How to Make Games when you SUCK at Art

Before we dive into the video, I need to make one thing clear: I suck at art. Seriously, there's a reason my wife is doing the art for our game, "Samurado." I believe it's important for someone who truly sucks at art—like me—to discuss how to make a game when you’re not at all artistically inclined.

So, how do you make a game that people want to spend money on if you’re terrible at art? Most advice out there suggests getting better at it, but this video is for those who want to make progress on their game now, without waiting years to improve their art skills.

If you're new to our channel, we're Brandon & Nikki from Sasquatch B Studios. We sold our house to start our game studio, and work full time on building our business and making our game Samurado.

---
---
---

Subscribe for NEW game dev videos every Thursday!

Wishlist our Game:

Follow us on Twitter for regular updates!

---

#gamedev #indiegame #gamedevelopment

[midniteoilsoftware]

"Q: How to make games when you suck at art?"
"A: Have your wife make the art" :)

[swaan-dev]

Fun fact: Vampire Survivors was made mostly by using assets from asset packs, that’s why there are so many enemy types!

[samusthewoodelf]

Watching both this video and the bad at coding video for the ultimate game dev life hack

[orenkorengames]

As a solo dev trying to make a game while sucking at art, I can say that the only viable option is outsource.
If you try to do it yourself, even if it was a stylized or pixel art direction, it still has to be coherent and readable. Programmers like us just don't have the necessary skills to make that happen. Play to your strengths, don't hold back your game by attempting to do something you're not good at

[pitchfire]

Bad art done consistently is just an art style.

[SweeeeeetTea]

Hey everyone! I’m a pixel artist and I’ll create art for your game if I like it!

[fred]

As a student, I always talk to my team members, I am only for scripting, making character move. The rest of the art, I can't do any more...

[LostHabit]

As someone who no longer has an artist, this came at the perfect time

[LANMEE]

I am of an opinion that some of the most visually fascinating games were created not in spite of, but because of various limitations that were present. Whether it was technological or artistic skill limitations, people found creative ways to avoid them, and use those limitations to their strengths.
So think hard, go hard, give your best, if you are him, you are HIM.

[mattrobb]

Another very helpful and morale boosting video. Thanks.

[GingerCat_Studios]

Thanks for the tips, they make a difference to us.

[LoneBagels]

You mean, I have to find myself a wife now!!

[tomk]

The other option is using Ascii where the great Cthulhu can be represented with a simple 'C'

[TheUnsupported]

I completely agree with choosing an art style that's manageable. I wish I had gone more in that direction for the game I'm currently working on. While I'm still proud of what I've created, I can’t help but feel it could look even better if I had chosen a more minimalist style.

[chaoticcritical]

yoo thank you for this. It was sometimes discouraging to look at all the great artists in the RPGMaker community. Its nice to see someone else with no art skill talk about this

[MrOmega-czyo]

At 2:05, is that Code Monkey's Kitchen Chaos game? Also, 👍for the Equilinox mention. I've been following ThinMatrix for years, and recommend his channel for any game developer.

[taracair]

Write a text game and don't worry about art! :D

[thewhiteghostproject]

Excellent recommendations! I'm a bit of a generalist myself but UI design is my field of expertise, I'm not a great artist tbh which is why I usually start of with simple designs and stylise them using shaders and post processing effects to achieve cool results in the end.

[Ryöken]

i thought it was like " make a poor art style as same as poor pixel art ", but it's all on "buy assets" it's like you don't make the game, you could also copy paste code, then make all a typical game without your soul in it.
Can't we just have a thing like real answer ? But i think there is none.

[evanfisher]

It's not a matter of sucking at art. This is digital graphic design it takes time to create the plainest graphics and to learn when more intricate software is involved.