This is free art – it is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Type: iPad retina, iPhone retina

Download the art here!

Space Monkey!

Space bananas are more delicious.

It’s about time we have another monkey running around, right?

This time the monkey is in space, flying around eating radioactive bananas and whatever else monkeys in space do.

There are aliens, asteroids, and grenades to avoid, bananas to collect, and a couple of repeatable backgrounds that would work well in any space game.

Suggested Game Play

The idea is a vertical scroller, where objects come down from the top of the screen and the monkey has to avoid them.

I’m sure you could use the backgrounds in a horizontal scroller too, if that’s more your style. A space background is a space background no matter which way you fly!

Go adventuring! Wear a suit. Or a cape...

Game Pack Contents

All the art is provided in two sizes: iPad retina, and iPhone retina. You can resize them to get any other sizes you need.

For non-iOS devices, you can simply make the backgrounds thinner by cropping the left and right sides, and it will still repeat.

Here’s what you get:

• Space Monkey character: 4 sprites – 2 of him flying, and 2 of him dying.
• Objects to avoid:
  • A green alien spaceship
  • An alien in an orange ship. You could use this one as the boss character.
  • Asteroids. Two of them! You can resize them if need be to make more variations.
  • Grenades. In space. Yep! Two of them, red and blue, so you can use them for different boosts or explosions.
• A banana! Every monkey game must have a banana to collect or give a boost. It’s the First Rule of Monkey Games.
• Stars – two of them, just in case you want to use the stars in a separate background or in a particle effect.
• Backgrounds: all are taller than the device screen and repeat as well.
• First option: a single repeatable background with space dust and stars.
• Second option: a repeatable background with stars, and a repeatable layer with space dust. You can use these for a parallax effect.

All the sprites you need to go exploring in space

Enjoy!

As always, I LOVE to hear about what games you make with the free art on this site- if you finish a game with it, send me an email via my Contact page or direct message me on twitter!

Plenty of games to play!

A bunch of games using the free art from this site have been created in the past couple of months! Here are a few of them; and you’ll be happy to know that most are free and some are even playable online!

So what are you waiting for – go try them out!

Fun Tank Battles for Android by F-T-B

Fun Tank Wars

Uses Tank Wars game pack

This tank battle game is similar to Advance Wars or Command & Conquer. The user is trying to defeat the computer army, and has control of several types of tanks, helicopters, and foots soldiers.

Check it out in the google app store!

Fun Tank Wars screenshot

Video Tutorial Series on 2D Games with Playmaker and Unity

Playmaker tutorials screenshot

Pop The Balloons by Sven Anders Robbestad

Pop The Balloons

Uses Flying Turbo Fish game pack

A simple, free game you can play online! Pop the balloons and don’t hurt the birds, which you may recognize from the recent Turbo Fish game pack!

It’s free! Play it online here!

Pop The Balloons screenshot

WordShoot by SeaTownTek

WordShoot

Uses the Letter Tiles art pack

Wordshoot is a fun action game using the Letter Tiles art pack where you shoot the letters to explode tiles and spell words.

Check it out in the app store!

WordShoot screenshot

One Life Left by Samuel Ramon Gomes

One Life Left

Uses Flying Turbo Fish art pack, Robot Tower Defense art pack

In this game you work to destroy towers and save your fellow fish! Careful, since you only have One Life Left :]

It’s free! Play it here!

One Life Left screenshot

IQ Challenge by Crunchy Apps

IQ Challenge

Uses War Tanks Top-Down Tileset

IQ Challenge, an android app, gives you a series of puzzles that help develop creativity, intelligence and “Out of the Box” thinking. These puzzles require some math skills, deductive skills, and imagination.

Find it in the Google app store here!

IQ Challenge screenshot

ABGOSE by Joe Clark

ABGOSE screenshot

Abecedarium by Lionel LASKE

Abecedarium screenshot

Want to make a game with free art?

It’s a great way to make your first app without spending a lot of money on art. Find all of the free art sets on this site here- there are tile sets, platformer sets, scrolling sets… go see if one of them fits that game idea you’ve been thinking of!

