Charging for Tilesets

[Ruby]

A full custom tileset (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B, C, D, E tilesheets) in 12-15 hours for only $30/hour? 

Seems highly unlikely. For people who make graphic packs and such for sale, it takes months and months of work for basically just the aforementioned tilesheets. I would maybe believe it slightly more if it was 12-15 hours for one sheet, but I suppose it also depends on the overall quality.

Edit: Not saying that she is lying or is scamming or anything, but numbers like those certainly require some scrutiny. 

Just for exterior tiles. Which is why I'm offering her more, so that she would do some other things for me. She works with a different program so her "tilesets" are different I guess.

To quote her exactly: " The full set would be cliffs, grass, dirt, water, trees/plants, and anything else you'd like to add."

Edit: Wow, I just read what everybody is saying. Maybe a fully custom set isn't the way to go. I'm not nervous about her work, I just wanted to know if $1000 was enough or not. Sorry I wasn't clear.

I'm not a pro graphic artist or anything. I wouldn't know what to offer, and all of your ideas are great so thank you. 

I always try to pay what artists deserve, so I'm not sure I would be able to pay her a flat rate as some of you suggested.

 

[Zoltor]

Pretty much the rest of the world gets paid by the hour. How come this should be treated differently? Especially since art is NEVER the same?

You simply pay for what you get. A flat rate for art is frankly, stupid. But people do it because they're new to asking for money for their art, and they start off with small prices for things like a "bust" or a "full body". People who ask for a flat rate are usually too afraid to ask for an hourly rate.

Actually, that's not entirely true, and is rare in the art or contractor fields. If they have people working for them, their employees get paid by the hour sure,, but the actual commissioned person, gets paid by the actual job done.

OMG lmao, there is someone on DA who freelanced her art into a huge business, and there are many variations in her pieces, as well as style. She's definitely one of the best artists out there period, and is definitely not new to charging commissions, yet she doesn't use a hourly rate.

Holy crap, her commissions are actually open atm(she's always swamped with commissions, so the commission request window doesn't stay open long, I may have to jump on this, I've been wanting to have her do a specific pic of my char for ages now).

Here's her personol webpage(opened to the commission page for you) http://www.meadowhaven.net/commissions/  

Here's her DA page: http://saimain.deviantart.com/

She lives off her art, easily so, this is no beginner to the industry, that's for sure.

 

[Celianna]

Ruby, to me that sounds super vague. You need to talk to her some more, and really work out what you want, and how much she is going to make. For example, that sentence doesn't say how many cliffs there will be, how many grass tiles, how many water autotiles, how many trees and plants ... and is she going to fill up an entire TileB?

 

[Sharm]

She's never done Ace tiles before?  That's going to make a difference, normal tiles that are made for a programmer (probably her usual client) are a lot easier to make than ones for Ace.  When working directly with a programmer you can make the tiles work pretty much however you want and the programmer will alter the program to fit what you've decided to do.  In Ace everything has to be drawn to fit the way the program works from the beginning.  It seems very likely to me that this artist doesn't realize what she's getting into.

@Zoltor:  That artist has established a niche for herself working in one specific style doing specific types of art and only takes commissions that fit that specific style and type.  Of course she can set a flat rate, she doesn't have a dynamic job description.  The type of art we're talking about has a lot more variables that make a completely fair estimate incalculable.

 

[Celianna]

She's never done Ace tiles before?  That's going to make a difference, normal tiles that are made for a programmer (probably her usual client) are a lot easier to make than ones for Ace.  When working directly with a programmer you can make the tiles work pretty much however you want and the programmer will alter the program to fit what you've decided to do.  In Ace everything has to be drawn to fit the way the program works from the beginning.  It seems very likely to me that this artist doesn't realize what she's getting into.

Yeah I'm getting the same vibe here; she doesn't know what she's getting into.

 

[Galenmereth]

@Zoltor: Single illustrations work a bit different usually, though. Not saying it's easy to estimate the exact time, but it's easier than something that is more complex like a tileset that has to work in a game engine, look good with all of the other elements, etc. I've hired an artist for a flat fee before (the illustration of the female character in The Vendor was made for $80 flat, for example, and the artist is a professional who works freelance with AAA studios), but that's a very different type of job than a tileset

 

[Zoltor]

She's never done Ace tiles before?  That's going to make a difference, normal tiles that are made for a programmer (probably her usual client) are a lot easier to make than ones for Ace.  When working directly with a programmer you can make the tiles work pretty much however you want and the programmer will alter the program to fit what you've decided to do.  In Ace everything has to be drawn to fit the way the program works from the beginning.  It seems very likely to me that this artist doesn't realize what she's getting into.

I wouldn't say harder, just they require more time(if we're talking auto tiles here, the B-E are pretty standard in the industry), wat more then  what she thinks. However judging by the tiles types Ruby mentions, we can assume they are gonna be, B-E tiles, just standard 32x32 tiles, none of the autotile stuff going on.

Although without a estimated number of tiles, there's no way of telling how fair or not the price is.

 

[Sharm]

Zoltor, you're not an artist, where are you getting this whole "I wouldn't say harder" thing from?  I was speaking from personal experience.

 

[Zoltor]

Zoltor, you're not an artist, where are you getting this whole "I wouldn't say harder" thing from?  I was speaking from personal experience.

Because all it is, is more art in the auto tiles, It's not "harder", It's just more. Lets not confuse difficulty, with something that just takes more time, because more art needs to be made.

