Game Design?

[SourceCode]

Hey everyone, I have downloaded the demo and I love it. I am a coder getting ready to begin on the art assets for a new indie title I have planned. I was wanting to move away from vectors on this one (like Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator) and have more of a painted feel. I guess my question pertains to the veteran ArtRage users...do you think ArtRage would be a capable platform to produce the graphical style I am looking for? For instance, take a look at the following image:




This is from a Ubisoft title called Child of Light (great game if you happen to be a gamer). Me and my artist are looking for something that is easy to work with. This is the first I've worked with paints for a game, so I am just looking for a little input. What drew me to ArtRage was the simplicity of it. The user interface is awesome and not overly complicated like my Photoshop CS6 or Illustrator. Thanks in advance for the input and I hope I hear what I'm pretty sure I already know, haha.

[Henry Stahle]

I have been using ArtRage for some game design as well as digital storytelling and animation. Working with layers, blending modes, individual texures on each layer and exporting separate layers as individual transparent png files, makes ArtRage exeptional.

I have used the export to psd (with layers) option to open up the file with all layers in Anime Studio or Photoshop for animation, colour correction...and so on.

ArtRage is unique and will add some "natural, painterly, handmade" look to your graphics.

I suppose you also can use ArtRage for sprite maps, I have not tried that...but it should be possible, I guess.

So,, read the manual, and learn the program well...you will love it. I highly recommend it.

[SourceCode]

Thanks so much for the feedback Henry! I am pretty confident that I will be making a purchase today. I took a look at Sketchbook as well and was not pleased. A friend of mine used Toon Boom for a popular indie game he worked on and liked the results but I saw ArtRage and my initial impression was a good one. I can't wait to sit down with my artist and explore it in a little more depth.

[WebRage]

Welcome SourceCode,

We have some video game creators among us, free feel to ask around. You can create natural artwork pieces like that with ArtRage software, adding a rich style/taste to your games.

Then I would suggest using something like "UBIart Framework" to import and animate, creating that 2D gameplay style with a 3D layered look and feel.
While "UBIart framework" might not be currently available to the public, there's a petition to release UbiArt Framework as an Open Source Engine you might be interested in?

You will find that is what was used to create those games, such as Child of Light and Rayman Legends, after the artwork sprites where hand-drawn.

[SourceCode]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome, WebRage!

Yes, I am dying for the Ubiart Framework to be released to the public. For now I am just using Unity 5. It is pretty powerful and simple to use once you learn the ins and outs. Highly stylized games are what I am aiming for. I purchased ArtRage this morning and have been messing around with it pretty much all day and I am loving it. I am pretty confident that I will be using it for my artwork in my new title. You seem pretty knowledgeable about games and the engines they run in! Fellow gamer?

[WebRage]

Ask the boss here, it's a requirement of our job - gaming!
It fuels creativity, problem solving and develops a logical mind. During the weekends, I'll game on.

I'm glad you are enjoying ArtRage, be sure to check out some art tutorials as a good starting point: https://www.artrage.com/tutorials/
The more you explore, the more tools and features you will discover.

[D Akey]

Great info about a world I've not entered except as a player and not for a long while. Glad I eavesdropped. Fascinating.

And good luck with your project!

[SourceCode]

Thanks WebRage, I will most certainly be taking a gander at the tutorials.

D Akey, yes it is a very fascinating world. I like gaming but the games that have REALLY been capturing my attention lately are the ones that have a certain style to them such as Child of Light (above), Affordable Space Adventures, Never Alone, Teslagrad, Tengami, Journey, etc...

I'm not THAT great of an artist but I will be having someone help me out on my artwork thankfully. In the meantime I am still in the midst of taking art lessons as well. I am a programmer by trade and have worked on a few games in the past but this is really the first time I've taken steps to do a game almost entirely by myself. A labor of love, really. Thank you so much for the well wishes, D Akey!

I would also like to point out that the community here keeps drawing me back! I have read through a lot of the posts in these forums and I am really liking the friendly atmosphere! You cannot really say as much for other communities for other software. I can most certainly see myself coming here on a regular basis. Actually, it has already been bookmarked! The atmosphere is great and it is hard to create something like that on a website (I've been a web developer in the past as well, haha).

[Henry Stahle]

We use Corona, the free version, for game / app development. Corona was released as free cross platform this year, before it had a subscribe pay model. It is fast and requires LUA coding. The new Composer Gui will make things more efficient, as well as the Kwik Photoshop plug-in.

[SourceCode]

I had no idea, Corona was free now! I will give it a look today, I've already started a my project off in Unity 5 but if I end up liking Corona I could do my next title in it. I love having options! Thanks for the tip Henry!