And when you finish a game, I’d love to see it! You can use my Contact form to send me a link to your game or app. I will likely feature it in a future roundup!

This is free art – it is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Type: iPad retina, resize the background for others

Download the art here!

Traffic Jam!

Keep the cars from crashing!

Cars, roads, and traffic lights – what could go wrong?

If you’ve wanted to make a game where the user must play God (or at least the traffic controller) and avoid traffic jams, this art pack is for you! There are some backgrounds with roads, cars to drive on them, and some traffic lights to control the chaos.

This game pack was suggested by a reader – thanks Teramo! If you would like to suggest a game pack, check out this blog post.

Another way to crash your cars

Suggested Game Play

Game Pack Contents

All the art is sized for the iPad retina screen. Use a resizing app to create versions for iPad unretina, or any other screens.

Backgrounds

• Two one-way streets, 2048×1536 pixels.
• Two two-way streets, 2048×1536 pixels.
• Two two-way streets, larger and slanted for more even lengths of roads. 2048×1536 pixels.
• A field of green, for use with title screens, menu screens, etc.

Lights

• A traditional red-yellow-green traffic light with each of the colors lit (3 sprites).
• A single light that switches between red and green (2 sprites).

Everything you need for your morning commute... or your iPad game!

Vehicles

• Cop car: every traffic game needs a cop car! You can use it as normal, or make it a special case that can’t be disturbed.
• Red sporty car
• Green pickup truck
• Blue sedan
• Commercial truck

And some Extras!

• Larger versions of the traffic light, for use in the app icon or title screens. 2048 pixels tall.
• Larger versions of the cars, for use in the app icon or title screens. 2048 pixels wide.
• Mockups! Three of them, the ones you see in this post.

This level would be for the n00bs

If there is enough interest, I can make more levels/road backgrounds. Let me know if you would like that in the comments!

Enjoy!

As always, I LOVE to hear about what games you make with the free art on this site- if you finish a game with it, send me an email via my Contact page or direct message me on twitter!

This is free art – it is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Download the art here!

Flying Turbo Fish

A flying fish!

This art pack was created by Holly Jensen, who is currently accepting contracting jobs for mobile apps and games! You can contact her at hollytales@comcast.net, or check out her portfolio at http://hollyjensen.carbonmade.com.

There have been several requests for more art for side-scrolling games, especially characters with jet packs!

Holly loved that idea, and came up with a cool goldfish character that escapes his pond and goes for a jaunt.

He’s got turbo jetpacks to fly around with, enemies and objects to avoid, and even coins and bonuses to collect!

You’ll also find a repeatable background with an alternate variation, as well as background objects to add randomly to create more variation within the levels. Read on to see the whole pack!

A fish's dream: flying via jetpacks!

Suggested Game Play

The main character, a goldfish with some awesome turbo jets, flies through the level powered by the user’s taps.  The more the player taps, the higher he flies.

The user navigates him up and down this way, tapping to make him go higher or letting him fall to go lower. This fish is perfectly capable of “walking”, too – if he falls to the ground (the darker green foreground) he will drag himself along until the user taps again!

He must avoid obstacles such as crabs on the ground or lasers and blue jays in the air, and collect coins.  If he hits an obstacle, he dies. If he nabs one of the lightning bugs, he gets a boost and his jets change color (it’s up to you what the actual boost is – going faster, becoming invincible, etc).

You could also use the this set in a Mario-esque scroller game, or use the background and objects to create a level for a different gameplay.  You can flip any of the character sprites horizontally if you want them to face another direction.

Game Pack Contents

All of the following art is offered in two sizes: iPhone retina, and iPad retina. You can resize them as you wish!

• Repeatable backgrounds – two variations to alternate between
• Goldfish character – includes sprites for walking, flying, and dying.
• Turbo jets and flames – a regular one and an extra cool blue one!

Here's our cool fish!

• Background objects to add variety to your levels: 2 clouds, 2 grasses, a tree, and a bush
• Obstacle: a rock for your fish to avoid when walking
• Enemies
  • Bluejay – 3 sprites to animate flying
  • Crab – 3 sprites to animate walking

Watch out for birds and crabs!

