Hi everyone... New here! I have been checking out these forums over the past few weeks, and am just now getting to the point of posting. Well, I had the inkling of an idea that I wanted to make games. I'm 26 years old, and I love pc games/console games.. you name it. I have always wanted to get into game design in some facet. Well, I got to thinking.. and I said to myself "Joe, you can make your own games!". I read the beginners sections of this site and the game programming wiki. and downloaded a IDE/compiler and borrowed some books on C++ and started taking a course my work was offering on it. I found myself constantly thinking.. I'm gonna spend my time programming.. and not have time for the GOOD stuff. Not that programming isn't an integral part of the game design process.. but, lets face it.. looking at code for hours on end might be fun to some.. but for me it was a "how many lines of code is this gonna take?". Then a light bulb went off in my head. The best games aren't made by one person.. while not impossible.. it would be entirely extremely difficult to do all coding, artwork, music etc.. by myself. Not unless its a very small project like tetris.. which while fun.. is not what I am really aiming for. So I was perusing various gamedev forums and in the classifieds section found that there was a huge disparity in the amount of games being made vs. artists. I know my way around photoshop pretty well, I own a wacom, and I draw... So, I figured.. I'm way ahead of the game as an artist.. why not pick one "area" of game design and try to be the best I can be at that.. rather than trying to be a jack of all.. and not be that good at any of them. I enjoy creating characters, and landscapes.. this alot more fun to me than writing 100000 lines of code and having it not work after hours of typing. So, I am officially.. entering the world of game art. Now! Like I said, I have a pretty good understanding of Photoshop for web design and doing anime/comic style stuff.. but how does it relate to game art? I used to make sprites for folk's rpg maker games.. so I know how to do that.. but what else is there? and what formats are used for game art? Right now in my possession, I have Photoshop, 3d Studio Max 9, Blender, and Bryce. Would you recommend anything else? or do I have pretty much everything I will ever need other than various plugins etc.?

well, you're in for a shock,
"how many lines of code is this gonna take?"
that thought is going to occur to you quite frequently no matter what route you take, just different variations of it for the required field. however you know you've found your calling when that above thought occurs to you yet you then add, "but who cares this is fun!".
basically i am just saying its going to be a large amount of work eitherway. as for doing the art side of things which sounds more fun?
1.) pixel artist- draws low-res "sprite" type graphics in paint, photoshop or any other basic image editor to be used in the more classic type of 2d games of the past.
2.) model full 3d models while also exercising your photoshop skills to make diffuse textures? to which these models will be used in playstation to modern game type of games.
or
3.) use purely photoshop to draw/paint concept images of characters, environments, and props and in such a way to make it easy for the artist to use them who will be using them to model.

#1 is the easiest out of all, great place for beginners, but if your photoshop skills are good enough you amy find it tedious.
#3 is a stepup from one and will allow you a near infinite amount of skill expandability to improve your 2d art compared to #1.
#2 is the most complex of all the above listed and will require you to be good at both #1 and #3 along with poly limitations along with the skill of molding in a 3d space. though this is the most rewarding imo as it requires a competent 3d artist to be a good concept artist because diffuse texture painting requires the same skills at the same level, and its more fun to see your creations fully in 3d.

however, as you can tell i am a bit biased, but pick the route which you feel you would enjoy the most. after you pick one of the above i can then go into more details on the requirements as it depends on which one you choose. if its #2 you can aim IM me at metalgearsolido8 anytime an di will try to help you out with any questions you may have. i use 3ds max 7.

Hmm, no vector art program there. Flash, Adobe Illustrator, and Inkscape (free) are the three biggies as far as I know. Maya is probably the big 3D program but between Bryce and Photoshop you can do most game art. Sprites and still images do make up the lion's share of game art so you probably know most of what you need to know - blueprints, 3D models, 3D animations, and textures are the rest. Not all games require all skills, it depends whether it's a 2D game or a 3D game.

I choose 2...
I want to be an all around graphics player.. not a one hit wonder.

I have the tools to do it..

(I do have flash by the way, and fireworks, and Poser 6... forgot to mention those)

I'm not completely a beginner at any of the pieces of software I have cept for 3ds max.. never used it til i bought it a week or so ago.

Thanks for the advice and I will be giving a IM here soon.

Good luck with that ;)
One day, 8 years later when you are stuck with some very complex level design you will be happy to switch back to coding.
Believe me game design or art doesn't have its obvious and clear advantages.
Both sides are hard and require great dedication.
Coders are just silent warriors. :]