Budget: $500
E-mail: johnnyoneal@gmail.com

Are you a pixel artist who would like to get some simple, quick-turnaround paid work for hire? I'm interested in recruiting artists for an indie game project.

Work performed for this project will be paid and credited. Whether you're a talented amateur or an aspiring professional, you could be a good fit for this project.

What I'm Looking For

To qualify for this project, you will need to be able to emulate the look of the following sprites:



The sprites don't need to look too fancy -- and wouldn't blend into the existing art if they were. The look is intentionally a bit retro, like early SNES RPGs with black outlines and 8-16 color palettes. In most cases, I'm looking for static sprites that can be animated later.

What You Can Earn

I am willing to offer the following rates to new artists:

• $5 - Design a Hero character with two sprites: a "low-level" version (~22x22 pixels) and an "epic" version (~26x26 pixels). Characters #1/#2 and #3/#4 are examples of this.


• $5 - Design a monster (between 32x32 and 40x40 pixels) with two poses (#6 and #7 are examples of monsters)


• $10 - Design a boss monster (between 32x32 and 56x56 pixels) with two poses (#8 is about the right size, but there's room for improvement in the design)

If you're a little more established and have a strong portfolio, I can discuss higher pricing. I expect that the budget of $500 will be spread across several artists, but I'm happy to award a lot of work to one industrious artist. There's also room for the budget to increase if the output of work is good.

Artist Requirements

My requirements aren't too stringent. I'm happy working with artists of any age or experience level. But the following requirements are important:

• You must be willing to tell me your real name, so your work can be credited.


• You must be ready to accept direction via e-mail, and be at least okay at English. :)


• You must reply promptly to e-mails and work at a reasonable speed (delivering new art at least once every week).


• You must be willing for me to make one round of comments (which means you make one round of edits).


• You must be willing to share examples of your past work, even if it's just your DeviantArt page.


• You must submit one example (see below).

If you're interested, please PM or e-mail me. I will ask that you create one example of an original 26x26 pixel art fantasy character that matches the look of the characters above. If I like it, we'll start working together (and I will pay you $5 to finish the first piece along with a 22x22 version). Once we've started working together, I will pay according to basic project milestones (25% upfront, 50% at first-round delivery, and 100% at final version that incorporates any comments). I don't expect anyone to work for free, and I will pay via PayPal so we can keep track of one another.

Please keep in mind that this is work for hire, so by agreeing to these terms you are turning over the copyright to the work you create for this project.

About Me

This is the first time I've worked on a project involving pixel art, but I have a lot of experience working with artists on professional projects for the toy/game companies where I've worked in product development (Mattel and Spin Master Toys). If you need a reference for what it's like to work with me directly, I can put you in touch with Darren Calvert aka D-MAC.

Hoping I can find some partners on this great community of artists! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

EDIT: While I have enough artists now, I have recently posted a new opportunity for background work. Check it out! http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14961


Edited by johnny0neal - 24 August 2012 at 8:32am

Thanks for all the responses! I'm reviewing the submissions and am still open to receiving more, but I expect to make my decision within the next week. If anyone is interested but can't turn around art due to the 4th of July weekend, please just send me an e-mail to let me know you're interested.

One note: a couple of people have provided images above and beyond what I have requested. That's awesome, but please don't do *too* much before I've selected the artists, because I hate for people to do anything unpaid. I promise there will be plenty of work once I provide full specs on what I need!