ARTPAKZ.com

[ArtGirl]

Howdy ladies and gents, I'm Artgirl from ARTPAKZ.com, a new site catering to Indie Developers' graphic needs in the form of themed Art Paks. I've been a lurker here (and many other developer sites) for awhile now and gathered up a very small group of artists (myself included) to bring to you an idea I've had for quite some time.

I figured that before any of you Programmers out-sourced game art for the classic and popular games your making (especially since some of you are not 100% sure what you need), you may be interested in spending just $15 or so to get a small Art Pak that'll allow you to quickly get your game to a presentable and visually appealing level.

I hope you have need for my creation and feedback is always welcome

Now I'm off to advertise on some other sites

Artgirl

P.S. Oh, and please indulge me a little patience with any and all orders as well. The site was designed for me and, even though it's been thoroughly tested, I'm still a bit nervous

[whisperstorm]

These are very nice! If you did a cutesy set of RPG tiles I'd pay you 2x the 19.95 !

[ArtGirl]

2x? WOW and thanks We're planning on it in the near future. I'm already organizing an RPG Pak and it's a LOT of work. Hopefully we'll actually go through with it but I won't know until we cross that bridge.

[JoshuaSmyth]

You bring up a good point. I'd be interested in an RPG pack, I'm using placeholder art from RPGmakerXP at the moment. But I'd prefer something that I could get a proper license for... it would be a ton of work, but if it was of high calibar (eg equal to the RPGmakerXP tiles) you'd probably get a few bites. Theres lots of wanna-be RPG programmers out there.

Also, I'd like to see a full preview of all the art in each pack. Not just a sample. I know you need to protect your works, but I'd hope that most people would be honest. (Or you could watermark a the full preview)

[ArtGirl]

I would love to be able to show all the art but unfortunately we all know that not everyone is honest. You can see a good assortment of the graphics in the sample screens though (found HERE and HERE) AND you can find complete lists of what is included at the bottom of their respective pages (found on the site itself.)

We're a bit intimidated by the whole RPG scene but it's definitely on our list of "TO DOs".

[oldschool]

All files are saved as .PNG with transparency (anti-aliased if applicable) and all in-game files are scaled appropriately for 32 pixels x 32 pixels (some exclusions apply.)

Could you also sell the vector graphics of the sprites as well? Assuming that some or any of it was done in vector programs. So I could tailor the sprites to my own game?

For a future pack I'd like to see an assortment of puzzle pieces

Great Idea and Good luck!

[ArtGirl]

Thanks Unfortunately, none of the graphics are vector so I'm afraid that won't be possible. We went into this with the intention of 32 pixels x 32 pixels on most things (or a multiple of) so we never went the route of vector.

We're just about finished our SUPER BREAKOUT Art Pak and then it'll be onto the MATCH-3 pak (of which we've also already started - in the planning stage.)

[ArtGirl]

Howdy again

Based on the feedback we've received thus far, we've gone back and revised our PAKZ a tad. We have now also included layered .PSD files (higher quality if available) as well as organized the art sheets much better.

We've also decided to take the advice posted about showing the asset sheets.

Here they are

[techbear]

Your art is excellent, and your prices are extremely reasonable.

I would like to see platformer game assets (walls, floors, enemies, and a running, jumping mascot). But also, I'd like to see wierd, indeterminant stuff. Stuff that doesn't fit neatly into existing game models. Stuff that fires my imagination to create something unique.

I know that's a tall order. BUT, I know where you should go for inspiration:
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

Also, do you have a mailing list or something, so I can be notified when you add new products?

[techbear]

Oh, and one more thing.

A good logo can really do great things for a game. So, offer a custom logo service on your website. Once a developer uses your ladybug art for a game, they will want a "Ladybug Rampage" logo, which they should be able to order from you.

[whisperstorm]

You should team up with 2EastMusic -- affiliate... then folks could get art and sound packs
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=9886

[ArtGirl]

Everybody's feedback is wonderful. It's helping me a lot. We've already made a few sales and hope the trend will continue

I think the Art Pakz alone are daunting enough. The website keeps going through changes and I want to continue to focus on the art and only the art. While the addition of music would make for more complete packages, I don't feel it's something I would like to get into as of right now. Maybe down the road it'll make more sense.

I've also added a private mailing list Thanks techbear!

Just to keep the ball of interest rolling, we currently have a SUPER BREAKOUT pak almost finished. A MATCH-3 pak almost finished (I wasn't expecting it to move along so quickly), a side-scroller platform FIGHTER styled pak in the beginning stages (like DOUBLE DRAGON), and a TETRIS pak that is about ready to be added. We're planning to release all four Art Pakz within the next two weeks

[Sybixsus]

Very nice. These sort of packs are exactly the sort of thing I would buy if I was in the mood to code up a quick game for fun but didn't want to waste hours drawing something which wouldn't look half as good anyway.

[whisperstorm]

Top wish list art packs:

1) RPG
2) Maze
3) Platformer
4) Shmup

Like I said, you'll have a guaranteed sale if you get a basic tile-based RPG pack ...

[Pyabo]

Art looks good, this is a great idea... not enough of this out there at the moment. The site will probably be a great way to get contract work as well. Are you actively looking for more artists to expand the pakz available, going solo, or just have partners?

[ArtGirl]

Thank you everybody

Whisperstorm, thank you for the list.

