Paying for an artist? Stop! Read this first.

[Strum]

If you're thinking of paying someone to do some character sprite and background art the DLSite have some high quality image sets that can be used in both freeware and commercial projects.

Character Sprites
http://www.dlsite.com/eng/work/=/produc ... 39651.html
Each pack comes in a set of 2 characters with a range of poses, costumes and expressions.

Backgrounds
http://www.dlsite.com/eng/work/=/produc ... 66383.html
Each pack comes in 3 resolutions and in a set of 9 images. Some packs have the same background in morning, evening, and night but you still only get 9 in a pack.

Some of you may recognise the sprites and backgrounds in certain existing games already. The only thing you'll need to commission an artist for are the event CGs, that's if you can find an artist that can draw to the same style and quality as the sprites.

[Tsundere Lightning]

If you're making a commercial game, you kind of need unique art for a touch of class. For practice, though, nothing beats a good pre-made set of sprites for learning how to program in art assets.

[Fawn]

I'm going to be honest here, I'm really sick of those sprite sets already... They're good quality, however, the shading used is pretty jarring and style in general is weird-looking. It's a little bothersome seeing them in so many different games, too- they're not really the best for all genres.

[LVUER]

I've made a thread about this in the past... asking whether it's good to use ready-made art out there. For a commercial project, using non-costum assets is a big no-no. The worst, people will call you art-thief for ripping off art from other commercial work.

[Beveque]

I wouldn't buy ready-made backgrounds to begin with, especially since they appear in a lot of games already. :/ If I wanted to do that, I'd just commission an artist who will make backgrounds that are actually unique to my game.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

For a free game, maybe. But you should never use stuff like this for a commercial game.

And maybe I'm just paranoid and cynical, but I'd be kind of afraid that these aren't all actually copy-right free. I mean, there are hundreds between all the volumes available - is this really just one artist selling his work in all these packs?

[Asterisk]

These were made by a doujin circle so its safe to say its their work.

As a new VN maker, its my first time seeing these~
If I made a free game, these backgrounds look really good for a reasonable price.
Of course yeah, if its commercial you should commission somebody but its hard to find someone to match that style of bg.

[papillon]

*shrug* As I use some of these assets it should already be clear that I see nothing wrong with it, goes without saying, but honestly? People use off-the-shelf assets in commercial development all the time. Why do you think there are sites full of nothing but licenseable art, music, and sound effects? Many projects end up with a good mix of pre-made and custom content.

The real problem is if the reference pool is too small and people keep re-using the same stuff. Blue Forest may make the largest collection of sprites for sale on DLsite, but they've already been used in multiple well-known EVN productions, making them no longer a good choice. There's another set of sprite art you can find which was popularised by DTIPB; probably not a good idea to use them in any other game now because people will think you took them from there even if you didn't. There are several other sprite sets for sale that haven't, as far as I know, been used in ANY english games. Those are a better option to go for if you need art fast.

What you don't want is for your game to be mistaken for someone else's, or for your art to drastically contrast with your theme/tone. It's better to use such things sparingly or in the background. (Also, if your game focuses too heavily on off-the-shelf art, then someone else can legimately come along and make something that looks very similar and confuse people.)

[Tetiel]

They are good looking sprites for sure, but they have their own problems. Even people outside the visual novel community have complained about the nose shading specifically and some of the mouths seem a little... odd. If you're really trying to save money, you could always pay an artist to modify them a little bit so they're more suiting to your own characters since that is allowed by their rights (it covers redrawing). It's a pretty common style, so finding a CG art isn't too difficult if you post on the Job Offers forum at deviantart.

[Nellie]

I'm using the background set! =D

The price is really, really reasonable... I mean, even if you're a good artist, calculate the number of hours you'd need to draw them, and divide the cost by that... That's definitely MUCH less than what I'd earn in an hour, at the very least =P I'd take on average 4-6 hours per piece, assuming there're 9 different locations and at $30... =P But of course everyone would be using the same stuff... There're a few times that after I bought certain sprites, I start using games coming up with the same sprites, and people would ask me if I ripped off others' arts... Even if it's non-commercial. Therefore I've only been showing those games to family and friends (who has probably never seen any other visual novels lol) =/

[DaFool]

Oof. I see a BG there that was used in Idoling Alice. Need to talk to Xent about replacement.

[applegirl]

I'll be completely honest as someone who regularly buys visual novels (spent probably over 300 dollars alone on OLEVN). I would not buy a visual novel with that kind of art. For a free VN, I might pick it up and give it a read. But when I spend money on a commercial visual novel, I kind of expect more out of the art and story. I've seen those sprites and background often in free VNs. Why would I pay money for a VN that used it?

I mean, if the story and music and user interface was done perfectly, then I'd consider changing my mind. It would have to be a pretty amazing and original story to make up for this. But it would bother me to spend the same amount of cash when so many other commercial visual novels (and quite a few free VNs) get amazing and original art. Just my two cents.

