Create Great Looking Game Artwork Using Paper

Today I’d like to share a little bit of the process behind the artwork for Petunk. I believe the style is attractive and distinct, and the best part is I was able to do it without strong technical artistic ability, investing lots of time, or spending much money. If like me  you’re not as strong an artist as you are a programmer read on to learn how to use construction paper to achieve a cool look for your game.

The Equipment

The first thing you’ll need is the actual paper and tools to create your artwork. I was able to purchase everything I needed for under $30, though I already had a scanner lying around. I would suggest going to your local art or crafts store and purchasing:

1. 40 sheets of assorted colored construction paper ($3.59)
2. An x-acto-knife or equivalent ($5.93)
3. Double sided removable tape ($3.59)
4. A glue stick ($.89)
5. A normal pair of scissors ($2.79)
6. Two or three pairs of “funny” scissors with different types of cuts ($2.24 each)
7. One ruler ($2.45)
8. A scanner

You can purchase this stuff pretty much anywhere. The special scissors are fantastic as they really help compensate for technical ability. I was surprised how hard something as simple as cutting a straight line is! Also, don’t worry about what colors come with the colored paper. I didn’t get the colors I originally wanted but that ended up making the game better.

The Physical Process

Start the process by grabbing a few pieces of paper and making something completely random just to get the creative juices flowing. Next, piece together an early prototype trying out different colors and shapes. Don’t worry about re-using assets at this point; Just explore what works until you’ve found something you think is strong.

Once you’ve settled on a general style and possibly tested it out with a physical prototype the next thing to do is construct a set of re-usable assets. In a nutshell, each “atom” is created separately, i.e. you might glue two green cut outs for a bush or an orange and red cut out for a wall. In some cases you may not want to glue assets together, for example the game’s background and border. In those cases I suggest binding the two assets together with tape in a way that allows you to move them as needed while still keeping things relatively in place between scenes. Finally, arrange the atoms on the stage using double sided tape to hold them in place. When you’re satisfied put the entire scene into the scanner and import it into Photoshop.

With the basic process down you can start to explore different properties of the medium. For example, you might fold red paper over and over to create a curtain, or roll a blue paper into a tight loop and then unfurl it to create water. Layering elements also creates different affects as you push the paper closer to the screen.

The Bottom Line

As you can see it’s simple to create compelling artwork for your game using physical materials. Once you’ve created a stage and re-usable assets you can quickly and easily mix and match elements until you’ve found something that works. At that point it’s easy to scan the scene and integrate the results in your game. An additional benefit from this process is that all of your artwork will be at a very high resolution meaning that you could easily use it for a full-screen version of the game, a downloadable, or as copy to help promote your game.

I haven’t covered the digital process I used to manipulate the artwork and accelerate the process. Look for a follow up post sometime soon which takes a look at how to use Photoshop to work with elements scanned individually, create compelling text, and speed up the entire workflow.

Related posts:

1. Creating a Paper-like Look in Photoshop
2. Game Artwork: Complex Tileset
3. How to Find and Use Artwork for Tile Based Games
4. Game Artwork: City Tileset
5. It’s August, time for a new game