Hi there. Three years ago I wrote a little game named 'Spacewar'. A (clickable) sreenshot can be found in this post. The graphics were good enough for what I wanted to do. However, now I'm working on Spacewar 2, with a lot more features. But I'd like to have as much of an improvement in graphics as in code .This means that I really don't want these sprites anymore. How can I improve these sprites to look better? Or should I hire someone? /edit: or maybe I could add some other visual effects to make it look better overall?

You could always find a good sprite library to use, there are tons of them online with space graphics. Or you could get someone else, who's a little better at drawing on the computer, to make them for you.

You can always do part of it with nice pretty coding skills, I suppose.

But I think you could improve the current art very easily without such drastic changes.

Unfortunately, they're pretty basic (the background is the real killer right now), which can be okay. Honestly, you probably ought to check out the Help Wanted forum to find someone who likes this sort of thing. It's so much easier with two people.

I can't give you any advice on any sprite libraries, though.

There are several simple improvements you can make to your current sprites that would make them look much better (I'll even try to give you an example).

- Add actual shading, just a simple light to dark gradient would be great

- More complex colors, go beyond the basic greys and blues, etc.

- Add visual interest, put panel lines in empty spaces

- Shuffle stuff around, don't be afraid to fiddle with where wings and guns are postioned

Heres that Example, just to show you what I mean:

or if that doesn't work: http://s3.dm-studios.net/SRTSPRIMG/SpriteExample.bmp

I'd also recommend looking on google for inspiration.

Your star backround also could be less colorful and have more smaller stars,
again Google Image search is your friend. Hopefully I helped..

I worked on a similar game a couple of years ago, so Good luck!

[Edited by - Prinz Eugn on January 21, 2006 6:57:22 PM]

Thanks, those comments will get me going. That improved ship looks way better, I'll see if I can make something along those lines with the GIMP.

Also I'll search for a better background. Talking about the background, I was thinking about implementing some kind of parralax background, that might be fun, too.

You could also fiddle around with some 3D package and use rendered graphics, it will look better and also makes it easier to do animation.