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Royalty free art assets

12 replies [Last post]
Sun, 10/02/2016 - 14:14
Kirkatronics
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Since I can't find an artist willing to work without guaranteed payment I've decided to go with free art until my kickstarter campaign finishes.

I've been looking around and can't really find anything of the quality AND volume I need for my card game.

I'm looking for a set containing either 10 Knight/armoured characters, 10 Robin hood or thief characters, and 10 magical style characters.

I've looked at a few sites now and the best seems to be http://opengameart.org/ but it doesn't quite have what I want.

Can anyone suggest the best place to go?

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Sun, 10/02/2016 - 14:49
#1
andymorris
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Take a look at these

Here's an article with 9 suggestions for free art. Maybe one of them will work for you. Good luck.

http://www.boardgamebuilders.com/news/2016/6/12/9-sources-of-images-and-...

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Sun, 10/02/2016 - 14:57
#2
ElKobold
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It will be extremely

It will be extremely difficult (if at all possible) to run a successful campaign without any investment.

Assuming you'll use stock art (which already lowers your chances of success):

What about advertisement?
Review copies and shipment of review copies?

I would probably suggest going through a publisher in that case.

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Sun, 10/02/2016 - 15:05
#3
questccg
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Can't use copyrighted material

The reality is this: You can't use copyrighted material for a KS. First of all you are not the owner of said artwork and secondly you do not have permission to use the artwork for promotion purposes.

If you are trying FREE artwork (Open Art), maybe like icons and such... There are some good resources. But artwork like "Fantasy Art" might get used by many people and then people on your KS will be: "I've seen this artwork used on another game..."

It will be difficult to HIDE that you are using FREE artwork.

My suggestion is the following: find an artist that you feel can do justice for the type of artwork you want. Spend like $1,000 for a few samples of artwork that you can use on the KS page. This could include Logo, Box Cover and maybe a board and some cardbacks or cards themselves...

This way nobody will be able to say you "stole" or are using "Open Art". You'll give KS backers an IDEA about what your game will ultimately look like!

Cheers.

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Sun, 10/02/2016 - 16:12
#4
radioactivemouse
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Sorry for being blunt.

Not having secured the artwork before your Kickstarter is huge detriment to your campaign. Not only do you have to secure an artist, you have to approve and edit all the graphic design work, box art, and rulebook art. That takes a lot of time.

By using free art, you are short-changing your fans...assuming your Kickstarter successfully funds.

Now you have to take time out of promoting your Kickstarter to solve this problem, which is going to severely limit how you grow your campaign.

My personal opinion would be to scrap the Kickstarter, re-plan EVERYTHING, then come back again....secure the artist, finalize the game (even blind play test it), get distribution channels locked in, setup your promotion team, plan your convention tour, get real business people to help plan this out.

But if you're stuck in a rut and you are on a train you can't get off of, the best solution is to find and secure an artist NOW. Go to a local college and grab an up and coming artist. Go to artist meetups. Find someone NOW and get their art on your Kickstarter page before your campaign ends so that you can make your final push.

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Sun, 10/02/2016 - 16:51
#5
Kirkatronics
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Hi guys, thanks for

Hi guys, thanks for responding. I appreciate bluntness, so don't worry about being too frank with me.

I think my initial post was badly written, and unclear what my actual scenario is.

I have a game currently being prodded, poked, and taken to pieces by play-testers and proof-readers as we speak. I did have an artist, a very good one, but he could no longer invest in my idea due to financial and time constraints.

My initial thoughts were to develop the game to a point where all that is needed is the art work, then launch a kickstarter using placeholder art, explaining that the artists will get to work after funding is recevied. Showing some of the art already created as a preview of what is to come.

Reading your responses it seems like this may be a bad idea, and that I should invest heavily in the artwork (Amongst other things) before even thinking about launching a kickstarter.

Once again, thank you for being honest and open with me.

andymorris wrote:
Here's an article with 9 suggestions for free art. Maybe one of them will work for you. Good luck.

http://www.boardgamebuilders.com/news/2016/6/12/9-sources-of-images-and-artwork-for-game-prototypes

Thanks, i will take a look, even if its just for the prototypes.

