Where can I get freely available audio, graphics, and other resources for games?

Question

I've done a google search of this topic, but so far haven't found anything satisfactory.

From your experience, what's the best place to get game resources, like sprites, backgrounds, sound effects, music, etc.? To be more specific, I'm looking for more of sound effects and music, which I'm currently lacking more than graphics. However, for graphics, I've tried getting random graphics from different sites, but they just don't match. I don't want to copy one entire graphics package either.

The resources should be free and easy to obtain. The products I intend to make are free if not open source, and are unlikely to receive widespread attention or produce profit for myself, so I'd like something that I can use and distribute freely.

I don't have enough graphics and musical knowledge to attempt to create resources from scratch and don't know anyone willing to do so.

I'm working with Java. I'm sure I can read all kinds of file formats with it, or if not, I can always use software to convert resources.

Answer 1

GarageGames.com sells a lot of that kind of thing... 3d models, textures, background music and so on.

http://garagegames.com and specifically http://www.garagegames.com/products/browse

HTH

edit: whoops, I didn't see the "free" requirement! Do a search on "creative commons" and you'll find lots of music, at least, and some graphics.

Answer 2

In terms of graphics, Daniel Cook of Lost Garden produces some seriously high quality, reusable game art that is free for both personal and commercial work (read his license details). Here's the index of his free graphics related posts, just hit the "read more" link at the bottom of an article and you'll find links to the downloads.

edit: in terms of sound effects, Soundrangers is pretty decent if you have something specific in mind, but it can quickly get expensive. For a complex game, if you're wanting a rich user experience you'll need dozens, if not hundreds of sound effects. At a couple of bucks a pop, that adds up real quick. A lot of places (including Soundrangers) offer thematic sound packs which give you a little more bang for your buck, but it's still not free. GameDev also has a listing of audio resources.

For music, I think your options are better. Depending on what kind of thing you're looking for (ambient, instrumental, vocal etc). I would seriously think about approaching local independent musicians and using existing tracks that they have. They're likely to let you use their music for free (properly accredited of course) or at a reasonable cost.

Answer 3

There's http://www.freesound.org/

Most stuff there has a license that is incompatible with, say, Fedora, for instance, though if you ask the copyright holder sometimes they'll license things under a different license.

Music is harder to come by than sound effects. you could try digging around on archive.org, say here: http://www.archive.org/details/muzic

Also check out sfxr http://www.cyd.liu.se/~tompe573/hp/project_sfxr.html though the sounds that it makes are pretty old school sounding -- and if that's what you're looking for, it's cool, otherwise, it can make some place holder sound effects.

Answer 4

If you're looking for interesting textures, I would suggest checking out Filter Forge. You can download the filters for use in Adobe Photoshop, or you can potentially use the sample images on the site to create texture maps for various types of terrains and materials.

Answer 5

Don't know if this is the type of thing you're looking for, but Game Sprite Archives has a huge huge collection of SNES/NES/Anything pre-playstation 1 sprite rips.

Answer 6

I just discovered this site the other day while looking for some sound effects:

http://www.soundrangers.com/

It looks like they're royalty-free but most of the sounds cost a buck or two. Looks like some sounds are free though.

Answer 7

Clipart

• Open Clip Art

Textures

• ImageAfter
• CG Textures
• OpenFootage
• Texture Hound

Answer 8

I recommend Sound Snap (http://www.soundsnap.com), they allow 5 free downloads for a month for the free accounts, and more if you sign up. I have been using them for the past couple of months for the games I have developed.