ProcJam Art Packs for 2017

The art packs for the 2017 ProcJam have been released, and they are as amazing as expected. Together with the art packs from previous years, this means hundreds of 3d models and sprites are available under a CC0 license for anyone who wants to use them.

The artists should be congratulated. It’s not a topic that gets discussed much, outside of the circles of artists who are working on generative projects, but there’s a number of additional constraints and considerations when you’re working on art that’s going to be used as part of a generative output. They have to work as individual art pieces and when repeated and fit in with the surrounding art–often with no idea of exactly what that art might be. It’s like tiling texture design turned up to 11.

For many generators, the choice of content is an intrinsic part of the system itself: a text generator working with a Tracery grammar is defined by the text that’s put into that grammar. A level generator can only work with the tiles it is given.

This even holds in a larger sense: for example, if transitions between terrain types are part of a tiled map generator, then the shape and kind of transitions that are allowed are dictated by what art assets are available. These relationships are sometimes addressed programmatically–you can always add more generativity within generativity, after all–but the general idea remains.

An artist doesn’t have to touch the code to have an influence on a generator.