Solo devs without art skills: how do you handle the art side of your game?
Hey everyone,
I’m a game developer without much artistic ability, and I’m struggling hard with the art side of my project. For those of you who don’t have an artist partner, how do you actually get your games looking good enough to ship?
I’ve tried using AI, but it hasn’t really worked for me. I’ve experimented with both vector art and pixel art, and I just can’t get results that feel consistent or usable. At this point, I’m honestly feeling pretty defeated.
For context, I’ve spent the last few months building a pretty ambitious simulation-heavy game. I created a dynamic, realistic world generation system with around 70 data layers, covering a 64km-scale map with 25m cell sizes. I also built a full tilebuilder that translates those cells into an actual playable game environment.
On top of that, I have wagon movement working, which turned out to be much harder than expected, a deep turn-based combat system, harvesting mechanics for pawns, and a bunch of world simulation systems.
The game is sort of like Divinity: Original Sin 2 mixed with RimWorld, but without the base-building part. The core idea is a merchant-wagon fantasy game set in a vast dynamic world where the world reacts to events. For example, a local deep-freeze event could freeze a river that a nearby city relies on, which then affects supply routes and market prices.
So mechanically, there’s a lot already working. It’s still buggy and has optimization issues, but the foundation is there.
And now I’m stuck because I can’t solve the art problem.
I don’t want this to come across as just complaining, but I’m genuinely frustrated. I feel like I managed to build a huge amount of the technical side, only to hit a wall because I can’t make the game visually come together.
How do other solo developers deal with this? Do you use asset packs, hire freelancers, go minimalist, learn art yourself, build around placeholder visuals, or something else entirely?
I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have been in a similar situation.