I am working on a PDF doc of a game right now and i am wondering how necessarry it is to get visual into the document itself.

I have no visual artistic talent. None.

I also have very little in the way of a budget so hiring an artist is a definite no.

So.. how important do you feel art is in the sell/readability of an RPG product?


_________________
--------------
Ian Freeman

[ This Message was edited by: Ian Freeman on 2001-06-26 20:06 ]

There's the guy I know...he does pretty okay logo/Photoshop art...for cheap. Free even. What's his name...oh yeah!

- Jared

The importance of art is dependent upon the market and method of publishing that you are going for. To be succinct, if you are going for a full-on, hard copy, "professional" book, then art is of the utmost importance. Distributors, retailers, and many buyers, will pick-up your game purely based upon the art they find flipping through the book, and even more importantly, the art they find on the cover.


However, if you are going to indie-punk it, then by all means, skimp on the art. People buy electronic products for content, rather than appearance. Have a few pieces of art, fiddle with the layout a bit, but for the most part, make sure the text is up to par.

Order of importance:
(Hard copy, through standard distribution)
1. art (cover especially)
2. layout
3. text, premise
4. system

Order of importance:
(electronic, free or cheap distribution)
1. text, premise
2. system
3. layout
4. art

That's my take on the whole situation, and I can effectively say I have been in both markets now.

Dav

There are a lot of good artists out there that will probably do the art for free just to get their name out there. Ask around. I once placed an ad on Yahoo Classifieds looking for an artist and had quite a few responses. Of course, most professional artists will expect to be paid something, but there are a lot of good artists out there that draw in their freee time and may work for free just so they can say they've had their art published.

You may also be able to find someone who is willing to provide art in exchange for something on the back end. You can work something out so he/she gets a percentage of your profits. That way if your game bombs or never reaches print you won't be out any money.

As Dav mentioned, cover art will be the most important if you do have art. A couple of years back I was able to purchase cover art for my web site at a pittance of $90 for a single piece. That might be a bit to cough if your budget is really tight, but if you're only going to do it once, that isn't bad.

Also, the quality of the art will be based on your game. I put together a game about kids, and the artwork that we're using is just quick pencil sketches. They're easy, and they're appropriate to the game.

Clay