It wasn’t long ago I discussed drawing in my blog post “ART DESIGN AND THE DEVELOPMENT HURDLE IT PRESENTS“. Artistic style is one of the biggest challenges most coders will face when going it alone. While there are ways around this at some point you’ll likely have to make something your own.
Asset Packs Are Your Friends
It’s dangerous to go alone, take this. Even Link needed help on his first quest. When learning to code and learning to draw at the same time you can’t just sit around waiting to get better. You’ll be adding assets to tutorials and your demo projects almost instantly. If you’re not an artist already you’ll need some support. Every game design program has its store and plenty of assets to choose from. Some of the assets you’ll find that are free are pretty well done.
Check the stores from your program of choice often. Unity has free stuff, Unreal has monthly free packs as does GameMaker Studio (paid versions). One of the best resources for free assets is Kenny. You can always take assets and make them your own by slightly modifying certain aspects of them (please make sure to check usage rights). When you’re just starting, don’t neglect the help.
Learning to Design Your Stuff
I would like to create my character designs. Currently, I’m taking courses and practicing. I’m also putting my sketch archives here on the site. If you’d like to follow my progress you can also FOLLOW my Instagram. Believing that drawing will be my path to success does add pressure to the process. Often when I work on a sketch I think about how I can integrate it into a game. When playing other games or watching videos of other projects it’s an art style that draws me in first. I’ve learned already that where I thought I was going, I’m no longer headed.
After watching some YouTube videos on constructing backgrounds for 2D games I’m not as worried about that. Photoshop is something I am intermediately comfortable with. Designing 2D elements is something I could likely make happen. I’m also less concerned with using asset packs for background elements. I’ll take any help where I can.
Success through Enjoyment
Whether it’s coding or drawing you must be enjoying the process. I enjoy drawing. Taking things learned in lessons and implementing them and seeing improvement. Each time I come up with a good drawing it’s like leveling up.
Of course if you’re leveling up it’s a game. If drawing is the base game, animation is the DLC. But that’s a topic for the future.
