While scrolling Twitter, I spotted this quote-tweet about asset reuse made by the excellent Sandy Pug Games.
It’s a tweet I have many thoughts about, and I considered making a tweet thread discussing them. But after spending way too long trying to format my thoughts for Twitter, I decided a blog post would be a better medium.
Because in my opinion, learning to reuse and recycle assets is one of the best skills indie creators can develop, as it makes your life much easier and more enjoyable.
Why reuse and recycle?
On Twitter, I joked that my motto is:
“If something is worth making once, it’s worth using several times.”
And I stand by that!
Look, being an indie game creator isn’t easy. In fact, it’s really tough at times, so any advantage or luxury you can give yourself is totally worth it.
The main advantages of asset reuse and recycling are:
- Saving Time – Most indie creators work alone or in small teams. Plus, most have day jobs on top of their artistic practices. This means that time is always at a premium. So saving a few minutes here and there can quickly add up.
- Keep Project Costs Down – Most indie projects have tight budgets, with a few dollars being the difference between profit and loss. Resources are expensive, so reusing assets can help reduce a project’s production cost.
- Keeping Things Fun – Indie devs are forced to be jacks of all trades. However, this doesn’t mean we all enjoy every part of the creative process equally. Reusing stuff can allow you to quickly get through the bits of the creation process you dislike, letting you spend more time on the bits you enjoy. This improves your mood and motivation in the long term and helps prevent burnout.
What can you reuse or recycle?
I recommend making a folder on your computer just for assets or elements you can reuse or recycle in another project. Then, if you ever need something, you can go to that folder rather than having to search all over your hard drive, making recycling assets easier and quicker.
But what sort of things can you put in this folder?
Page Layouts
Page layouts are often fiddly and time-consuming to make. So, having some pre-made ones can really help speed up long projects! This is super easy in most publishing software as you can export the blank Master Pages as separate files and then import them into later documents.
If your software doesn’t support this, you can save a copy of your document to your reusable resources folder, and whenever you need that layout, make a copy of it and then delete the old text and replace it with your new writing!
Images/Textures
Images are one of the simplest things to reuse, as you can save them as PNGs or JPEGs and then insert them into another document with a simple copy and paste.
Obviously, bigger images may be highly tailored to the project they are designed for, but don’t overlook the potential of smaller bits and pieces, as tiny visual flourishes can be used many times in many different projects.
These older images can easily be tailored for other projects by adjusting their hue, and brightness or by applying a different layer effect to the image.
Quick aside: If you want to use some of my most-used dirt and stain textures, I’ve put a pack of them on Itch!
Text
Before anyone says anything, no. I’m not suggesting you copy and paste all of one project into another and try to sell it as a new game.
However, you can totally reuse some sections of one game in another. For instance, all my games have the same creator bio on the inside cover. So, rather than rewrite that every time I make something, I copy and paste it.
Another fantastic example is the “What is an RPG?” section that many games feature. Rewriting this time and time again can become time-consuming and tedious. And, once you’ve settled on your preferred wording, you’re not likely to change it much. So why rewrite it every time when you can paste it from a previous project?
Also, if you’re working on a larger game that has several chapters with a similar format (say a bestiary or an item list), then copying and pasting the outline of that segment can save you time and reduce the chance of you making a typo, which makes the document much easier to edit.
But won’t my games look the same?
When I started reusing stuff, I was worried about reusing stuff because I feared it would make all my projects look the same. However, the more projects I’ve worked on, the more I’ve realized that isn’t the case!
Tiny tweaks to an asset (like changing its color, brightness, or orientation) can make it look completely different. Plus, art pieces are more than their constituent parts, so different combinations of elements can create something that looks vastly different from another combination.
For example, I’ve used a mirror selfie in at least 8 different projects. But never as a straight selfie. It’s been used to make a landscape look shadowed, as a way to give an object a “fleshy” texture, and as a warped spooky face to trigger the reader’s pareidolia in a horror project.
But no one has ever spotted all of them, proving that recycling like this isn’t noticeable.
Is it ethical to reuse assets?
I was a while into my TTRPG career before I started reusing stuff. It just felt wrong, like I was lying to customers or cheating.
However, one day I realized that many artistic mediums reuse stuff. Videogame studios frequently reuse textures and animation. Movie and TV studios reuse props and shots all the time. Plus, the mere existence of the stock image and stock footage industry shows that reusing things is just a natural part of the creative process for many creatives, big and small.
Heck, golden era Disney frequently reused animation in its films. And these films are considered some of the best-animated movies ever made. So if it’s good enough for the Mouse, it’s good enough for me!
Conclusion
As I said earlier, being an indie creative can be difficult. Because of this, there is nothing wrong with making life easier for yourself.
Reusing assets is a great way to do this. Because it lets you save time and take some of the stress out of creating while also allowing you to focus on the bits you love.
And that’s always a good thing!
Want more TTRPG advice? Check out my Tips For New TTRPG Creators post!
Jonathon Greenall is a freelance writer, artist, and tabletop roleplaying game designer who has written for CBR, Polygon, Nintendo Life, Gayley Dreadful, Enbylife, and many other publications. They have also published several popular and highly-praised tabletop roleplaying games including “You Have One Ability….The Ability To Fuck This Up,” “Macarons, Milkshakes, And Magic,” and “Wander Wizards.”
Jonathon has always been fascinated by media, from the big hitters to the small, obscure, and often overlooked titles that linger on the sidelines, capturing both the on and off-camera stories that make these shows so fascinating.
Jonathon is also a major anime fan, having been exposed to the medium through shows like Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Since then, Jonathon has maintained a passion for anime, watching most new shows each season and hunting down overlooked gems from previous ones.