Third-party assets
Assets are the objects that we use in our games and include graphics, audio, and fonts. Third-party assets are those assets which have been created by someone else!
Following are some resources for graphics and audio assets:
Graphics resources
There are many Internet resources for graphics, but finding good-quality images that can be used freely in commercial games can be a time consuming task! Following are several resources, some of which include very high-quality images for use in games:
www.vickiwenderlich.com deserves to appear at the top of the list because this website is the source of most of the graphics used in the game we have created in this book! Vicki has created numerous collections of high-quality game art which can be used free of charge, even in commercial games, as long as Vicki is clearly attributed as the author of the graphics.
Lostgarden.com is an excellent resource, not just for graphics, but for many other topics relating to game development. Daniel Cook, who maintains the website, is Chief Creative Officer at the game development studio Spry Fox, and he has made available a wonderful set of graphics at www.lostgarden.com/2009/03/dancs-miraculously-flexible-game.html.
Opengameart.org is a huge resource of free-to-use graphics assets. The quality of the graphics varies from excellent to not so good but, if nothing else, it's a great source of graphics for prototyping. Note that the licensing is specified by the author of each of the graphics and, while many images can be used in commercial games, there are some exceptions, so be sure to check the licensing for each image.
www.widgetworx.com/widgetworx/portfolio/spritelib.html—SpriteLib is a sprite library that has been available for many years, but it contains a wonderful collection of graphics that can be used in several genres of games. The author has released these sprites into the public domain, and they have been used in some commercially available games.
Sound resources
There are many high-quality sound effects and music tracks available for use in our games but, as always, be sure to check the licensing requirements of each asset:
www.incompetech.com—Kevin MacLeod's website contains a large library of sound tracks that he has composed and made available free of charge, for use in any project, as long as Kevin is clearly attributed as the author of the music. The quality of the music is extremely high, and covers a wide range of genres.
www.soundjay.com—A well organized and comprehensive collection of free music tracks and sound effects.
www.partnersinrhyme.com—This commercial website also contains a large selection of free sound effects.
