Board 8 > So Hypothetical, if I started selling Sprite/art prints

(+) Yeah! (+)

and you thought they were cool

would you pay me 25 bucks for one for your gameroom\mancave\office ? :)

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as per usual I will explain myself in the second post

Gamestop......ain't workin.

Its steady and cushy but its becoming too much

being an internet person for half of my life, I have seen the horror stories people tell on the internet and I tried to avoid those things. I tried making my store the best gamestop ever, even when I was just a grunt

taking over the store was cool too but its getting to me now. I'm not satisfied anymore and corporate really are a bunch of morons

so I was just thinking about my options and skills. I know this probably won't be my MAIN thing but maybe selling prints might be a decent side thing. I've seen lots of people do it

Just alot of stuff is heavy on me lately and I know I'd enjoy doing this kind of stuff for some scratch

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no i think that space is already pretty crowded

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I initially started this job so I could gain experience running a store so I could run my OWN store one day

but in my current location its clear I can't run that kind of store here at my town. One guy even tried and closed down

so I sort of had to give up that dream. I've been building stock over the years and the past few months I started ebaying it and getting rid of it.

My next dream is owning an arcade, which I think COULD thrive here but thats even MORE expensive and out of the way. I don't know what I'm going to do now

but I went to college for art (LOL) and I do like drawing. and I did have fun making sprites for you guys and as my hobby

maybe the life of a starving artist will put my on the right path, but this is what I've been thinking

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I'd consider it, depending on skill level. Or paying for other dumb stuff. It'd help to gauge I'd you had any examples of your art/artstyle.

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i can buy a sprite at mcdonalds or literally any store that sells soda

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This is also sort of what's inspiring me to do this as a side hustle.

This guy builds dioramas. I pulled an LMS and reached out to him and he says he builds the cubes himself. He charges 80 bucks for them, he builds 50 at a time and they sell out within an hour. He cycles through different titles

There's other people that do the same thing too

Anyways he probably worked really hard to get this set up going and I can't jump in thinking the same will happen

But I admire he just does something for people and the people like it


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I might, although I don't think our tastes overlap very much so I won't promise that

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Just start doing stuff, you'll see what sells and what doesn't.

Your first endeavor will probably fail but if you stick with it you'll find something that works eventually.

Look at Ertyu's channel for example. Dude has millions of views and he uploads uncommentated poorly filmed wrestling game footage.

Just keep doing something for long enough and you'll find a market.

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yea, becoming a youtube star/a streamer briefly crossed the ol mind Lol

doesn't preston's dumbass have something too?

can't be THAT hard


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One of my friend's girlfriends sells jewelry on etsy. You can make it work.

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Punnyz posted...

doesn't preston's dumbass have something too?

can't be THAT hard

I mean if you sell two shitty pixel art bracelets you'll probably quadruple the money the two of them made from youtube so maybe focus on that

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I know, I'm not putting all of my eggs into that basket

does Gilded Fool still stream full time? He made that work for him last time I saw

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Your first endeavor will probably fail but if you stick with it you'll find something that works eventually.

Continuing with this, how likely are you to give-up at the first signs of failure? Because this is the one thing you have set realistic expectations on yourself.

Not saying that you shouldn't pursue it, but it's very easy for us to go "yeah, go for it" but nothing really comes out of it and you just give up easily. Keep in mind, Board 8 is a small community, relative speaking, and we're not exactly a group you can rely on for networking.

Of course you won't know what could happen if you never even start, so I'm not here to discourage, just telling you that nothing is guaranteed no matter how much you put into it.

Do start if it's something you want to do. Echoing what Santa says, keeping up with it long enough may raise your likelihood of being noticed. If you're lucky enough you may reach far out on the web and gain a following.

All I can really add is don't get too fixated on your end goal, focus more on the process and you may get good results from it. Just also don't forget that there likely have been A LOT of artists that tried this but didn't get anywhere in the end. It is a very vast field after all.

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I know b8 wouldn't be a good gauge for how things would go and obviously I can't count on the support either, look at the actual responses lol

I also know I won't land the mark for everyone either. The things I HAVE done probably won't appeal to most people.It makes me wonder if I should do the commission thing too

I gotta do it for me first and foremost, not as a get rich quick scheme, hell, not even as a profitable thing at first. But I already pointed that part out though

That might increase the likelihood that I'll keep going too

Ill also have to cleverly find ways to display my art without straight up giving it away, people might just print out their own if they see my files

water marks, maybe purposely blurring it, or hell maybe taking a photo of the print

I've thought about alot of these things

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my brain went to the drink initially and i got really confused

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Remember White Boys

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Well if you just want to work on your art skills, then yeah, go for it. You just gotta make it into a habit so you really stick with it (even during times when you don't feel like it....).