 

[mlogan]

I wouldn't say harder, just they require more time(if we're talking auto tiles here, the B-E are pretty standard in the industry), wat more then  what she thinks. However judging by the tiles types Ruby mentions, we can assume they are gonna be, B-E tiles, just standard 32x32 tiles, none of the autotile stuff going on.

Although without a estimated number of tiles, there's no way of telling how fair or not the price is.

Cliffs, grass, dirt and water are typically autotiles. Yes there are some in A-5, but usually the bulk of them are not. I think we are getting way off point however.

 

[Ruby]

Oh, man ^ Never even thought about that guys, thank you!! I guess we both need to sit down and really talk about it. I mean, I sent her a list and told her that the tiles are for RPG Maker, but I guess I didn't think about her not working for it before? Going through her DA she has A LOT of stuff for Zelda Maker, and some maps but she never talks about what program they go to. This is harder than I thought! Now I'm starting to re-think this, but it's all stuff I NEED to think about, so thanks.

 

[Zoltor]

Oh, man ^ Never even thought about that guys, thank you!! I guess we both need to sit down and really talk about it. I mean, I sent her a list and told her that the tiles are for RPG Maker, but I guess I didn't think about her not working for it before? Going through her DA she has A LOT of stuff for Zelda Maker, and some maps but she never talks about what program they go to. This is harder than I thought! Now I'm starting to re-think this, but it's all stuff I NEED to think about, so thanks.

If you wanted autotiles, yea you need to talk to the artist, big time(prices will likely need changing, you need to tell the artist the format it must be in, ect), but if you wanted a tileset for B-E/A5, you should be good(32x32 is the standard for map making. you could mentioned that they need to be 32x32, just to be 100% clear, but you should be fine with that)

 

[crimcrim]

Pretty much the rest of the world gets paid by the hour. How come this should be treated differently? Especially since art is NEVER the same?

You simply pay for what you get. A flat rate for art is frankly, stupid. But people do it because they're new to asking for money for their art, and they start off with small prices for things like a "bust" or a "full body". People who ask for a flat rate are usually too afraid to ask for an hourly rate.

Just wanted to put my 2 cents in for this. As an amateur artist and as an employer I think it's fine to ask for a flat rate per piece if you're trying to gauge how much your cost will be (as a developer) and as an artist (mostly freelance). If you're doing art full time though you should get hourly.

I like the per piece model because it allows me to be a lot more flexible with bonuses and revision charges.

Because all it is, is more art in the auto tiles, It's not "harder", It's just more. Lets not confuse difficulty, with something that just takes more time, because more art needs to be made.

wat

Auto-tiles are Satan himself, why would you make this assumption without having made them (or tried).

 

[Vexed]

Because all it is, is more art in the auto tiles, It's not "harder", It's just more. Lets not confuse difficulty, with something that just takes more time, because more art needs to be made.

Sorry, but that's not at all accurate. When making an autotile yes you're essentially making 6 32x32 tiles but the process involved in making those 6 tiles is a lot more complex than making say... 6 tiles for use in the A5 sheet. It's not that there's "more art" it's that the art you're creating is more complex. More difficult.

Again, this is from experience of creating tilesets, not just looking at tiles and deciding what is or isn't complicated.

Also, just putting my two cents in - charging an hourly rate for custom, exclusive work that is variable is perfectly acceptable. In fact, it IS the norm in my experience. Like others have said, if what you're making is invariable in style or just variations on a theme a flat rate works well. Unfortunately that's not how most art works. Everyone wants something specific and in those cases, an hourly rate is fair to both parties.

 

[Ruby]

I'm confused as to why this was moved? My game isn't going commercial (yet) and it was more of a general question? I don't mind, I'm just confused as to which thread to reply to. xD

 

[Sharm]

The conversation isn't really about your game though, it's about commercial tilesets and commissions.  This section is for all commercial aspects of game making, not just for commercial games.  Odd that it just got moved with no note though, usually you'd get some blue text.

 

[CharRedBaron]

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!

I was expecting of paying an artist to get a tileset, I'll drop the idea. This is way too costly. There is no way in hell I will ever get the money to pay for anything close to what I want. Especially for what I was thinking, I simply am not rich enough. There is no way in hell somebody with a normal job can pay 9000$ 

Thanks for opening my eyes, I guess i'll just buy stuff from the shop.

 

[Sharm]

There are times when paying a tile artist can be a great idea for a small developer.  Getting a few specialized tiles that match the existing tiles in your game, for instance.

 

[CharRedBaron]

Yes for sure, but with my rpg team we are just starting out, and we simply don't have the money to pay thousands of dollars for a tileset.

 

[Zoltor]

Yes for sure, but with my rpg team we are just starting out, and we simply don't have the money to pay thousands of dollars for a tileset.

Fair enough, to go "all out" with custom art will cost so much, you can pay a big time developer to just make your game while you're at it. However do keep in mind what Sharm said. getting a few much desired tiles can make a big difference in how your game looks, and such is very affordable. It's only when you want alot/big custom things, where it can get stupid expensive.

Speaking of which, I have these 2 epic custom tiles from a past game I was making, however Ace's atrocious scan rate doesn't like them lol, so I'm wondering if I should have a artist make them from the ground up, in a reg drawing/pic format, instead of pixel art format(I image the scanrate will beable to better handle then then, afterall the engine doesn't have a problem scanning all the reg art formatted tiles people make for Ace).

To clarify what affordable means, anywhere from 7-15 bucks or so per tile seems to be the standard, the price can vary, but if we're talking 32x32 tiles, it shouldn't reach much higher then that. For things lik custom sprites, I know people that would make sprites all day for 25-30 bucks a sprite.

Things like that, see not too painful is it?