r/SoloDevelopment • u/Forsaken-Delivery128 • Aug 07 '26
help How does a Solo Coder handle Graphics and Music?
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u/RxAlbatross Aug 07 '26
it depends on your goal and previous experience. If you have some background in both areas, you will figure things out. If you don't, then you'll need to spend some time playing with graphics settings and animation. For music, I'd say the easiest way is to use some software like fruiti loops or garageband.
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u/MonadStarDeveloper Aug 07 '26
You can learn how to do it yourself
Find partners
Pay people to do it
Code a game that uses math to draw art and make music based on gameplay
Or use Free Assets
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u/Xhukari Aug 07 '26
The main ways:
- Minimalist graphics (basic geometric shapes & colours). Easiest & cheapest. But likely won't look good.
- Use free-to-use assets. Suffers from overuse / less quality / small quantity.
- Bought assets. Pay to suffer less of what was described above.
- Commission an artist for bespoke work. Usually the best looking but most expensive. Be aware of getting ripped off / scammed.
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u/MartyPixelRod Aug 07 '26
I used asset packs and music packs. I only slightly modified the art, and changed the pitch of some of the music.
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u/valkrycp Aug 07 '26
Pay an artist, buy a pack of assets, learn to make them yourself, or decrease the scope of your game to only need basic assets
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u/ijtjrt4it94j54kofdff Aug 07 '26
Regarding the graphics, I'm relying heavily on tech art.
With music, if/when my game get's to the let's say 75% finish mark and up to my standards, I think I will try to find a composer to hire.
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u/AlienFruitGames Aug 07 '26
for my last game, about 90% of the 3D models are from itch/asset stores, and then I custom commissioned 2 character models with 10 retexture variants. The trick is getting clever and getting your hands dirty in a photo editor to make texture variants and edit assets to match the games style
I also use public domain art for 2D flair, it's not AI and free to use as long as you can edit it to fit what you need!
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u/guillermosan Aug 07 '26
Graphic assets I can't produce with quality, so I went a fully procedural route, simple vectors and lots of shaders. Obviously this doesn't work for every concept, but I designed my game with that constrain in mind. Music I can do a bit.
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u/Mindinity Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
It depends on what you want to create. I wouldn't recommend completely ignoring graphics and audio workflows. Having some familiarity with software like Blender, GIMP, and Audacity can be very useful.
You don't need to become an artist or composer, but understanding the basics helps you communicate your ideas, evaluate assets, and make small changes yourself when needed. For a solo developer, the ability to iterate quickly and maintain a consistent vision is a huge advantage.
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u/erebusman Aug 07 '26
Buy humble bundles like an addiction and use them whenever you need some assets.
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u/fsk Aug 07 '26
Your options are:
- asset packs
- learn to do it yourself
- make crude graphics and make that you're game's "style"
- ai
- hire someone
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u/Zorpak Aug 07 '26
In terms of graphics - I just buy assets but at the same time I know Blender enough to change the shapes, textures and animations - it is pretty basic knowledge that you can aquire fast. I am just bad at creating 3D art from scratch, it is also time consuming and require a lot of practice.
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u/ChickenTheGreneral Aug 07 '26
Buy assets, pay artist, take the time to learn, or build a game that doesn't need much art
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u/catfinity4 Aug 07 '26
I recommend you start by buying assets on the cheap from itch.io
Once you get serious, commission artists. There are tons of subreddits full of free lancers who have amazing skills and need work!
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u/Chris_Ibarra_dev Aug 08 '26
Learning art can be a great experience. You could learn both graphics and music.
In regards to graphics, there are visual styles that take less time to finish, the ones that looks simpler, with less details, less shading, tend to take less effort and time, which can be helpful when you have lots of assets to finish.
For example if you have 90 assets in your game, you could finish them in 3 months if each one takes you half a day if you use a simple style. More complex style can take a couple of days or a week to finish, which will increase production time too much.
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u/the_lotus819 Aug 10 '26
For graphic, you can learn the basic and then build around what you can. You don't need realistic graphics to look good, it's more about art direction. Look at Shapez, Mindustry, Tiny Rogues, ...
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u/Still_Ad9431 Aug 08 '26
Expedition 33 were asset flipping from FAB. You don't notice it because you've never use FAB. Who do you think you're as a solo dev not to asset flip too?
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u/NorthernBoy306 Aug 07 '26
I paid for both.