itch.io

I'm placing this here as a general notice.

Hey AlexMason789 and sammy_XR,

Thank you so much for reaching out! Unfortunately, I've moved ahead with another artist for the time being. And - for now - I'm not looking for an additional artist. However, I'm not inclined to remove this topic entirely because I may need to "bump" it down the line as development continues. So, if you'd like to keep a look out for that, I'll try to prioritize your responses at that time. Anyway, thank you again for your interest, and I wish the best for you and your future projects!

Hey all — I'm looking for 1-2 artists to help take a small, mechanically-finished Unity game from primitive-shape prototype to a real visual identity.

WHAT'S BUILT

The game — working title "The Archer" — is a top-down arena defense game: you play a fixed-position archer defending a besieged city across a single day-long siege (Day → Evening → Night, 10 waves total, ending in a multi-phase boss fight). Core loop, enemy AI, upgrade systems, currencies, and story-beat gating are all implemented and playable in Unity 6.6. Right now, though, everything on screen is a Unity primitive — circles, triangles, capsules — with color as the only differentiator. It plays fine; it just doesn't look like anything yet.

WHAT'S NEEDED

Rough asset surface, so you can gauge scope honestly:

- The Archer (player) + up to 3 additional AI archers

- 6 enemy types (Imp, Goblin, Orc, Catapult, etc.)

- The city itself, plus environment/background across three lighting states (Day/Evening/Night)

- Arrow + ability VFX (Volley, Misdirection, Explosive Arrow, Frenzy)

- UI (upgrade screens, HUD, wave transitions)

- A handful of story cutscene-style graphics

No art direction is locked in yet, but I have a general feel I'm chasing: comic/manga-inspired visual storytelling, where the imagery does the heavy lifting instead of text and dialogue. Doesn't need to be paneled — just imagery that conveys tone, mood, and stakes on its own. (Think strong mood and implied narrative through the art itself, minimal reliance on words.) Beyond that direction, there's real room to shape the specific style.

SCOPE & TEAM

This is a small, scoped project by design — few abilities, few stages, deliberately simple systems combined thoughtfully rather than a sprawling feature list. Nothing new is planned mechanically beyond what's already built or explicitly flagged as a gap. I'd call this a portfolio-builder more than a commercial bet, so payment isn't the expectation going in, but I'm open to discussing it — just don't want anyone applying on the assumption of revenue share, since I don't think the project's scale supports that.

I'm handling programming. Down the line I'll also be looking for sound design and some writing help, but art is the immediate need.

AI ART

I don't want AI-generated art making up the bulk of the final product, but I'm fine with it as a prototyping tool during development. If you've got a workflow (AI-assisted or otherwise) that gets to a cohesive, compelling final look, I'm open to discussing it — flexible on method, not on the end result feeling intentional and unified.

TESTERS WELCOME TOO

If anyone just wants to poke at the mechanics — no commitment needed — reach out too. Fair warning: it's unpolished and under-explained right now (a lot of actions aren't taught in-game yet), so go in expecting a rough draft, not a demo.

Reach out on Discord: contagionentertainment

(Fair warning, I'm still fairly new to navigating Discord myself — bear with me.)