License information
Be careful with licensing. The fact that something is free doesn't neccessarily mean you can use it in your game. Sometimes, you will be able to use the resources for commercial games, but very often not. Licenses like CC-0 and CC-BY are the best for free use. If something is licensed as CC-NC (or CC-BY-NC etc) or GPL, you are not allowed to make money from it.Full packs and specialized websites
- http://open.commonly.cc - crowdfunding project, people paid as much as they wanted and as a result, a huge asset pack free for everyone - free sprites, tilesets and backgrounds, free music and sounds.
- http://www.pixelprospector.com/ - plethora of linked resources for 2D and 3D games and useful articles.
- http://opengameart.org/ - website where people share their creations, 2D sprites, textures, sounds, music, ...
Free sprites, tilesets, models and other graphics
- http://www.blendswap.com/ - 3D models for Blender. Very easy to create 2D art simply by rendering the models in Blender - which is free as well
- Lost Garden - blog about game development, it used to post free game resources and can still be very useful. Just search through the older articles.
- http://untamed.wild-refuge.net/rpgxp.php - RPG tilesets and characters
- http://www.reinerstilesets.de/ - 2D and 3D art
- http://www.widgetworx.com/widgetworx/portfolio/spritelib.html - Donationware, library full of sprites
- http://www.gamedev.net/topic/495808-free-airplane-sprite-pack/ - free sprite pack with airplanes
- http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-graphics-for-indie-developers.html - graphics from AI War: Fleet Command
- http://freegameassets.blogspot.com - another collection of free graphics assest, CC-BY license
- http://game-icons.net/ - icons for games, CC-BY
Sound effects and music
- http://www.bfxr.net/ - generator of retro arcade games sounds
- http://www.freesound.org/ - searchable library of sounds
- http://firearmsfx.moonfruit.com/ - a huge library of guns and bullets sounds, CC0!
- http://incompetech.com/music/ - CC-BY music
- http://www.andrewlloydgd.com/ - CC-BY music
- http://sampleswap.org/ - music and sound effects forum
- http://freemusicarchive.org - most of the music is CC BY NC SA (attribution, non-commercial, share-alike), but there are rare gems of high quality with CC BY. Unfortunately you can't filter by licence
- http://www.nosoapradio.us/ - 500 tracks of completely free electronic game music
- http://www.flashkit.com/soundfx/ - resources for flash developers, usable by anyone
- http://soundimage.org/ - another website packed with CC-BY music.
- http://www.volterock.com/ - Vocal Hazard Pack, free vocals to download and use (most likely CC-BY, but it hasn't been set yet)
Tools
- Device art and asset generators - this is my article, see the links there
Blogs, guides and websites to follow
- 2D Game Art for Programmers - awesome tutorials on creating 2D art, easy and concise. Offers some assets for free as well.
- Learn to Draw 2D Art - blog about creating cute 2D graphics with tutorials and some free resources
License information:
- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
- https://tldrlegal.com/ - licenses translated to simple English
