There already exists a wealth of quality, open-licensed game art that could be uploaded and archived here at OpenGameArt. Getting it all together requires a lot of effort,
But everyone can help in some way!
#1. Find Projects!
There are countless obscure game projects with excellent art. Tell us about them! In this thread, post links to open-licensed (generally GPL or CC) game projects with good art. If possible, also find the contact information for the project lead or the lead artist.
#2. Contact People!
It's nice to ask permission, even when the license permits us to upload an entire archive to OGA. Also, some artists might dig the idea of OpenGameArt and release their art if given the opportunity. Ask project leads, lead artists, and your favorite artists.
#3. Uploading Files
Once we have permission and we've verified the licenses are good to go, we need volunteers with time to gather these resources and upload them to OGA. Packing art, using quality meta-data, and finding good previews take time. If you have time and want to help OGA, this is a great way.
I will monitor this thread and keep a list of projects with good art, along with contact info and upload status. If you want to help in any of the above ways, please jump in!
Project list:
I don't want to sound harsh or whatever, but this is funny. Some while ago, when I read that 0AD released all their art to the public I suggested to ask them if we could post it here and you guys (don't remember who) said like "we don't do such things". Now I don't want to spend my time on this anymore :(
Anyways, if now "we do it", I suggest 0AD, they have great art!
Edit: It's just that it bugs me when something is first "no" and then "yes".
@Pompei: I'm not sure what the rationale for that would have been, or who said it. At the moment, I think it would be a really good idea.
Please also bear in mind that there are a lot of different people around here with varying opinions, none of whom completely speak for the whole community (that goes for me, too). So it's not likely that the same person who said it would be a bad idea is now saying it's a good one. :)
Regardless, I think it might be a good idea to bring in 0AD's content, with their permission.
Ryzom, an MMO, went mostly free a few months ago. All their assets are CC-BY-SA, available from media.ryzom.com. But I think all their 3D models are done in 3DSMax. Not perfect for this place, I know, but not a deal-breaker, right?
Blender can load 3ds files fine, as far as I know.
I think the reasoning behind not just "mirroring" art from game projects was that that it is a very moving target, and little additional benefit could be taken from just putting (soon outdated) stuff here too.
What I think would have some merit though would be for example to take all the palm trees from 0AD convert them to a fiendly format and upload them as a "0AD tree pack" or something like that to OGA.
--
http://freegamedev.net
I agree with what Julius said, OGA shouldn't be just an additional archive for stuff. What would be useful is to take assets and make more generic packs, where the assets could be used for a wider range of purposes and would also be presented in a different way. Not "Stuff from Yo Frankie!" but "low-poly rocks pack" and then credited to being from the Yo Frankie! game.
Mentioning this, I have the Yo Frankie! DVD here and can see what sort of stuff can be taken from it.
just took a quick look at the ryzom stuff, the 3D assets have the extension ".max", Blender can import ".3ds" .. not sure how to convert that.
Get a working copy of 3dsmax, open files, convert to .3ds (or even better, to .obj) and import into Blender. Of course it gets problematic at the very first step.
What we want to do is not simple mirroring. We want to find art that is highly reusable and enthusiastic artists who want their art on OGA.
In fact, that's how I found out about OGA -- someone simply asked me if I minded if my CC-BY-SA art be hosted here. Now I'm a significant contributor and love this community.
A real update to the thread: Jetrel is helping ask about license info for Wesnoth weapon icons. It is definitely a professional-quality set (I absolutely want to use them in osare!).
Completelly agree on the reusable art part. This reminds me I should go and explore the Yo Frankie! dvd now that I have Blender working again.