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Sun, 10/02/2016 - 20:32
#6
ElKobold
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Kirkatronics wrote: My

Kirkatronics wrote:

My initial thoughts were to develop the game to a point where all that is needed is the art work, then launch a kickstarter using placeholder art, explaining that the artists will get to work after funding is recevied. Showing some of the art already created as a preview of what is to come.

- this can work.
Any chance you could share some of those samples with us?

Kirkatronics wrote:

Reading your responses it seems like this may be a bad idea, and that I should invest heavily in the artwork (Amongst other things) before even thinking about launching a kickstarter.

Not really. You don't need _all_ your artwork before launch. You need enough to give backers an idea what it's gonna look like when ready. Of course, you should be careful with how much you leave for "after it's funded" so that it doesn't delay your delivery too much.

But don't use stock artwork alongside your 'real' artwork. You can use the same image 20 times if you need to, just make it obvious that it's a placeholder and slap a "Prototype" label over it.

What you do need before launch, however, is a more or less finalized art design. And that can be as big a challenge as getting the artwork done.

Good luck.

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Tue, 10/04/2016 - 14:30
#7
saluk
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Yeah, you don't need

Yeah, you don't need everything to run the kickstarter - just enough to give people a good idea of what to expect. For instance:

"I'm looking for a set containing either 10 Knight/armoured characters, 10 Robin hood or thief characters, and 10 magical style characters."

You really only need 1 of each for the kickstarter. "There are fighters [show mage], thieves [show thief] and mages [show magical character]"

But having an artist who you know will continue to work on the project after launch, and having those 3 representatives of each class be from that artist, will help make it more tangible. The thing with kickstarter to remember, especially now, is that no one expects a kickstarter project to be finished (why is it on there then?), but they DO expect to get a good sense that the project is "real", in the sense that the creators know what they are doing, and will probably actually finish and in a timely manner. It's gotten a lot harder I think to convince people that this is the case.

Kickstarter is this weird mixture of an investment pitch, a fundraising-athon, and a prerelease advertising campaign. You really want to make sure each of those three pillars is strong.

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Tue, 10/04/2016 - 15:46
#8
-Eberhardt-
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@kirkatronics

Kirkatronics wrote:
I've looked at a few sites now and the best seems to be http://opengameart.org/

Didn't know of this one so Thank you. :) Sadly the only one I know of is thenounproject.com and you give them credit if you use it for standard work but I believe you have to pay if you use it for produced work. There is a portion of their site that covers this.

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Thu, 10/06/2016 - 13:52
#9
larienna
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When you are runnning a KS

When you are runnning a KS campaign, people expect to pay for art. You could maybe buy a few piece of art to show "This is how it should look like" without buying all pieces of art. Make sure the artist are willing to commit themselves if you win the campaign. Then when you get funded, pay for the missing art.

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Thu, 10/06/2016 - 14:47
#10
ElKobold
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larienna wrote:When you are

larienna wrote:
When you are runnning a KS campaign, people expect to pay for art. You could maybe buy a few piece of art to show "This is how it should look like" without buying all pieces of art. Make sure the artist are willing to commit themselves if you win the campaign. Then when you get funded, pay for the missing art.

This might be problematic if your game needs lots of artwork though.
Expect a single illustration to take anywhere between 2-5 days to complete by a single artist.

Of course, you can contract more than one, but then you should worry about their style to match both your game and each other.

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Fri, 09/08/2017 - 00:21
#11
gibo1021
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I just found very nice game

I just found very nice game assets also here. https://mobilegamegraphics.com/ Which is i bought some of their assets and they also have a free stuff as well.

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Fri, 09/08/2017 - 10:47
#12
spaff
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Joined: 11/05/2015
A small piece of wisdom I've

A small piece of wisdom I've found helpful, if somewhat tangential.

Don't expect other people to invest in your idea of you aren't willing to invest yourself.

Just to say- people aren't going to invest money if you haven't invested money. Why would they? If you don't think your game is worth putting money towards why would someone else? Sweat equity will only get you so far.

Art is the biggest show of what your upfront investment is in the board game kickstarter world. It's not just about looks (though it is that), but how people perceive your personal investment in the game.

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