If you want to combine two things, you can always stream yourself creating art. Who knows, you could always gain a following that way.

Punnyz posted... The things I HAVE done probably won't appeal to most people.It makes me wonder if I should do the commission thing too

Something to consider is that since your main thing is sprite making, there's always a chance that you'll get noticed by someone creating an indie game and they're looking for a sprite artist, but that's definitely something you would willingly have to do out of passion.

Punnyz posted...

does Gilded Fool still stream full time? He made that work for him last time I saw

As far as I know, he doesn't do it that often. Or if he does, I don't see him on.


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Heroic Bigpun posted...

Remember White Boys

clearly you don't because it was spelled with a z, which made them cool

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Heroic Bigpun posted...

This is also sort of what's inspiring me to do this as a side hustle.

This guy builds dioramas. I pulled an LMS and reached out to him and he says he builds the cubes himself. He charges 80 bucks for them, he builds 50 at a time and they sell out within an hour. He cycles through different titles and he advertises them on Twitter and instagram.

There's other people that do the same thing too

Anyways he probably worked really hard to get this set up going and I can't jump in thinking the same will happen

But I admire he just does something for people and the people like it

I'd buy something like this if it was Chrono Trigger/FF6


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He's done those too

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it's funny I'm advertising this guy now instead of getting people interested in me lol

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it can be hard to try something risky, but it feels amazing when you succeed. I've been making games as a hobby for most of my life but I almost never shared my work with anything other than some close friends. just recently I finally decided to put some of my work out there and I was really surprised by the response I got. way more people played the game, shared their comments on it, than I expected. the presence and community continues to grow and there are a good number of people who seem really into it.

like I legitimately have fans who would play whatever else I put out next just because my name was in the credits. that is pretty wild to think about. the internet has sort of dulled our expectations to just how much something like "1,000" views on a youtube video really is, but even if you sell like 100 of homemade bracelets to people all around the world that is something pretty awesome.

try to figure out how you are going to market your materials, and how you are going to ship them, before you go any further. do a bit of research based on how other people have done it in the past. you seem to already be doing this. um, don't expect to get rich quick. I mean, stranger things have happened, but definitely don't rely on that happening.

a great way to drive sales is to go viral on reddit but it's hard to make that happen organically. once you have something that you think is worth showing off, some kind of 'I spent X hours making this from simple beads!' post on the r/gaming forum could go a long way. these threads can absolutely blow up if posted at the right time. if it's something truly awesome, there are usually people in the comments asking how/where to buy one. have your shop ready before you make those kinds of posts. you can make future posts like 'you guys like the castlevania bead print I made before, here's one of Mega Man...' stuff that gets around the marketing clause but allows you to market your product while maintaining brand recognition.


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also look into the legality of making money off of something that uses characters and images which belong to nintendo, sony, etc.

you don't want to be caught off guard by this kind of information in the worst way possible. even if you find out that it's a legally gray area and you decide to proceed, at least you'll do so with the right expectations that something might go wrong at any time.


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Hey, I've been buying bootleg amiibos recently with people using their art with nfc chips

look into making those and the next few I buy I'll buy from you.

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I just recently bought a diorama of Mega Man 2. I would be a pretty definite buy.

Look into selling at cons, too. I'm sure they have all their own rules, but that's how I ended up buying the Mega Man 2 diorama.

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SSBM_Guy posted...

I just recently bought a diorama of Mega Man 2. I would be a pretty definite buy.

Look into selling at cons, too. I'm sure they have all their own rules, but that's how I ended up buying the Mega Man 2 diorama.

I have a friend who makes stuffed ponies, and he makes a killing at all the cons that he goes to - just has crazy crunch times.

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I would suggest you look into creating commissions too other than selling sprites from existing franchises. Other than the legal consideration, many people would pay more for something custom made.

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sell gamer girl urine

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Id support something homie

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Good luck! I've never tried selling art but I get the impression it's a pretty crowded field. Around half my Twitter feed does prints/commissions or other merch (redbubble t-shirts, pokeball dioramas, Switch decals, stickers and washi tape, etc).

Like Raka mentioned, custom commissions are probably a good way to start out. You'd want a commission sheet setting out different prices for different things (e.g., character icon, head pic, waist pic, full-body pic). I have no idea the going rate for sprites. I can post pics of other people's comm sheets if you'd find that helpful.
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Fiverr seems like a good platform for that sort of thing, particularly for having different price points for different levels of service.

And you could start out by undercharging to try and stimulate sales and get positive feedback and then adjust to more realistic prices that value your time spent.