• A coin
• Lightning bug – 2 sprite animation of a glowy bug; makes a great boost item to catch!
• Laser beams: 2 ends and a stretchable cross-section

Lots of objects to populate the levels!

• Pond scene with splash animation: a pond sprite, and a three-sprite splashing animation for use at the beginning of the level, for the fish to jump out of!
• Mockups – so you can see how things go together.
• An extra huge goldfish sprite for use in app store icons!

A mockup of a level

Enjoy!

As always, I LOVE to hear about what games you make with the free art on this site- if you finish a game with it, send me an email via my Contact page or direct message me on twitter!

And if you need custom art for your own game or app and want to hire Holly Jensen, the artist who made this art pack, contact her directly!

Lots of games this month - all made with free art!

Apparently many of you were very productive over the holidays!

Between mid-December and mid-January, a bunch of games with art from this site were launched.

Read on to explore them!

Froggy Went A Hoppin’ – Jay Jennings

Froggy Went A Hoppin'

using Frog & Lilypads game art pack

Help Froggy get across a snake infested pond by hopping across lily pads. The lily pads sink after Froggy jumps off of them, so plan your route carefully! The game is the “class project” for the Beginning Mobile Game Development video course at the MasteringCoronaSDK.com site.

It’s free! Check it out in the app store!

Aaron – The Viking Runner – Harshit Vyas

Aaron - The Viking Runner

using Monkey Platformer art pack and others.

A racing game where your player must jump and slide his way through the levels. Combines a classic racing game with some puzzles and strategy.

Check it out in the app store!

Fruit Bash – flowcrow

Fruit Bash

using Slash The Fruit art pack, Starburst Icon Background set, Mole Whack art pack.

If you get to smash things, it’s got to be a great game! This game helps you learn pattern recognition skills like those in The Cognitive Abilities Test™.
Figure out what fruit to smash by solving pattern sequences, and then smash that fruit when it pops out of the hole. Levels get progressively harder, giving your brain a stretch!

Check it out in the app store!

Food Chain – by Lionel LASKE

Food Chain

using Frog & Lilypads game art pack

This game is about teaching kids the names of animals and the concept of food chains. There are three little games, one of which features the frog and lilypad game pack, and 20 levels of growing complexity.

It’s free from the Sugar App Store – find the app here, or read more about the project here!

Super Match – InnoWave Studio

Super Match

using Night Meadow Scene, Winter Icons, and more!

A memory game that teaches kits letters, numbers, colors, animals, and more! This game puts the winter icons to good use, and uses plenty of other art from this blog as backgrounds!

Get this free game in the app store!

Acorn mania by Konstantinos Chalvantzis

Acorn Mania

using Squirrel Attack art pack

A physics-based game where a squirrel throws acorns at targets to achieve his goals. There are three worlds with multiple levels each, and in each world the strategy and mission are different.

For Windows phones – find it here!

Monkey Game by Diskthrasher

Monkey Game

using Monkey Jump game art pack, among others.

This free android app is a game where you slide the monkey along a rope, and drop him onto fruit so he can eat it. If he gets hit by an object or eaten by a crocodile, he loses a life!

It’s free for on Google Play – get it here!

2d Prototype from Evan

2D Prototype

using Monkey Platformer game art pack and Super Kuwalio game art pack.

Evan at BoredKidStudios.com created a 2d prototype for his (successful!) application to the Masters program at the Guildhall at SMU using the free art from this site!

Want to make a game with free art?

It’s a great way to make your first app without spending a lot of money on art. Find all of the free art sets on this site here- there are tile sets, platformer sets, scrolling sets… go see if one of them fits that game idea you’ve been thinking of!

And when you finish a game, I’d love to see it! You can use my Contact form to send me a link to your game or app. I will likely feature it in a future roundup!

This is free art – it is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Type: iPhones, iPads, android, etc…

Download the art here!

Letter Tiles For Word Games: Lowercase

For when you just can't stand capital letters...

The letter tiles seem to be a good pack – perfect for all sorts of word games and app!

A request has been made to add lowercase letters to it. Great idea!

So here you go: lowercase letter tiles that go with the previous letter pack – and be sure to get that pack if you need capitals, blank tiles, or extras like “SHUFFLE” or “SUBMIT” tiles!

