The Triangle of Compromise (+ unit art for Rust Banner tribe)

When you're a nigh-broke games designer, beautiful art assets can seem out of reach. Certainly one can just bite the bullet and pony up a significant sum on professional art, but when a game project is still being promoted and developed, that can seem like a risky allocation of a limited resource (especially when said resource could also be paying bills and rent).

Back when I was studying film sound, I came across this concept (which I am going to call the triangle of compromise) -

"Something can be created quickly, or cheaply, or at a high quality. You can have have two of these things - but not all 3."

I've found this simple truism to be applicable to a surprisingly wide variety of creative fields. Film, music, business, organising a party, and - of relevance here - sourcing art assets for your game design.

The rule is, of course, somewhat squishy and flexible. What you see below are images that where reasonably cheap (hovering around $8USD each), reasonably high-quality (certainly for the price paid), BUT compromised on time - gathering work from the right artists at the right price point can take some doing.

But once you have the art, you have it forever. With a project like Korash, a setting in which I plan to create multiple creative projects, this gives each image a *lot* of value.

The examples below are the current images for Rust Banner tribe in the Tribes of Korash alpha version (more on Rust Banner here).