Nick Gravelyn

I’m Jim Perry and I approve this post!

lol,

That is quite funny, I jave to deal with that for my game, Free sprites and paided ones for the win.

I have to disagree with you on whether it is ok to use commercial sprites for testing. As a programmer, I am a terrible artist. If I sat around and made sprites, I would burn through way too much of my limited time. I don’t care if it is commercial or not, as long as I don’t need to make it myself. Using pre-existing sprites can save time because I can try out something new only to realize that I want to use a different kind of sprite or whatever. Also, using something that was in a commercial product will let you use what your project would look like with real art instead of programmer art. It can give you a glimpse into what your final product will look like which can inspire you further. If all I have is a couple filled rectangles on my screen, it can make it a little tough to see the big picture. Also if it is only a test project that is just for education and what not, then there is no reason to draw all new sprites because it’s only for learning. The final product is probably nothing noteworthy and it would never be distributed. If the coder did decide to release it, then they could whip up some programmer art or get free sprites then.

Now if someone released their final project and they included the commercial sprites, then I would absolutely disagree with that. They could try to find an artist on the web to join the project and create graphics, they could navigate the internet and find free ones or they could resort to programmer art and just be explicit about how the artwork is a bunch of placeholders.

I also disagree about people making a Mario game. Mario is a licensed product so if you actually released a Mario game without setting up a deal, then I’m sure you would get sued. But if you took the time to set up the deal and make a sequel, then there is nothing wrong with that (as long as it doesn’t suck).

Now if it is a game that you only intend to use for testing, then I think it’s fine to skip the licensing and just use it. Using an established character like Mario can make it easier trying to come up with a story. You can make that sequel to Super Mario RPG that you’ve always wanted or what not. There is nothing wrong with this as long as you don’t mind that you probably be one of the few people to see the fruits of your labor. Something like this could help you work on your storytelling skills and other game development problems.

Like if you finished a nice 2d tile engine, you could then use the same engine with different tilesets from 3 different games. Then you can try and make a seperate sequel for each game. This would let you focus on storytelling and other stuff.

Even if you show it on youtube, there is nothing wrong with that because it will allow you to get feedback. But if you start putting videos on there to try and generate hype for your game and it has commercial sprites in it, then yeah, you should be slapped.