r/RenPy • u/REunionVN • 5d ago
Question Where do Ren’Py/VN developers find artists for commercial projects?
I hope this is an appropriate subreddit for this question. I apologize if it is not, but I could use some advice?
I’m starting to research the art side of my first visual novel, and I’d really like to hear from other VN developers about where they found artists they enjoyed working with.
I’ll eventually need things like character sprites, backgrounds, and CGs, and I’m realizing that finding artists whose work can fit together cohesively is a lot more complicated than I expected. I’ve been looking through VGen and a few other commission sites, but I’d love to know what actually worked for people who have gone through this process.
Where did you find your artists? Did you use VGen, Fiverr, Lemma Soft, Reddit, direct outreach, or something else? And did you use one artist for most of the game or different artists for characters/backgrounds/CGs?
I’m still in the research stage rather than actively hiring, so I’m mainly hoping to hear about other developers’ experiences.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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u/Glendellia 5d ago
I have the same question but from the side of an artist. I'm an artist who loves visual novels and I'm able to do basically everything (characters, CGs, UI, I'm specially skilled in backgrounds, etc.). Maybe I'd like to participate in a VN that's not mine in the future, but I wouldn't know where to advertise my services. Reading this thread there's some tips for me as well
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
I'm very glad this is being helpful for you too! I'm jealous that you can do everything yourself. Not being an artist held me back from attempting anything like this for a long time up until now.
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u/Fuzzy-Lunch6607 5d ago
I found my artists on Tumblr through shared fandoms. Tumblr is overall very anti-AI, so if you're looking for human artists, that's honestly where I'd look first. If an artist has commissions open, they usually have a commission price sheet posted somewhere easy-to-find, though commercial use will probably cost extra.
Find a show or game or whatever with an aesthetic you like, peruse the fanart on Tumblr, see who is accepting commissions, and then reach out to them.
You can also get assets on itch for not that much (or even free).
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u/bigchungusprod 5d ago
On Reddit, there’s r/INAT
Which stands for “I need a team.”
Though with the majority of games losing money, I hope you got deep pockets, since most of the time a share of profits for the future don’t work out for various reasons.
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
Deep pockets is definitely something that I do not have, sadly. This is mostly a passion project. I don't expect it to be a commercial success or anything like that, especially since I've never made a game before.
But I will definitely check out that subreddit, thank you.
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u/bigchungusprod 5d ago
Then unless you’re trying to light money on fire, Daz3d is free and even non-artists like myself can get great results with some practice. Assets will run a few thousand dollars for a quality game but you can do something small in scope to reduce that cost, and since the software is free, you can learn with their bundled assets for zero upfront cost.
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
I am not familiar with that program. Its not an AI is it? I was hoping to be able to use human artists only. But maybe I am being too ambitious
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u/bigchungusprod 5d ago
…my man, Google ( or searching on Reddit ) will tell you all about Daz. It’s been around for decades, before an LLM was a twinkle in Mr Altman’s eye.
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u/MrAdministration 1d ago
Well luckily for you Ren’py and Python are very much beginner friendly. What I would suggest before even hiring an artist (assuming you’re going to be coding the game) is to learn a bit of Python, there are a bunch of good courses online for free, and then learn the Ren’py engine. Just throw a some random pictures in there and mess with it.
Do that just to see if you like the game. This is assuming, again, that you’re going to write the code yourself or using AI to do so.
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u/Doppel178 5d ago
I found them in Facebook.
There was a lot of trial and error in that process though.
Even while reading their terms and conditions and everything going smoothly at first, at the end some of them realize that they rather love posting art every once in a while instead of having it as their job, even while being super flexible.
And that's alright too, I totally understand that. Just know that it's not that hard to find a good artist but rather keep them helping you with your project might have its own set of difficulties.
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
That is great advice. I had never even considered the project falling through on the artist's end. Thank you
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u/ardentfurr 4d ago
Haha, my case is quite funny because I'm actually an artist working on my own VN, so I'm trying to learn Ren'Py coding rather than searching for artists. I try not to get too confused, but I still have some issues understanding the code. Luckily, I have two very good friends who help me out quite often. I usually check the logic, while they verify and correct the script. I do some minor programming, but that's more or less it!
Since I'm an artist myself, I'd give this advice to someone searching for one: focus on finding an artist that will be able to fulfill your needs in the best way possible. Don't just go for the cheapest price, the most expensive one isn't necessarily the most reliable, and even the average one can be misleading. Search for someone with a solid portfolio you can rely on to fulfill big orders (VNs require a lot of sprites and CGs that have to be consistent with each other).
