Burnout for the Non-Artist

I'm not an artist. I'd rather be programming than doing art assets, but I'm finding that I'm spending 99% of my time doing pixel art in MS Paint / NESST instead. It's really frustrating and I'm getting burnt out very quickly.

Currently, I have TWO games I am working on.

First is multi-mini game cart for the local radio station (98 Rock, Baltimore MD)




The second is a RPG based on The Legend of the Five Rings.


I would really like to get the first one done in the next few months and am dreading making walk cycles for each of the sprite characters. If anyone is interested in helping with either, please let me know. Thank you very much!

Heh, i almost feel the opposite - making NES graphics is what fuels me, as long as it feels like a hobby. If it's any consolation, your pixel work looks really good! But yeah, animation can take a bit of time.

Regarding helping out - all the spare time i have for nesdev related stuff is fully booked, unfortunately -but i may be able to take less dayjob hours, if you're willing to compensate. I'll know for sure in a couple of days. Maybe someone has a better offer.

Your graphics looks really good. I guess you are just lying and like doing it, I cannot imagine you doing it at that quality while hating to do it.
But maybe if you set your standards a bit lower you can end up with games with poorer graphics but still fun to play, and quick the developement time ?

Personally I'm not an artist but I enjoy drawing pixel art.

It's an inefficient use of my time. Yes I could make good art, but EACH of those pieces took me about 40 hours. The first and last images for the RPG had reference images that I mostly had to resize and recolor. And they still took that long They were enjoyable to make, but that's the problem with burnout, enjoyment degrades with time to completion.

I feel the same, man! I'm an artist at heart but I've done a little bit of programming (albeit not on the NES). The moment I start programming something and focusing on that, I lose all motivation to make any art. I just want to slap down some placeholders and move on with that. Even if you're an artist you can get burnt out on art.