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Ask HN: I want to work on games but not the graphics

11 points by gaigepr ↗ HN
Hey everybody,

Over the past couple weeks I have become pretty obsessed with pokemon again (I'm in my 20s and just picked up a copy of pokemon gold for old time's sake). It has rekindled a desire in me to make my own version of pokemon for the desktop. Nothing commercial (I don't want to piss of Nintendo's lawyers).

Graphics are not something that have really ever interested me in programming. I am a systems/CLI guy at heart and what I really want to do is rework the code that behind pokemon. Rework leveling/stats/etc. I want to make the opposing trainers be smarter, have the game have more complicated puzzles and challenges. I have a lot of ideas for things I would love to do with a pokemon "clone" but I don't want to do graphics. I want to design the data structures and work on some AI for trainers to be more or less challenging.

This brings me to my dilema; I am not sure where to go from here. Originally I peeked around SDL, then I looked at pygame, love2d, even things like unity and godot but all of them were not really what I had in mind. What I really want is someone to work with who would do the graphics and I would focus primarily on the underlying stuff like I mentioned above (obviously sharing the responsibilities to some degree, but I am not as interested in graphics). Alternatively, if anyone has an recommendations or projects to point me to that might be what I am looking for I would really appreciate it.

7 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 24.9 ms ] thread
andyn
You'd have trouble finding someone willing to do most of the work of writing a game and especially the artwork.

You're in luck though! The game is popular enough that someone else has had the idea of writing a clone:

"PokeClone: A Pokémon engine coded in Python"

http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=284297

https://github.com/tpwrules/pokeclone

gaigepr
I hadn't yet stumbled upon PokeClone yet; thanks!

What I more meant was I am not as interested in working with graphics code/libraries. Not to say I couldn't but that is just not what interests me. I figured along the way I would look around for free assets or look for a friend (new or old) to help me on that front.

GeneralMaximus
While you're building the game, you can just use placeholder graphics from a website like http://opengameart.org. Alternatively, you can create super-simple graphics using the GIMP -- simple configurations of geometric shapes work very well -- and use them as placeholders. When you feel you are ready to incorporate "real" graphics into your game, you can hire somebody to create them for you (or adapt them from existing graphics).

Also check out /r/gamedev. They will be able to help you out with this.

fsk
There are plenty of free graphics resources if you know where to look.

Use simple placeholder graphics. Make simple tiles. If the game is fun, work on getting better graphics.

If you have a working game with simple graphics that's fun, use one of those freelancer sites to get some better art.

You also need sounds.

stintaril
Why don't you send me an email (it is in my profile) and we can talk. I have done some (very little) art and game programming in Unity. You can see some of the art I was doing for a couple other games at stintaril.blogspot.com that never went anywhere.

Anyways, hit me up and lets chat! If nothing else we can talk about video games.

gaigepr
Hey I looked on your HN page and didn't see an email. Mine is on my page.
csense
Use terminal art like Dwarf Fortress. They'll probably never be mainstream, but games using terminal art are an old and honorable tradition.