1. Mobile Game Preproduction
Asset Preparation

2. Capstone Consideration !
Make the best assets choices with the resources you have to work with. In other words, choose assets from sources that you know will work with your setup (Unity store)
Convert assets as necessary
Focus on game mechanics over nice assets
Use placeholders assets if necessary
Be aware that securing ideal assets may pose a challenge in the education sector

3. Step 1 – Acquire Assets
So you know… professional games mostly utilize real artists
For school, you could try:
The Full Sail Library, Westar Music Database
Full Sail Game Art repository (request access through Dr. Todd Smith)
Unity Asset Store -
TurboSquid -
TF3DM -
Open Game Art -
Archive3D -
2D Art 4 Programmers -
Affordable Audio 4 Everyone -
Kevin MacLeod -
Audio Jungle -
Many Full Sail Game Art graduates freelance. If you are planning on commercializing your game after graduation and want to get started with custom game art assets, you can contact the Game Art liaison in Career Development for a list of contacts.
Google…

4. Asset Pipeline
The process that assets go through from their source formats to final optimized formats
We need assets to be as efficient as possible and work properly on all targets:
Asset Types
Creator
icons, images, textures, stills, backgrounds, models, animations, terrain, shaders, effects, collision geometry
modeler, animator, artist, graphic designer
sfx, music, voice overs, dsp settings, stings
composer, “sound guy”
scripts, levels, dialogs, text, menus, paths, RTAs
designer, scripter
etc.

5. Asset Pipeline (example)
source
in-game
exporter
compiler / builder
loader
intermediate format
optimized per target

6. Asset Pipeline (example)
[1]
Noel Llopis’s example from “Optimizing The Content Pipeline”, Game Developer Magazine.
Use in MechAssault 2
Day 1 Studios
2004

7. Asset Pipeline In the old console days, this process was crucial
source -> intermediate -> final assets per target
hardware, tex/sound formats, vertex buffers, etc. could all be very different per target platform
any memory available was very limited
every millisecond was crucial
Professional game studios still do this, but indie developers not so much
Hardware/memory/polygon constraints not as big a deal anymore

8. Asset Pipeline
The biggest problem you have (as a student) is getting your assets to work in your setup
Conversion tools/processes may be necessary
Example:
you find a really nice asset modeled and animated
but your engine doesn’t load that format
you will have to convert this and the process may not be trivial, and there could be artifacts…

9. Asset Preparation
In this program, it is best if you prepare all your assets upfront before development
Asset choices should be based on:
Asset needs (2d/3d, audio & video quality)
File format compatibility
Performance (size, resolution/pixels)
Device OS version support
Variety of devices supported (tablet, phone, etc.)

10. Asset Preparation
During preproduction, assets should be tested for appropriateness and performance on all intended device classes/OS versions
If time is limited, choose the main targets to deploy your project on
You don’t want to get halfway through development and find that you can’t use any of the models you selected on one of your intended targets :/

11. Asset Organization
Collect and organize assets into folders for each development module:
Icons
Interface screens
In-game play (levels, phases, etc.)
Standardized naming for easy identification
sfx_jump.ogg, mdl_player.obj, etc.
Keep source files of assets in case changes are needed (i.e. keep Photoshop .psd)

12. Thankfully, Unity helps, a lot!

13. Unity 3D Assets Tutorials
Working with Imported Assets from Unity 4.3 Essential Training with Adam Crespi:

14. Raster vs Vector vs Pixel Art
“Game Art Tips! Raster vs Vector vs Pixel Art – The Pros and Cons” by the Deepworld Development Team
For non-pixel-art: start with high resolution graphics files; low-res files can be created as necessary

15. Pixel Art
Type of 2D graphic created with raster graphics software that permits editing on the pixel level
Used primarily for situations requiring optimization of space and memory or for low resolution devices
These days, used often to mimic old-school game styles

16. Pixel Art & Raster Art
Lossless data compression file formats best for pixel art: GIF, PNG
Magnifying JPEG (lossy compression) shows pixilation and artifacts.
PNG
JPEG

17. Vector Art
Graphics created using mathematical algorithms to generate image.
Fully scalable with no pixilation
Good for cartoon graphics
File size small for simple graphics
Not good for small details, file size increases and appearance suffers
Often need to be converted to raster format for display, losing scalability value

18. Multiple Resolutions / Densities
Tips for Exporting Assets for iOS and Android design
Android cheatsheet for graphic designers
App Resources
How do I prepare images for all the Android resolutions?
Designing for Android (a bit old but still useful with the graphics)
Android images for multiple densities:
Android icons (not just app icons, but tabs, buttons, etc.)

19. References
Llopis, N. “Optimizing The Content Pipeline”, pp: Game Developer Magazine