I'm working on a horizontal scrolling action game, akin to Metal Slug. Anyways I want to know how to make the backgrounds for the game. I'm using Mappy yo import the levels into the game. I think using a tileset would be not only ineffiecent but just a plain bad idea. And i really don't want "hand" drawn backgrounds. Does anyone know how SNK did it for Metal Slug. I mean the graphics were drawn by hand, but you know what I mean. Should I make indivisual objects (barrels,crates, debris)and then use them in a seperate image? I checked out a portion of game art sites, but they mostly help with tiles and overhead maps, like in a lot of SNES & NES rpgs, but my game is a scroller. So tell me how can I make good backgrounds for my game??

The Metal Slug games use unique, hand-rendered backgrounds, with very minimal tiling or repeated objects... this is likely one of the reasons why the games aren't too long :P

If you don't want to draw out your levels as large images, you can still get a similar look with tiles. There are quite a few games that use a tiled bg and still retain a similar feel the the bg work in Metal Slug. In particular, take a look at the Rayman games for GBA...they have almost a painted, organic look, but the levels are still tiled. Also, try using multiple tile sizes, and put a couple of layers of tiles, to give yourself the option of some nice parallax scrolling.

When I'm working on a side-scroller, I usually make one base set of tiles, containing all of the possible surfaces/objects in the level, then I make a vew variant tiles for each, so you can break up the monotony and make things a little more visually interesting.

Good backgrounds ultimately come down to the amount of elbow grease you're willing to put into 'em...