There are a number of reasons that you may want to consider using stock artwork and photos:
- Its often useful when developing apps and games in particular to have something that you can use for prototyping
- Looking at artwork and photos in general can spark new ideas
- Its entirely possible to make parts of or even entire games and apps using stock artwork or close to all stock art work, particularly if you have a limited budget
- Stock artwork, especially photos can be great for building your web site and marketing materials
- Viewing stock artwork collections is a good way to find artists that could potentially create your app or games artwork for you
On my travels I have come across the following web sites and asset stores that sell stock artwork and photos:
- CGGraphics
- Graphic River
- GameDeveloperStudio
- GameArt2D
- Pixabay
- Scirra
- Unity Asset Store
- Dreamstime
- Unsplash
- Dollar Photo Club
- Fotolia
- Graphic Buffet
- Game Art Guppy
- Super Game Asset
- Gamedev Market
- Game Art Partners
- New Grounds
- Font Squirrel
- OpenGameArt.org
- pvgames
- Open Art Game Bundle
- Game Icons
- Free Vectors
- Toon Characters
- Glitch (open source game)
- Marmalade Asset Store
Make sure that you read the license of any and all artwork that you use in any of your products, marketing materials and web sites. Different licenses grant you different usage rights, make sure that you are clear on them. if in doubt contact the artwork provider to find out.
If you offer an artwork production service and would like to be added to this list then please let me know below.