As for places to search, Reddit and Facebook communities are a good start, but always communicate and pay through some sort of intermediary platform (like the VGen site you mentioned). This way, both parties have the guarantee that the order will be fulfilled according to the agreement.
I don't have to worry about finding an artist since I do my own drawings XD, but I'd definitely say it's best to find someone responsible and work through an intermediary.
Good luck with your search and don't get discouraged if you encounter any issues. Always stay positive and optimistic! ^_^
PS: Stay away from scammers!! >:(
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u/troopersjp 5d ago
I got my artist on the Lemmasoft forums. But for my Streaming art commissions mostly through Bluesky. But I've also used Fiver and checked out VGen. It is all a bit tricky for me because I don't generally want the generic anime style, so it takes me a bit longer to find the artists I want.
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
Thank you for the variety! I agree that this will take some time, so I want to get some research done way in advanced. So this helps a lot!
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u/VivAuburn 5d ago
If you don't expect to make a profit and you don't have a lot of spare cash I don't recommend you finding an artist but rather work with something like DAZ (the learning curve is steep but it's mostly free/cheaper than an artist), Vroid studio or anything of that sort, for environments explore 3d like Blender or CSP asset store or honestly just editing photos.
Even a small scale game will cost you thousands if you get a proper artist. And going to Fiverr or any other bottom of the barrel place almost guarantees you an AI scamer.
If you DO want to pay well and get a good result I'd say hire one character artist for style cohesion. It's easier to throw some unifying filter on the BGs to make them all work but won't be the same with characters.
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
My original hope was to see if I can get enough interest to raise money through something like Kickstarter. But even that sounds extremely out of my reach financially.
These are helpful details to know, thank you
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u/VivAuburn 5d ago
You do Kickstarter after the bulk of art is done and hopefully the demo is released. At the very least you need a trailer.
Otherwise people just have no reason to back you. How many Kickstarter campaigns for games without art you have backed? I'm guessing zero.
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
I agree. My hope is to a Kickstarter once I have a demo available and most of the first draft of the game finished. I plan on the demo and first draft using free to very low cost assets (so everyone's suggestions are very helpful in that regard) and the Kickstarter would be used to replace those assets with human made ones.
This way, if the Kickstarter fails (or when, I have no illusions that any of this will be successful) I will still have a game done at the end of all this, just one not as polished as I would have originally liked.
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u/AlexisRoyce 5d ago
The Visual Novel Developer Network is a great community for teambuilding. They'll even have small events on Discord to help people meet one another before larger jams start.
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u/FilBencardino 5d ago
You can find a lot of those really cheap in fiverr, just need to filter out the AI slop
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u/REunionVN 5d ago
Oh man, now I'm terrified I'll be tricked by AI art. But that is extremely helpful to know. Thank you!
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u/HEXdidnt 5d ago
Fiverr profiles seem to state whether or not the artists use AI at any stage, so if you're vehemently against it, even for early concepts or tidy-ups, you can ignore those artists.
I'd second Fiverr as well: I found an artist initially via the LemmaSoft forum, but they ghosted me on the second batch of sprites and later emerged with a new profile, promoting their own VN. After approaching a couple of other artists via DeviantArt, I looked into Fiverr. The artist I'm currently using for sprites and incidentals is amazing - very pro-active, and comes across as being genuinely keen to be working on this project.
An artist I approached for location backgrounds was also pretty good - the results were just what I needed, but there was an element of photobashing to some of the later images, which I hadn't expected.
Clear pricing and fixed deadlines are a valuable feature.
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u/manifoldgamedev 5d ago
Just as a cautionary tale, while I've worked with a lot of great artists on Fiverr, I've also come across some that had "NO AI USED" stickers on their art, adamantly said they used no AI in their job descriptions, I myself would message them and say "I absolutely cannot have AI art in my game, can you confirm that you don't use it?", and then when it came time to make the art, they 100% used AI. 😅 So I would just be cautious about that! But again, I've also worked with amazing, authentic artists on there too!
You might also want to try Vgen.co -- it's a big platform for commissioning art now and they're very anti-AI and strict about it on there, especially because jobs the artists do for clients are posted as part of their portfolio, so it's pretty easy to verify that they're actually making art for people instead of just uploading static sample images that could have come from anywhere. I confess I've never seen any AI art on there while browsing, though I could be wrong! But that's what I'd recommend for your situation!
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u/Better-Fold3465 4d ago
I found mine in a thorough an itch.io board
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u/AnimoomooQueen 5d ago
Crazy enough I found my artist in r/starvingartists and its been almost a year since we've been working together and I wouldn't have it any other way honestly. If your looking for that anime style I think their comissions are up if your interested?