Pyabo, for the moment, I would like to stay away from contract work because I don't think I'd be able to commit to it and I want to focus all my free time on ARTPAKZ.com. We're also not currently looking for any more help as there are three of us right now (myself and two artists that I go to when I need a little advice. Actually, one of my colleagues does most of the first draft concepts and I finish them.)

[GameGlyph]

An RPG character set would be nice to see. You could even go as far as to make a bunch of prefab parts to the character sprites, and leave it up to us to put them together and mix and match the parts.

[mustardseed]

You could even go as far as to make a bunch of prefab parts to the character sprites, and leave it up to us to put them together and mix and match the parts.

This would be a GODSEND! Trying to find sprites I could legally build off of is a pain. I would gladly pay your asking price for some art like that.

[spellcaster]

Your website and teh art is really great, the prices are great. Regarding your planned art packs: Just make sure you don't call it "tetris pak". The Tetris company is known to protect their trademarks very aggressively.

While a fighter pack sounds great, I'm not sure it fits well to the art you showed above. The normal "brawler" has several moves and since you'd need some enemies as well, this seems like a lot of work. So this pack would either be way more expansive, or not as "art complete" for the genre as the other packs are.

I'd suggest that you split it a bit. Instead of providing a fighter pack, provide "Beat'em up" characters with a handful of moves (I've attached the a sprite sheet with moves from the c64 game "Fist 2: The legend continues" [1]). Provide a "basic set" with two fighters and some arenas to battle in. This allows a developer to start a simple "versus fighter" like Street Fighter or the godfather of classic fighting games: International Karate [2].

Provide goon packs containing several different chars with less moves - by buying both the basic beat-em up pack becomes the brawl pack. You can then add more stuff over a period of time (more arenas, more goons, etc).

This splits the art assets into more manageable packets, you can target both beat'em'up developers and brawler developers.

Personally, I like the platform fighters a lot ("bruce lee" for the c64, "Kicker" [3] for the Arcade / MAME) which basically combines some jumping and running with some kicking. The amount of art needed here is comparable to the other art packs, since the main character doesn't need to have a lot of attacks.
If you want to create something in that direction I'd buy it directly

If you start doing RPG tiles / chars you will need to create several sub packs anyway. Hm.. as soon as you have a scifi tile pack (think "star trek" scifi not "aliens" scifi) I'll have to start a space opera RPG.

And that's one big plus of your site: You provide nice art. And if you're more of a hobby games coder (as opposed to an indie developer) seeing nice art fitting for one the projects that "you wanted to make for so long" will result in a buy reflex. Neither Pacman nor Space Invaders are on my "I want to code this" list, but with RPG and fighter art.. well.. that's a different story then

[1] Fist2 info: http://www.thehouseofgames.net/index.php?t=10&id=267
[2] International Karate+: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Karate_Plus
[3] Shao-Lin's Road / Kicker screenshots: http://emustatus.rainemu.com/games/shlinroad.htm

[whisperstorm]

R - P - G ! R - P - G!

Heh. Looks like there's a ready made demand

[ponyboy]

I would also be interested in an RPG art pack if one were available.

[ArtGirl]

Hi everybody and thanks for the suggestions and comments. Since an RPG pak seems to be what everyone wants, I've decided to start on one. A fantasy one first. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get it done but the concept doodles are coming along nicely. I'm taking all your tips into consideration as well and will be doing a series of small paks like a create-a-character pak with full animation cycles and different bodies and heads and other stuff.

I've also received word that my 2D Platform scenery pak is almost complete too. It may actually be the first new Art Pak released on ARTPAKZ.com and I'm confident in saying that it will available for purchase early this coming week.

It has been modeled after games like the early Super Mario Brothers and Super Wonderboy games. Bright colourful and full of character.

Artgirl

[whisperstorm]

What style do you envision for the RPG pak? Zelda, Legend of Mana type stuff?

[spellcaster]

Just keep us updated
The RPG-pak sounds like a great idea

[2dnoob]

This is great until multiple games with the same graphics start showing up everywhere, so keep adding more sets which will make your site worth more in the long run.

[whisperstorm]

2dnoob: note that the primary purpose for these graphics will be used as placeholders for some game - perhaps for a proposal, or to mock up an idea. Besides, at least the same graphics will look pretty

[ArtGirl]

Originally Posted by whisperstorm

2dnoob: note that the primary purpose for these graphics will be used as placeholders for some game - perhaps for a proposal, or to mock up an idea. Besides, at least the same graphics will look pretty

Thank you Whisperstorm I couldn't have said it any better! I'm also not sure for the style of the RPG pak. I've been leaning towards a cross between Zelda and Dragon Warrior but not as pixel art

2dnoob, we also have plenty of new art paks in the works and in planning.

[S2P]

Great packs - ideal for flash/downloadable games - attract an investor by prototyping games, or to show something in your portfolio. Nice idea.

Originally Posted by ArtGirl

Thank you Whisperstorm I couldn't have said it any better! I'm also not sure for the style of the RPG pak. I've been leaning towards a cross between Zelda and Dragon Warrior but not as pixel art

2dnoob, we also have plenty of new art paks in the works and in planning.

[2dnoob]

Originally Posted by whisperstorm

2dnoob: note that the primary purpose for these graphics will be used as placeholders for some game - perhaps for a proposal, or to mock up an idea. Besides, at least the same graphics will look pretty

I'm sure plenty of people will have these graphics in their games.

[whisperstorm]

How goes progress in the world of Artpakz?