Forums » Help » what programs can i use to make sprites/tiles for a game?

Ok so i'm just getting into games development and have spant a while planning out my game and impact looks great however i don't know what programs i should use to draw the sprites for my game of what i should use to make my own tiles. I would apreciate it if someone could give me some advice on t=what programs to use and even some video tutorials on how to use them would be very helpful also.

Really depends how good an artist you are and how much you're willing to spend I guess.

Photoshop is one of the standard image editors and supports grids which lets you see your tiles as you edit them. If your looking for a free tool then Paint.net is useful, so is the GIMP (good program, bad name,hehe)

When I'm starting out on a project I normally start by finding some tilesets online for free and going from there, A few examples

http://www.lostgarden.com/2006/07/more-free-game-graphics.html
http://www.ironstarmedia.co.uk/2010/10/free-game-assets-13-prototype-mine-tileset/

but check google for more, obviously they can't be used for a commercial game but it gives you a good starting place to see how tiles fit together.

I would highly recommend GraphicsGale, it's perfect for making pixel art for games. Something like Photoshop or GIMP is a bit of overkill in my opinion.

Also checkout opengameart.org. Not image creation of course, but it is a good source for decent tilesets. I'll also toss in a vote for GIMP. Excellent program once you learn it.

my vote goes to GIMP

I switched from PS to Gimp. I use the below linked script to create sprite tilesets from layers.

http://registry.gimp.org/node/20943

I use Photoshop and set up the grids - Good advice for pixel arts - get yourself a tablet it makes it so much easier to draw entities.