Game Pack Contents

• 26 letter tiles in lowercase
• 2 versions of each tile (different wood grain, for variety)
• Three sizes: 67 pixels square, 134 pixels, and 268 pixels. Pick the one closest to what you need, and resize from there.

Enjoy!

As always, I LOVE to hear about what games you make with the free art on this site – if you finish a game with it, send me an email via my Contact page or direct message me on twitter!

These puffins will be ringing in the new year!

One of my ongoing projects for the last 20 months or so has been a monthly wallpaper for readers of this blog.

It’s taught me a lot, encouraged me to explore Illustrator and Photoshop, and allowed me to create one piece of art each month just for me (well, and all of you!) rather than for our business.

By the way, there are versions of each wallpaper without the month on it, so it’s still a great place to find pretty desktop, iPhone, and iPad wallpapers!

This year, I have created an actual paper calendar out of my artwork. Some of the wallpapers had to be reworked extensively, and one of the months is completely new. But you’ll see a lot of familiar friends in this calendar :]

I mostly created the calendar to give as gifts, but I am also giving one calendar away to a reader of this blog!

To enter, simply comment on this post and tell me your favorite wallpaper of mine. The deadline for commenting is by the end of the day on Friday, December 21.

I will pick a random winner and mail it to you, anywhere in the world. Be sure to include your correct email when commenting – that is how I will contact you to get your address!

With luck, it will get to you by late December or early January, and you can enjoy 12 original illustrations all year :]

Here’s a peek at all the months:

Desktop wallpapers turned into calendars!

 
Thank you so much to everyone who has enjoyed my wallpapers – it was wonderful to hear that other people liked and used them!

P.S. – if you want to read more about the calendar, I also posted about it on my art blog.
 
UPDATE: The winner of the giveaway is Maurice – congrats! Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment, your support makes it fun to make art :]

5 more games!

Wow, our tenth roundup of games made with the art on this site – pretty cool! This time we’ve got a couple of holiday games, an awesome rocket mouse with a haunted-house twist, a colorful vocabulary game, and the first game made with the Super Kuwalio game pack!

Read on to see how developers have used the free art on this site!

Haunted House With A Rocket Mouse

Haunted House With A Rocket Mouse

by Paul Faulconer
using Rocket Mouse Game Pack, Cloud Jumper Game Pack

You are a mouse with a jet pack – fly past cats, ghosts, and haunted objects as you navigate a haunted house! Grab the cheese and bonus coins as you go. Paul Falconer added awesome cobwebs, peeling wallpaper, and cracks in the floors to make the Rocket Mouse art pack his own.

Check it out in the app store!

And guess what – Paul has sent over ten promo codes for quick readers of this blog!
PAKTT9EYYYWF
WJYMHL6NA43W
AYAMYMM4HHEF
YKNPJ7HYLMAX
PRW7P7HLEJK7
WNX4XTTTNE6T
4FWXKAJ4N3RK
96MTFAPM6FW6
WL7XKF7MJR3A
MRX646RYWK4J

Haunted House with a Rocket Mouse screenshot

Angry Koala War – The Ultimate Random

Angry Koala War

by Lan Pham
using Super Kuwalio Game Pack, as well as a bunch of others, including Monkey Jump pack and Robot Tower Defense.

It’s the angry koala war – what more do you need to know? :] Cute hero, lots of enemies.

This side-scrolling platformed game has random enemies and prizes, so the challenges are different each time you shoot your way through the levels. You will never play the same game twice!

It’s free, so get it in the app store here!

Angry Koala War screenshot

Christmas Memory

Christmas Memory

by DeBIA
using the Holiday Icon Pack

A simple memory game with a Christmas theme, using the Holiday icon pack! This one is an Android app.

It’s free – download it here!

Christmas Memory screenshot

Smash Santa

by Jahid Ferdous
using the Holiday Icon Pack

In this cute holiday game, you have to tap flying Santas as they try to take your gifts. The developer uses the icons in the holiday icon pack as the gifts that you unwrap. My favorite part, though, is that the gingerbread man is used to show how many lives you have :]

And it’s free! Check it out on the app store here!

