Faced with yet another problem on Project Garas. This time, I can't find another sprite artist. There is 90 units in the game, so now I have to change it. Either suck it up and be patient, which I have a feeling might not work. Or I can go for a virtual board game type of game with rolling dice and static units. My question is this: Does a market even exist for virtual board games that are not name-brand?

It depends a lot on how good the gameplay is, and whether the lack of graphics in some way breaks the players immersion in the experience.

Look at things like the turn based part of the Total Wars series, which simulate a paper map with unit pieces being moved on top (complete with sounds to suggest they carved from stone).

In your case I think the primary factor would be the complexity of your game rules. If they are relatively simple, like advance wars, you can use a virtual board game and the player won't notice it much once they've gotten into the game (and like Total War you can even make it look better then the normal 2D map with unit representations). However a Final Fantasy Tactics type game has some very complicated rules - many different abilities and spells that need to be shown, and not just as text, for the players to remember what they units can do (visuals are a very powerful tool for memory, plain text is not). To be honest I can't really see it being done as a board game in a way that doesn't look silly or feel incomplete, which ultimately breaks the players immersion in the true strategy and thinking of your game.

The rules are NOT complicated. In fact, you can pretty much learn the entire game within less then 30 minutes. The complex of the game comes in by creating your own squads and utilizing them to the full extent in the battlefield. Height, movement, and so forth play a role. Also there is no hit points, levels, or mana to worry about. "Spells" are nothing more then different ways to boost your party or attacking.

My original intent was trying to make it LOOK like Final Fantasy Tactics, but with easy rules. However, it seems I might not have that chance since I only have one sprite artist and lots of units.

Would music even help in this situation, since I recently got a composer?

I haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics, so I'm unfamiliar with the gameplay. However could you make do with some sort of "paper doll" sprite system, where you only have a few animated sprites, but you stick different helmets/hair, weapons and pattern schemes on them to make different units?

Just a word of advice for you:

Since Ive seen the quality of pixel art youre after, I would suggest you tell the pixel artists up front that youre willing to pay. If you have no plans on compensating the artists for their work until your game is done, then you may not have much luck in finding any willing to put in the work load.

In general, the best way to lure in GREAT pixel talent, free or otherwise, will be to present at least a beta version of your game. Too many times, pixel artists have been asked to do work for teams and the teams end up giving up and the pixel artists work (probably more so than anyone else on the team) has gone completely to waste.

Good luck.

And now to be OT, as a fan of board game RPGs myself, Ive only seen cult followings nowadays of virtual board games, only because the real board games have been discontinued. HeroQuest being the main one I can recall, I still play that one on the PC every now and then, but it was only a free fan-made version. The fact is, most of the cult followings are based on sentimental value of established board games, and offer fan-made stuff for free out of love of the game. In other words, virtual board games dont have a current market, probably because people would either play the actual board game or a straight PC game instead.

I forgot to ask this, but what exactly do you mean by "virtual table top"? There's a blurring between the lines of turn based strategy games and board games; games like Heroes of Might and Magic and Civilization all have a "board game" feel to me, and there are games like Mario Party that model themselves on board games.

I guess you are refering to games where you don't have to animate the pieces, since that seems to be your stumbling block. Is there any way you could just reduce the art content, either by using that "paper doll" method, or having less units, or making do with less art work for moving and battles?

I'd love to see a good board game translated to the PC, especially a non-name branded one. The problem I have with most board games and card games are that the events are very much randomly generated by throwing dice, so games are very much luck based with a little bit of skill added in.

Personally, I think you should ban the idea of using dice and remove as much of the random element as you can, but still use the board game idea.