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ninkendo posted...

sell gamer girl urine

This made me lol

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as I've said I've been selling stock from my broken dream so I'm gonna have a little bit of extra money, maybe I should invest in my own printer then

and man, thinking about going to a con and possibly selling everything I have, I think I would cry if that happened

and I think this might be a tad be harder if I go sprite mode, I might have to do several characters per image as opposed to just one.

For example, yea, a sprite version of Joker from Persona 5 might get some purchases, but something like this would benefit more if I had the whole playable cast in one print

thats more work, but I guess I'll have to do it

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Another piece of advice. I would recommend going the FunkoPOP route and going for individualized character art of like one genre. If you could get good sprite work of like every JoJo character (including the once a week villains), that would be an awesome niche.

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I was thinking each part would get its own print

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Arcades are hmph, but if you live in a highly enough populated area (near a campus too), then a barcade wouldn't be a bad business if you made sure to make the place appealing.

Probably not right NOW during COVID but it would also give you a venue to display and sell prints.

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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Arcades are hmph, but if you live in a highly enough populated area (near a campus too), then a barcade wouldn't be a bad business if you made sure to make the place appealing.

Probably not right NOW during COVID but it would also give you a venue to display and sell prints.

I went somewhere in Asheville that was a Board game cafe and always loved that idea.

I guess the barcade would be something similar. Just I am a disappointment to partiers (?) everywhere and do not drink. But yeah, just a straight arcade probably wouldn't do great (even though I love them when I can find the rare one)

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I've actually surveyed many people, they always take their kids, even weekly, to the one in the mall but they all agree that one sucks

they love going to the ones in San Antonio

I agree mine would take some sort of gimmick since I'm NOT in San Antonio, probably serve beer, yea

there is an expensive university here so I bet I could attract those people too

Its not just a random idea, I've put thought into this one

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I think the perlers and stuff are pretty overplayed at this point, but the dioramas you posted earlier are pretty interesting. If you want to make money off video game art I think there's definitely a market but I'd recommend racking your brain and making something more unique

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A barcade would probably go great then, as long as you make sure it's clean and looks nice and acts like a worthwhile establishment.

Can probably have day hours and night hours - day hours more kid friendly. Small grill menu or something. Night hours are college party city.

As long as you have one or two really simple menu items that work for drunk food, you'll make it.

Of course, I have no idea what the start-up costs look like, and that'd be the frightening part.

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Yea the problem is money

The (b)arcade idea is even more expensive than my game shop, by far

At least with a gameshop I could probably rent out an armpit of a storage somewhere and work out of it to start.

Machines cost around 1k each, give or take

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I remember my brother told me he went to this place that basically let you rent out a little room and you would just play Xbox there

He said they were served toasted sandwiches but were basic as fuck. Like Mrs Bairds sliced bread and it was toasted with a machine you could get at wal mart

so yea, it would have to be little basic food like that

but that means I probably need to do stuff to allow me to serve food and alcohol, I would basically be a restaurant at that point, right?

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And yea I know with covid this isn't the best idea atm

Ironically if I had done this idea sooner if wouldve destroyed me lol

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You gotta have solid alcohol offerings, but the secret with food is just to find the right kind of drunk food. No need for a big menu if people only ever order chicken-n-waffle sandwiches.

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Punnyz posted...

I initially started this job so I could gain experience running a store so I could run my OWN store one day

but in my current location its clear I can't run that kind of store here at my town. One guy even tried and closed down

so I sort of had to give up that dream. I've been building stock over the years and the past few months I started ebaying it and getting rid of it.

My next dream is owning an arcade, which I think COULD thrive here but thats even MORE expensive and out of the way. I don't know what I'm going to do now

but I went to college for art (LOL) and I do like drawing. and I did have fun making sprites for you guys and as my hobby

maybe the life of a starving artist will put my on the right path, but this is what I've been thinking

Just so you know an arcade is probably also a dying market, with one exception. The bar thats also an arcade. I think the time is ripe for that to really take off. People still go to bars, and that just makes your bar cooler since more drinking age people are gamers than ever.

Its probably singlehandedly keeping Dave and Busters afloat.

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Punnyz posted...

yea, becoming a youtube star/a streamer briefly crossed the ol mind Lol

doesn't preston's dumbass have something too?

can't be THAT hard

@Punnyz

Don't you also live in San Antonio?

Just saying.

Honestly dude I would just buy one out of support. Nothing makes me happier than to see someone breaking away from a standard job.

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ViolentAbacus posted...

I went somewhere in Asheville that was a Board game cafe

oh hey me too it was great

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Tom Bombadil posted...

oh hey me too it was great

Yeah, I loved it. Actually picked up a few board games for monthly game nights after trying them there.

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