Smash Santa screenshot

PlayTiles

PlayTiles

by Eyal Katz
using Monkey Platformer Pack, Slice The Fruit, Frog Lilypad, 4-in-a-Row, and more!

This app is a colorful word game that helps you master English vocabulary. Choose from three levels of difficulty and practice your vocabulary with many different levels.

Eyal Katz used art from many of the game packs on this site to give his game lots of different scenes and characters for the user to explore!

See it in the app store here!

PlayTiles screenshot

Want to make a game with free art?

It’s a great way to make your first app without spending a lot of money on art. Find all of the free art sets on this site here- there are tile sets, platformer sets, scrolling sets… go see if one of them fits that game idea you’ve been thinking of!

And when you finish a game, I’d love to see it! You can use my Contact form to send me a link to your game or app. I will likely feature it in a future roundup!

This is free art – it is under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Type: iPhones, iPads, android, etc…

Download the art here!

Letter Tiles For Word Games

What are you waiting for?

Have an idea for a word game? This set is for you!

This game art pack was created in response to a suggestion left on this post – if you have an idea for a game pack, go to that post and submit your idea!

There are a lot of word games out there that just use letter tiles and maybe a board. Using your imagination and these letter tiles, you’ll have your own word game in no time!

Suggested Gameplay

Since these are just tiles, there’s a lot you can do with them. Think Scrabble, Letterpress, TextTwist… I could go on, but there are lots of games that involve making words out of the letter tiles given to you randomly.

You could also use these in a spelling app, or as icons wherever you need a stylish letter.

If you want your letter tiles to have point values, add the number to the lower right of the tile. Give it a small light brown drop shadow so that it looks like it was pressed into the surface.

Note: this pack does not have a board to go with it. This is because there are so many types of word games, I didn’t know what people would actually use.

If you have an idea or request for a board to go with your tiles, leave a comment with the following:

• What overall pixel size the board should be, including border
• How many squares wide and tall you need
• What size your tiles will be (how tall and wide the squares need to be)
• Specific colors that you would like, if any

I will try to create any requests if I have time for them – keep them simple and I can make them faster!

Game Pack Contents

• 26 letter tiles and a blank tile
• 2 versions of each tile (different wood grain, for variety)
• Three sizes: 67 pixels square, 134 pixels, and 268 pixels. Pick the one closest to what you need, and resize from there.
• A 2048×2048 blank tile for use as an app icon (this large size is for the iTunes store). A suggestion: give whatever you put on the tile (a letter, graphic, etc) a light-brown drop shadow to make it look pressed into the surface.

Update: the pack also includes 3 double-width tiles: “Submit”, “Shuffle” and one is blank.

A tile for shuffling!

Enjoy!

As always, I LOVE to hear about what games you make with the free art on this site – if you finish a game with it, send me an email via my Contact page or direct message me on twitter!

The best treat is hanging around with the right person during the holidays…

What is it about December that makes me love birds and tree branches? This time, the birds are hanging on the tree – and those of you who also follow my other blog will notice the reappearance of the penguin shapes that I am obsessed with.

Creating desktop and iDevice wallpapers each month has been a really fun project – it has allowed me to experiment and learn a lot of new techniques, as well as make one artwork each month that isn’t associated with work.

However, it is time for a change. I will be starting a new project in January (I’ll let you know the details then) and this means that there won’t be a monthly wallpaper for you anymore.

I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as I’ve enjoyed making them!

Here’s the last wallpaper without the calendar:

Note that I have added the Macbook Pro Retina size (2880×1880)!

iPhone and iPad wallpapers

Learn how to set them as your home screen here!
 
Without calendar:
iPhone 320×480

iPhone retina 640×960

iPhone 5 640×1136

iPad 768×1024

iPad retina: 1536×2048

With calendar (iPad only):

iPad 768×1024

iPad Retina: 1536×2048

Desktop wallpapers with calendar:

1024×600, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 2880×1800, 1600×900, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 1920×1080

Desktop wallpapers without calendar:

1024×600, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 2880×1800, 1600×900, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 1920×1080

If there’s another resolution you need, let me know!