I have a game project called Fatal Chronicles that I’ve been working on little by little since last year. One of the biggest challenges I’ve been dealing with is, well… everything related to making art.
I can draw, but creating 40+ original characters, along with sprites, maps, and several minions, all by myself is honestly pretty exhausting.
You might think it would be much faster if I just hired an artist, and you’re probably right. But I also know that I don’t have a lot of money to spend on the project, so for now, I’d rather be patient and work on everything little by little at my own pace.
Is anyone else here dealing with a similar problem? I’d love to hear how you guys handle making so many game assets on your own.
Anyway, here’s the main title for Fatal Chronicles!
I totally get it, making all the art yourself is a huge amount of work.
What helped me was just letting go of the idea that everything had to look good before I could actually test anything. I started using placeholders, even just colored squares or simple shapes, just to get things moving. Once I could actually play the core loop, it got so much easier to figure out what I actually needed, and I had way more energy to go back and polish things later.
I think the hardest part is keeping your motivation up when there are too many unknowns. Having a clear direction, even if it’s rough, really makes a difference. In the end, making a game is as much about patience and willpower as it is about skill.
Hang in there. You’re not alone in this, and that title screen is already looking pretty cool!
That’s probably the biggest problem for most indie games, especially if you’re developing alone or in a small team. Most indie developers don’t have the budget to hire someone to design characters (most RPGs have a lot of characters or environments). Designing them yourself can help control the budget, but it also adds to the development process.
Reducing the game size by cutting out non-essential parts or using pre-built resources can help streamline some processes (like the RTP of MV/MZ).
However, every developer has their own standards of work. If you enjoy what you’re doing, then go for it.
Hiring artists for little is costly, but for that much it’s surely expensive, studio expensive.
I’m facing that myself working on a title with just 2 main characters and 4 more (plus a few extras), tacklable though, but a plus 40 is at “ouch!” level for sure.
My suggestions would be to either:
Take it easy knowing it will be a lot of work
Go on a joint venture signing NDA and commitment with an artist (or more) and split earnings if your game is commercial
As far as I understand, ULPC is AI free, but needs the proper attribution (which is also automatically provided upon export).
Now, as for ENVIRONMENT… that’s a whole different monster. There are asset packs you cab buy which you might use vanilla, or modify them if allowed.
On my end, I work with real CC0 License photos and take it from there, or build my own textures, either through real photos, or digitally, and then pixelart.
Nevertheless, I totally agree, I’d rather focus in systems and narrative rather than art, so teaming up is TBH the best option!
Best of luck with your project, and PATIENCE over all!
Thank you for the advice! I think I could actually try doing that, so I can keep working on the core game using temporary assets and then replace or update them once everything else is ready.
I’ll definitely keep your advice in mind and try to focus more on getting the core game finished first. And thank you for saying that the title screen looks cool! I was actually inspired by the classic Final Fantasy games when I made it.
Yeah, I agree with you. There are a lot of indie developers out there who are dealing with the same thing, and sometimes I’m honestly amazed that they’re able to finish their games so well, even when working alone or with a small team.
I’ve also ended up cutting some less important concepts from my game and focusing more on the core parts. But of course, doing all of this alone is going to take a lot of time.
Even so, I’m still able to take things slowly and enjoy the process.
Yeah, 40+ characters is definitely a lot. But I actually started drawing the characters before I even officially bought RPG Maker MV. Honestly, when I first started the project, I never expected I would end up needing this many characters.
The 40+ characters aren’t all playable, of course, but they’re still important characters that I need for the story.
And thank you for all the suggestions! I had actually never heard of ULPC before. After checking it out, I think I might be able to make use of it for some of the assets, and it looks really useful.
For now, I think I’ll keep focusing on finishing the core parts of the game while slowly working on the art assets little by little.
Thanks again for all the suggestions, and good luck with your project too!
Oh man, the struggle is Real! I pushed through this particular hurdle and development of 'The Agarthan Phantasie" is well underway, but man, I had serious anxiety over it for a day or two. My input on the matter is just find a workflow and asset stack that works for you and accept no guilt from anyone else, regardless of method used. Store bought assets and other methods can be your friend if you don’t mind some very heavy editing to make them feel unique to your particular project.
Yeah, the anxiety part is definitely real. I’m still trying to figure out a workflow that works for me, especially since I’m doing pretty much all the art myself. It’s reassuring to hear that other solo devs have gone through the same thing and managed to push through it. Thanks for sharing your experience!
You’ll get there, don’t worry, just persist and be determined! Just don’t quit your day job if you are working. Use your nine to five to fund your five to nine until you are free from your nine to five.
Yup, and unfortunately most of the (vocal, anyway) RM community will crucify anyone who tries to make their workload easier with the help of AI. It does help though.
Edit: I’d also planned for 30-40 characters (just playables!) in my main project as well, and it would’ve been extremely expensive or extremely time consuming to do all of that manually myself. Then factor in music and it gets even worse. All the mapping, overall design, combat balance, writing, etc is time consuming enough.
It was so exhausting to design and create my first few original looking characters (as someone who isn’t an artist), that look good, that I decided to use the exact same characters, exact same sprites (with some adjustments), for all my future projects. XD
And so, all my games have the same main characters & sprites, but they are in a different world & different story.
That’s part of how I deal with not having to create a lot of assets in the main characters department.
Then for NPCs… I’ve many times just used monochromatic colors for them instead of giving them any detail:
I related to that at some point so I totally feel you!
I’m a super lazy person so I only made the main character and made the npcs using the default sprite and you know how it turned out.. she’s the only tall character in the game xD
as for the maps I ended blocking half of the areas but I think it worked somehow?
Yeah, exactly! There are just so many things to handle when you’re making a game mostly by yourself. I’m already dealing with 40+ characters, and even getting the art done is only one part of the workload. There’s still mapping, music, writing, balancing, UI, and everything else. I think finding a workflow that works for you is really important.
Honestly, that’s a really clever way to handle the workload. And your project looks really good! Reusing the same main characters across different worlds and stories is actually a really interesting approach. I might have to learn a thing or more from this. XD
LMAO As someone who’s also lazy when it comes to drawing, I can totally understand why it turned out that way. XD Honestly, I think you did pretty well with what you had! And hopefully I can actually do better like you said. Thanks for sharing this and for the encouragement!
