# Programmer art

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Programmer_art
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Programmer_art.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmer_art
> Source revision: 1355088051
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Temporary or placeholder art}}
{{distinguish|algorithmic art}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2025}}
{{Multiple image
| image1            = Simple Stick Figure.svg
| alt1              = A stick figure.
| image2            = Kenney.nl platformer characters - soldier vector (cropped).svg
| direction         = horizontal
| total_width       = 230
| caption2          = 
| footer            = An example of what programmer art might look like in a video game. The programmer art (left) will often be quite low-quality until it is replaced with a real sprite (right).
}}

In [video game development](/source/video_game_development) and overall [software development](/source/software_development), '''programmer art''' refers to assets created by [programmers](/source/software_developer). 

Programmer art is made when there is an immediate need for an asset that does not yet exist. When this happens, a programmer will often use or create a placeholder, meant to be replaced at a later time before the [project](/source/project) is published.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Watkiss |first1=Stewart |title=Beginning Game Programming with Pygame Zero: Coding Interactive Games on Raspberry Pi Using Python |date=2020 |publisher=Apress |isbn=978-1-4842-5650-3 |pages=111–130 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-5650-3_5 |access-date=11 March 2025 |language=en |chapter=Graphic Design|doi=10.1007/978-1-4842-5650-3_5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bond |first1=Jeremy Gibson |title=Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C# |date=4 July 2014 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-13-343962-5 |page=421 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=40T1AwAAQBAJ |access-date=11 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref> 

The term ''programmer art'' can encompass any art created by programmers. These assets can serve various purposes, such as quick testing of features, behind-the-scenes reasons, or even being intended for [end-user](/source/End_user) display. The focus invested in an asset depends on its context and whether it will be replaced or not, so the asset is often more tailored to the game as a whole although programmer art is prevalently used a placeholder graphic, meant to be replaced.

It is a recurring trope for programmers, who are often believed to be logical-minded, to have little experience with or interest in creating art. It is somewhat seen as a contrast, leading to the creation of the term. 

[[File:YHTBTR-character-noback.svg|thumb|upright|The player sprite in the 2008 indie game ''[You Have to Burn the Rope](/source/You_Have_to_Burn_the_Rope)'']]
In [indie games](/source/Indie_game), programmer art is often the norm as small-time developers rarely have dedicated artists or budgets for professionally made assets. It can also be a deliberate choice as some end-users prefer it for its authenticity. Developer [Kian Bashiri](/source/Kian_Bashiri) said of their 2008 game ''You Have to Burn the Rope'' that:

{{blockquote|The graphics are just graphics, I didn't put any kind of meaning in the graphical design. The reason things look like they do is because 1) I thought it would fit with the retro style and 2) that I'm not a graphics-guy. Both the player avatar and the boss had more elaborate designs that I had to simplify a lot when it came to animating. That's why the boss is a square and the player a circle with a hat to vaguely disguise it.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Caoili |first1=Eric |title=Road To The IGF: Mazapan's You Have To Burn The Rope |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/road-to-the-igf-mazapan-s-i-you-have-to-burn-the-rope-i- |access-date=9 September 2025 |work=www.gamedeveloper.com |date=12 February 2009 |language=en}}</ref>}}

Common forms of programmer art include [stick figure](/source/stick_figure) [sprites](/source/Sprite_(computer_graphics)) in side-scrolling games, [fuchsia](/source/Fuchsia_(color)) [textures](/source/Texture_mapping) in games using [3D models](/source/3D_modeling), and grid textures for level geometry. Games with a "top-down" perspective tend to use alphanumeric characters and simple [2D graphics](/source/2D_computer_graphics) to represent characters and landscape elements.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Programmer art}}

{{Computer-stub}}
Category:Video game development

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Programmer art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmer_art) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmer_art?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.