A thing I was always wondering... how much is the right price for an artist?
I am talking about 2D stuff, 3D is too much pricey for sure, and besides is not my target (since I am making mostly 2D games now).
I've heard almost everything, from 500$ to 2500$ for the graphics of a game!
For sure those ppl don't realize that for a shareware game making 2500$ is a really good result (as I am experiencing now that I released my first title). So if we invest everything in the artist we earn almost nothing... :)
I know that "fixed" prices are hard to come up.
However, I'd be interested to hear some quotation. I think that this could be more informative than posting sales figures of games...!
I'll start by saying that I paid 400$ for 20 pictures of manga girls (to be used in a future game). A friend of mine said that 20$ per picture was a low price...! :)

I found also a nice thread about prices:
http://pixelation.swoo.net/viewtopic.php?t=8440

I someone has more info, maybe on "how" to calculate the prices (do you pay a hourly fee? or based on the amount of work?), feel free to contribute... ;)

$20 per picture *is* a low price - for certain kinds of anime/manga art. :) Have you seen what some people charge for commissions? $50 for the base pencil sketch of one character, plus extra if you haven't provided an in-depth character design document, plus extra to ink it, plus extra to color it, plus extra to put any sort of background in it at all, plus extra for a *detailed* background, double it all if you want more than one person in the shot, bonus if there's nudity... and THEN you're only allowed to keep the picture on your personal computer and never display it. if you want the RIGHTS to it, triple that figure... :) (I'm not sure who pays these people those prices, but they seem to survive somehow...)

This is the main reason I haven't made any attempt at doing the Japanese-style "visual novel" games that I like - I could *never* afford the art. :) Besides, the art is so central to that sort of game that it would really need to be a full partnership, IMO.

OTOH if all you want is a picture of a girl, no background, and you aren't planning to nitpick every tiny detail to make it perfect, you can probably always find an artist to draw it for $20.

The figures you talk about are absurd (not saying that they can't be true, but that would be foolish for any indie dev to even try to pay so much).

I think that there can be always a compromise, anyway. Maybe you were asking professionals, so it's normal that they charge so much.

But when I see a completely newbie that ask so much, I wonder how he can hope to get as much. Being a pro for me means also RESPECT THE DEADLINES!!! :p
The one I've been working so far was good in every aspect.
Sure the pics weren't full of details, but they were nice anyway.

If they want to charge so much, in the case of manga pics, I can simply buy a normal comics and start to copy images from there: with a good graphic tablet and if you got a minimum of artistic skill I am sure that you can do it (I may try in future).

A different matter is pixel art, because that one truly requires a LOT of time to make, expecially with animations...!

I'm quoting prices from people's websites, not people I've actually dealt with. :) A lot of artists-with-websites also post exceedingly grumpy things about "PLEASE do not ask me to do art for your game without LARGE UPFRONT PAYMENTS" because they've apparently been burned many times in the past by people who have Great Ideas but are in the end entirely incapable of making the game that their great idea was for. (It's also possible that those prices are lies designed to keep people from bothering them. I have no idea.)

Having actual finished titles in your stable probably makes it easier to deal with those people.

The right price is the one that makes both parties happy.

pat.

If I were a professional game development outfit paying professional people I'd be paying them professional salaries. I believe good artists and good programmers are quite rare creatures and both equally as valuable and rare as each other.

As a full time programmer I reckon I'm worth around £50-60k/year in the free market, and that's what I reckon Chaz is worth that as an artist, too. I hope eventually we'll be making that from our indie efforts.

Cas :)

We all know that openSource programmers work for free :D

pat.

I need to find OpenSource artists then ;)