basic.  What technologies work best for a given project just depends on the nature of the project and your personal preferences.  I would really recommend doing some small projects first to get used to the process, decide if you like the tools you are using, and get some rookie mistakes out of the way.  If you are starting from scratch and try to jump straight into a large and complex project, you will probably have a difficult time.

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Medinut2 years ago

Thank you! I guess I should break it down a bit more since I feel like I am making the whole thing complicated for myself. (BTW I guess I failed to explain about the layout design part...I started on that earlier because I thought if I am designing a room escaping game I should work on how the room looks and how the props in the room can help the player. But I am sure that I am a bit off track since I did spend a lot of time tangling in art. Thank you again!)

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Eldwood2 years ago

I'm not sure if I agree with that.  No, wait, I'm pretty sure I disagree with that.

If you're going to be buying stock art, then I think it makes a lot of sense to buy as early as possible, and to design the game around the art instead of the other way around.  Because if you fully design the game before acquiring the art, then you're going to have a very hard time finding the art you need.  The last thing you want is a full game with ugly placeholder art and no way of replacing the placeholder art.

If you're going to make your own art, then having some "real" art is a great way to experiment with and ultimately tie down the look of the game.  It also allows you to quickly identify your limits as an artist.  It's also best to tie down the look of your art as much as possible before you start animating, because it's going to be a lot harder to make changes once you've started animating.  Do test your game, and your art, at all stages of development, but don't put off until the end.  Often the art influences the game as much as the game influences the art.

On the other hand if you're hiring a third party artist to make custom art for actual money, then you probably do want to create placeholder art first, if only so that you can communicate effectively with your artist.

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Midnight Spire Games2 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

I didn't say to put it all off until the end.  The question in the OP was whether to do the programming or the art first, and my advice was to not focus on making art before you know what art you need, in what quantities, and to what specifications.  You don't want to spend days meticulously drawing enemy sprites, only to realize later that you really needed them to be 20% smaller.  Placeholders are what you use to figure that stuff out.

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