When I’m working on a game or another development project, eventually I need graphics.
The problem is, I’m a developer—not a professional artist.
And I like free.
So over the years I’ve ended up with a handful of free (or mostly free) tools that I keep coming back to. Whether I’m making pixel art, editing an image, throwing together something for a UI, or just looking for a stock image, these are usually the first places I go.
Pixel Art & Sprites
For sprite assets—especially when I’m going for an 8-bit, retro, or pixel-art style—I usually use either Aseprite or Piskel.
Piskel
Personally, Piskel is probably the one I use the most.
It’s simple, runs right in the browser, and doesn’t bury you under a million features when all you want to do is make a sprite.
For quick game-dev work, that’s exactly what I want.
It’s especially useful for:
- Creating sprites
- Making simple sprite animations
- Editing pixel art
- Exporting sprite sheets
- Quickly throwing together placeholder art
I don’t always need some massive professional art suite. Sometimes I just need to draw a tiny pixelated goat.
Aseprite
Aseprite is another great option and is much more powerful if you’re getting serious about pixel art and animation.
There’s one small catch with my whole “I like free” philosophy: the pre-built version of Aseprite is paid.
However, Aseprite’s source code is available on GitHub, and you can compile it yourself. That’s generally the route I take when I want to use it.
For more complicated sprite work or animations, Aseprite gives you quite a bit more control than something like Piskel.
Still, for quick work?
I usually find myself opening Piskel.
Photoshop Without Photoshop
For everything that isn’t pixel art, I usually need something resembling Photoshop.
But, once again:
I like free.
That’s where Photopea comes in.
Photopea is probably one of my favorite free web applications in general. If you’ve used Photoshop before, the interface will feel extremely familiar.
I use it for things like:
- Editing game graphics
- Resizing and cropping images
- Creating transparent PNGs
- Working with layers
- Adding text and effects
- Making promotional graphics
- Quickly modifying assets
One of the best parts is that it runs directly in your browser. I don’t have to install some giant application just because I need to make a quick change to an image.
It can also work with PSD files, which makes it surprisingly useful when working with assets originally created for Photoshop.
For the kind of graphics work I do as a developer, Photopea handles a huge percentage of what I need.
Free Stock Images
Sometimes I don’t need to make an image at all.
I just need a decent photo, texture, background, or reference image.
For that, I usually start with Pixabay.
Pixabay has a huge collection of images, illustrations, and other assets that can be useful when you’re building websites, prototypes, promotional graphics, or even just looking for inspiration.
One thing I would recommend, though: always check the license and usage restrictions for an asset before putting it into a commercial project.
Even when you’re using a site built around free assets, it’s worth spending the extra few seconds making sure you’re allowed to use a particular asset the way you intend to.
My Extremely Sophisticated Art Pipeline
So, after years of software and game development, my highly sophisticated professional graphics pipeline basically looks like this:
Pixel art? → Piskel or Aseprite
Everything else? → Photopea
Need a random image? → Pixabay
Can I avoid paying for another subscription? → Absolutely.
There are obviously much more powerful professional tools out there, and an actual artist will probably have a completely different workflow.
But that’s kind of the point.
I’m primarily a developer. I need tools that let me jump in, make what I need, export it, and get back to coding.
And preferably do it for free.
If you’re another developer who occasionally needs to pretend to be a graphic designer, these are a pretty good place to start.
