Hi everyone, name is Tony if this is a 'personal' type forum :) Like most people on this forum, I come up with dozens of ideas for games that I want to make, unfortunately I get turned off very quickly due to the fact that I can't find the art I 'want' to put into the game. So, the saying goes "if you want something done right, do it yourself". Unfortunately my art skills are a bit limited, so the question I wanted to ask is, is programmer art acceptable in a demo/portfolio?

Programmers art is Ok.
But bad/lazy graphics is newer acceptable!

Remember if you want to be game programmer, you must be
capable to communicate with art people.
(yes, different professionals have different work slangs)

Use 1 day of your life learning basics of computer art.

Some topics to learn.
- clear shapes
- use of luminance
- use of colors

Advanced topics.
- smooth & expressive animation
- lights & materials

/Tyrian

You should also become familiar with "representational art." Many game developers - and even large studios - will use a series of symbols to represent different game entities and their states (relating the various states of an entity by, for example, maintaining the same symbol but varying size and color, or maintaining the same color and varying shape somewhat). In this manner, they can not only prototype but continue to develop the game through production without having to wait on even temporary art assets.

I know for a fact this approach was used in developing The Sims 3, and I know of one more AAA title but I can't remember its name, genre or studio right now. If you feel you have no art skills, carefully chosen symbols and colors - keeping in mind the things TyrianFin said - can make your game appear quite polished for little investment.

I use placeholder textures for most things. Plain colours, with a border, stating the filename and size of the texture.

I took inspiration from the leaked Half-Life 2 alpha from 2003.

Fair enough. I am ok with illustrator and with time I can probably get the style I want, I could also trace off other art and mod it if need be.

What constitutes 'bad' art though? Shapes without shading? flat images?

Bad art is simply art that does not do what it needs to do.

For example, the simple flat-colored objects in Katamari Damacy aren't bad art, because they contribute to the simple colorfulness of the gameplay, even though they'd be laughed out of any more serious game. Crude stick-figures are rarely the desired art style for a game, but there are games that make use of such things.

Generally, though, if you're a programmer, then your portfolio should represent your programming abilities, not your artistic abilities. Thus, even if the art isn't up to par, it's not a big deal.

Quote: Original post by Derakon
Crude stick-figures are rarely the desired art style for a game, but there are games that make use of such things.

Stick Soldiers!

Honorable mention to the art of Line Rider.