I'm just about finished with a top down "tower defense" style game, kind of like plants vs zombies with lots of invaders and upgrades and levels. I need to swap out the generic graphics for quality graphics. I'm open to suggestions for style of art; 8-bit pixels, cartoony, photo-realistic, whatever you like.
The game is in the style of traditional fantasy, but the coding is such that I can easily modify it to be modern warfare, sci-fi, or even kid-friendly with stuffed animals or Santa Claus.
The game is currently Windows and Flash compatible, and I have recently started work on porting it to iOS and Android.
All suggestions will be gladly considered. You can email me using my username at hotmail.
It would help to post a screen shot of what you have now and point to the elements you want to replace. Other important considerations are the tile size (32x32, 64x64, etc.), detail of the graphics desired (more detail = more work, thus more cost), vector art vs. pixel art, and color pallet.
There are a lot of top-down style graphics on this site if you want to look around and get an idea of exactly what you need. When I first came to OpenGameArt I was looking for game resources too. I'm a software developer and have next to zero graphics talent but this community has been great about helping. Feel free to ask questions.
infinitum3d, I have uploaded some top-downish RTS sprites in this site. You can find them here:
http://opengameart.org/users/andrettin
The gold mine and the dwarven buildings might be of particular interest to you.
@William. Thanks for the reply. As I said, I'm not particular and I don't have any specifics in mind. Size is irrelevant as I can scale it with code. Detail, type, and color palette are at the artist's discretion. Again, I'm open to suggestions from artists, and I'm willing to work with whatever the artist's strengths are.
@Andrettin. Thanks for the reply. I like your art, however, they are isometric, not directly top down. I may be able to use them, but I'll need to change some code to handle layers differently. I'll see what I can do.
Hey infinitum3d, the art isn't mine, but of artists from whom I commissioned it. You are correct that it is not strictly top-down, but it isn't isometric either - it is something in-between (inspired by Warcraft 2 style graphics), designed to work with a top-down engine, while still giving the player a better view of what buildings and units look like.
I do like the art and I'll try a couple in my engine to see what works.
We have the Liberated Pixel Cup graphics if you're interested in an SNES style feel. I've been helping develop that set for a while now and it's grown into a pretty decent set so far. Here's the official style guide, assets, and HTML5 demo:
http://lpc.opengameart.org/static/lpc-style-guide/index.html
You can also find more of this style in the Liberated Pixel Cup collection:
http://opengameart.org/content/liberated-pixel-cup-0
All my contributions should be in that collection.
I really like it! I don't think it will work for my current game, but I have been sketching out plans for an RPG as my next project.
Surt has some pretty good looking 8-bit graphics if that's what you want. He has some side scroll type stuff too:
http://opengameart.org/users/surt
Kenny made a good amount of side scroll stuff here too if this is the style you're after:
http://opengameart.org/content/platformer-art-complete-pack-often-updated
Redshrike has made some pretty nice looking tower defense graphics here:
http://opengameart.org/content/tower-defense-prototyping-assets-4-monste...
I'm still trying to figure out what you really want. I can keep suggesting stuff but you'll probably need to settle on a style/theme/main idea before anyone can really help you.
I'm currently using Gauntlet style art from here by ... Can't remember off hand. I'm at work and posting from my phone. It's great and I wouldn't mind using it as my final art. Obviously I'd credit the artist and include links, but there are limited sprites and I'd like more. I contacted the artist a couple times but never heard back.
I prefer cartoon'ish cute funny sprites so like angry birds and appropriate for kids.
Maybe you could use some glitch assets then:
http://opengameart.org/content/glitch-sprite-assets-huge-collection
Those are cartoonish and can be used in a top-down manner. There is a large collection of assets available related to that style and they all work together.
Thanks again to everyone for all their help. I'll be posting screen shots soon and I have a Proof of Concept demo in Flash. I'll post the link when I get home. The graphics are really embarrassing so far. Layout and design are not my strong suits. But the overall game does work. I just need to add more details and change out the graphics and my web version will be ready. Then I'll port to Apple and finally Android.