Also, @DaFool, are you really involved in the Idoling Alice project?? My god man, how many projects are you working on? Totally off tangent, but is this project going well? I remember hearing about it a while ago and wanted to check it out.

EDIT: I should mention, it is decent art and quite good by free VN ware standards. But for commercial...I'd be bothered and probably 99.9 percent likely to pass on that alone.

[DaFool]

I have no argument against the sprite set deficiencies. They're passable at most in a commercial work... they'll be more than decent for a free work. I usually expect custom character sprites for commercial works anyway, at minimum. But BGs and music can be off-the-shelf as long as they're licensed (and not easily procured, meaning, they come with a licensing price tag).

The BGs there are already commercial quality BGs. There is nobody in this forum who can make such BGs without resorting to SketchUp. BGs are extremely time consuming to make

Yeah, a lot of times when people are asking "I want a bedroom, a convenience store, a park, etc." they don't exactly know what they want so they will be content with anything -- then if that's the case, instead of wasting an artist's time creating something that will end up looking like a generic bedroom anyway, just use the stock bedroom.

Also when every game on getchu.com starts to look similar, you sometimes need to really be stylized to stand apart from the crowd. That's in part why Stein's Gate was a success

What I don't like is if these high quality off the shelf assets end up being used by a shit writer or gamemaker. To me, it feels as though the assets are devalued, akin to somebody ripping from a commercial JVN and making his own game using the assets. I really hated when Sano Toshihide licensed his assets so now there are tons of beautiful-looking doujin nukige that are just crap, clogging up VNDB almost like a plague. Hey, at least the EVNs look unique and identifiable with their less than stellar art. But it's another matter entirely when something looks pro at first glance due to second-hand assets.

The bigger issue for me is making a game that has such a unique world, it warrants totally fresh art from scratch, that to me is a game worth making. The Littlewitch games for example, where you can just get lost in their world. That is why my main game is an RPG with a world influenced by Last Exile and Ar Tonelico, but otherwise designed straight from scratch, cities and all.

@applegirl. It was on hiatus for a while, but ever since Xent handed it to me it's being overhauled. The scenario stories are 100% complete in the engine. Monele is currently going over the design docs since the original GDD for the gameplay portion felt boring, and I managed to snag a musician used to Japanese console games, since I want the music to be memorable. I'm involved in about 7 projects, but in each I'm just a coder or helping out in art. I really want to go back working on solo stuff one day, but it's hard to put forth so much effort on something that might have limited appeal even despite an insane amount of skill by one person (e.g. Rejoice - The Gospel of Matthew). At least with team projects, though they are less unique, they're at least guaranteed an audience.

[Strum]

What I don't like is if these high quality off the shelf assets end up being used by a shit writer or gamemaker. To me, it feels as though the assets are devalued, akin to somebody ripping from a commercial JVN and making his own game using the assets. I really hated when Sano Toshihide licensed his assets so now there are tons of beautiful-looking doujin nukige that are just crap, clogging up VNDB almost like a plague. Hey, at least the EVNs look unique and identifiable with their less than stellar art. But it's another matter entirely when something looks pro at first glance due to second-hand assets.

I feel that way about renpy in general. Renpy is a powerful tool and yet some of the games that get made with it are, well, eww. The VNDB has its fair share of trash OELVNs.

For people who need art fast and only have a low budget, off the shelf art is their best option. You probably won't find a better deal on devant art or even here. That's because the cost of all the time and effort in making such art to sell on DLSite is shouldered by many people. However, when commissioning an artist on devant art or anywhere else, the cost is covered by only one person ie the person asking for commission.

@DaFool: An off topic question but, how's Dragon Spirit coming along? Also who's idea was it to rename it as 原罪物語? Is that just a stunt to decieve weeboos into thinking that game is a Japanese game rather than an OELVN?

[DaFool]

Hmm, I see. I suppose people want a minimum standard for art so that all that's left to judge is the overall concept and writing. Kinda like anime, in a way (all have the same production values, except from core Production IG franchises). So in that case, these off-the-shelf assets are the best there is.

@Strum:

I have no idea how the title 'Dragon Spirit' even came along. Must be Xent's doing. The internal dev codename for the project is "Knight VN" and has been for some time (although technically, it stars a paladin). The game design document finally called it "The Saga of Original Sin" based on the concept outline Taleweaver provided (oops, was I supposed to reveal that already?)

I would personally do away with "Genzai Monogatari" and just call it The Saga of Original Sin. So if one were talking to me, I would only recognize it as "Knight VN" by its codename or "The Saga of Original Sin" == thus no Japanesification needed, since the work can stand on its own.

Xent was supposed to make a WIP to promote the game but the script is just a third complete. I was instructed to prioritize this project but there's still a lot of art missing so all we have is a text-only skeleton... but by the looks so far, it sorta feels like Scrapped Princess + yuri + Cthulu tentacles.