Drop The Resolution

Drawing art for a game that runs in 320x200 mode is easier than drawing art for a game that runs in 1280x1024 mode. The big pixels reduce the complexity of sprite artwork. If you're really in a pinch, consider dropping your game's resolution.

Alternatively, you can keep the game at a high resolution, and the art at a low resolution, and just give the player a huge view of the action. If your main character is only 50 pixels tall, there's a lot of extra screen space available. There are a few situations where small characters and big views of the play area are really useful - see if your game design could benefit from the zoom-out. For example: Street Fighter was a cool game partly because the characters were so big and detailed, but Load Runner and Smash TV were equally fun because their main characters were very small, and you could see the entire playfield.

Have the Computer Draw It

This animation technique involves you buying (yes, buying!) a 3D image creation program, such as 3D Studio Max, trueSpace, Bryce, etc. (There are some very good shareware/freeware programs out there, however.) You then create a scene using primitive geometry (spheres, cubes, etc.).

There are some advantages to rendering your artwork. First of all, rendering all your artwork puts you on track for a consistent style throughout your game. If you render everything, your game art will automatically have a cohesive element that ties your entire game together. Yes, you still have to worry about creating a style and sticking to it, but even if you fail miserably at this, your game will still have a somewhat consistent look.

Some types of animation are also significantly easier to make. Animations where you fly in or around a scene are much easier to render than to draw by hand. Creating pictures of the same scene from different angles is much easier, too - just move the camera. Additionally, some programs make rendering a specific type of scene a snap - for example, the program Bryce makes it very easy to create stunning landscapes and outdoor scenes.

But there are some drawbacks. The biggest drawback (aside from the cost of the tools) is that rendered artwork often appears dull and boring to the gamer. Games have been using computer-generated imagery (CGI) for a very long time, and gamers have gotten used to seeing beautiful rendered scenes. To achieve anything that gamers would even consider "average," you will have to spend an ungodly amount of time tweaking and waiting for your scenes to render.

Rendering is best for scenes where light, reflection, and color are more important than shape and contour. Modeling and rendering anything "organic," or anything that has complex curves or weird shapes, is generally harder than just drawing it by hand (but of course, that's assuming you can draw!).

Sketching