Hi, I want to create a game. Yes, you've had many posts like this, however in my case, I will be funding it with my money, getting people to do stuff that I cannot. It just seems so much more efficient that way. But I do want to start of paying as little as possible - I don't earn that much! Would art assets for a 2D game be significantly cheaper than those for a 3D game, the same as, or less in cost? Let's say the the level of graphics I was looking for was Aquaria in 2D, or Wandering Willows in 3D. I know they are quite different games, but I am talking purely of the art in them. Thanks

Aquaria is higher quality art than Wandering Willows, so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison - Aquaria level art will be higher up the 2D price curve than Wandering willows level art will be up the 3D price curve.

But more importantly, what genre is your game, how customizable are player characters, how many animations, and all that info? Some types of are take more effort to do in 2D while some take more effort to do in 3D; I think that is the single largest factor in deciding which of the two approaches will be more cost and time efficient for a particular game.

OK bad examples. Think Wandering Willows level of graphics, be they 2D or 3D. If 2D, the character would have 4 directions of movement, like 2D Zelda games.

The game would be exploration-based, giving you control of a single character, and would have lots of NPCs to communicate with, as well as many kinds of enemies, as well as lots of varied locations to explore.

I would assume for now that the NPCs would be based around the same few basic resources, and simply by changing colours etc. the illusion of variety would be created. The same would go for the enemies.

The PC would show when he was using different weapon types, but not necessarily different weapons of the same type: maybe changing a few colours or something on the weapons/items would do, but nothing more than that. A sword would always look like another sword, just with a different tint.

I mentioned Aquaria, because I want some of the explosions / particle effects that it had. But that would drive up costs, so maybe it's better not to include that for now.

Hope that clarifies it a bit. So to repeat: would 2D art or 3D art be of less cost for a game like this, or would it be the same?

Thanks

2D art would be cheaper in my opinion. 2D art is ideal for applications where there are not a lot of animations, there is a specific playable character with minimal customization, and the world can be built out of tiles. For this type of game it probably doesn't matter whether you use vector or raster(pixel/bitmap/whatever) 2D graphics.

All things being equal, I would expect 3d to be the cheaper option.

I would think it would depend on what art assets you need and the rates of the particular artist(s) your working with. You may find Contracting Art For Your Game useful, and if you need to find any 2D/3D artists just check the links in my signature below.

Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
2D art would be cheaper in my opinion. 2D art is ideal for applications where there are not a lot of animations, there is a specific playable character with minimal customization, and the world can be built out of tiles. For this type of game it probably doesn't matter whether you use vector or raster(pixel/bitmap/whatever) 2D graphics.

Quote: Original post by Kwizatz
All things being equal, I would expect 3d to be the cheaper option.

Quote: Original post by Gyrthok
I would think it would depend on what art assets you need and the rates of the particular artist(s) your working with. You may find Contracting Art For Your Game useful, and if you need to find any 2D/3D artists just check the links in my signature below.

It seems that it all depends on the level of complexity I want for my graphics. I shall go back and consider that very point, and then, if you don't mind, I may have further questions.

Thanks very much for the help to all who replied.

I fund my project totally out of pocket, also. So far on my 3D game I've invested 12,436.00 USD. A bit of that is stuff unrelated to the actual game, such as storage, website, ads, engine and other things. But most of it has gone to quality art assets and some professional coding services.

I expect to double those expense before it's all over with. So, best of luck with your investment :D

Quote: Original post by LordOverkill
I fund my project totally out of pocket, also. So far on my 3D game I've invested 12,436.00 USD. A bit of that is stuff unrelated to the actual game, such as storage, website, ads, engine and other things. But most of it has gone to quality art assets and some professional coding services.

I expect to double those expense before it's all over with. So, best of luck with your investment :D

Ah.... some solid figures. I wasn't expecting to invest less than a couple of thousand Pounds Sterling either.... what level of complexity is the art you had made? Is it made up of a few generic assets that can be re-coloured/re-textured/combined together, or did you get lots of unique assets created?

Thanks

If you want figures, I'll add that for my 2D art I usually charge about $400 US per month. I'm at the absolute bottom of the 2D price scale, because my art isn't that high quality. The animal breeding game I'm making is my own, so obviously I'm not exactly paying myself for it, but by the time the game is done it will contain 4 months worth of art, so if someone else were hiring me to make it it would be $1,600 US worth of my work. My game is either equally complex or less complex than your design - probably less because mine has no animations. Designing a player character and getting him to walk around would probably take me a month all by itself.