Whenever I make projects, I largely take the bulk of the work on myself. Programming, writing, worldbuilding, and art assets, and maybe I’ll enlist some help with writing here and there.
I, however, am not an artist. I have never been an artist, and I will probably never be an artist. I rely on Koikatsu or HoneySelect2 in order to get anything done, but they feel so limited. Pregnancy+ is a fantastic tool, but it’s incredibly hard for me to fine-tune and get to a point where I feel satisfied with the results. Since I’m doing everything else by myself and don’t like to spend much longer on one portion than I have to, I end up with rushed-looking art assets that are immediately picked up on. If they’re particularly bad, I’ll have to go revisit them, which is something I hate even more than spending the time to do it right the first time. I stay in contact with so many talented people in the fetish community, and some, as I’ve said, I’ve been able to enlist for help with writing, but I’ve always been alone for art assets.
I wish there was an easier way to get quality art. I’ve seen threads on this subject before, but I’ve never gotten a satisfying answer from reading them. Honestly, I don’t know that I ever will, but I’d like to see if anything has changed, if anything has gotten easier.
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I’m just gonna skip past the obvious “just commission the art” suggestion because that’s the simple answer and go straight to trying to convince someone to work on a project unpaid. There’s two main aspects to getting someone to collaborate on a project, trust and motivation. It’s best to have both, but the less you have of one, the more you need of the other.
Trust is in the form of trusting someone to competently finish a project. People are way more willing to contribute to a project that looks like it’s actually going to happen, or to work with someone they already know well. Polished demos and finished previous projects are a good way to build trust, with having a couple of finished projects being way more valuable in this regard.
Motivation builds somewhat on trust (hard to get motivated on something you don’t think will ever be released), but other factors contribute. Money is a good motivator, but I said I was going to focus on the unpaid route. The best motivator is providing something that the artist not only can’t just do themselves, but is also something they enjoy. If a game is mostly held up by the art, then the artist doesn’t really get anything beyond what they put in (which they could already do with an even more specific focus on what they like). Good writing, sound design, gameplay, there’s gotta be something to make people say “Oh man, I totally want to see my art in that”. It really helps if it’s something they’re already into as well fetish-wise, to a super specific degree.
This is especially true since the people that have practice staying motivated for numerous pieces over a long time (and there will always be numerous pieces over a long time when making assets for a game) are people who have been doing art for a while and know how much of a time investment that is. It’s really gotta be worth it to start a big project like that.
Combine both these factors, and the best way to try and wrangle an artist for a project is to already have a few decent projects completed, probably without art. After all, you would want to see some finished work of an artist before you agreed to tie your project to them, it’s only natural for anyone to want the same before dedicating themself to your project.
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I end up finding ways to finish my projects despite my limitations, and perhaps that would seem to indicate that I have things under control and don’t need an artist.
Perhaps I need to prototype a little more instead of giving up and jumping ahead to a finished product with whatever I have at my disposal, feeling out a little to see if it speaks to anyone.
something you could try to do is look for artists that are searching for programmers. like keep an eye out if you see an artist make a thread looking for a programmer. you would probably end up making “their” project over “yours” but still. if all works well you can probably collaborate more in the future
Hey Galactose, I have had the pleasure of playing your game a while ago and I enjoyed it.
So I think you are a little too hard on yourself here. HS2 while limited, can make some good looking visuals.
But if you have the hardware for it, I would highly recommend that you check out Virt-a-Mate.
Virt-a-Mate is maybe a little harder to learn than HS2, but not too much. And I think the visuals can look pretty good. There are many many morphs for Pregnancy, Breast Expansion and Weight gain so it works well for these type of visuals for games. If you check out VaM and are stuck on something or want some tips and advice you can send me a DM.
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