How I make a living designing Minecraft textures

For the past year and a half, most of my freelance design work has been Minecraft skins and texture packs.  The work is super reliable and I can basically do as much as I want/need to do.  In this blog post, I'll run through the way I got into designing Minecraft skins, the technicalities of the job and some ideas of how you can earn money designing Minecraft skins.

The skins and texture packs that I make are destined for the Minecraft marketplace.  I don't personally have an account that has been approved to sell on the marketplace but I work for one of the larger content creators on there.  I landed this gig through one of the freelancer marketplaces over a year ago, but after a few months of working together, we decided to take our working relationship off that site and communicate over skype/pay via paypal.  This worked well for me as I have a good profile online, and I got lucky with that job, but it probably doesn't apply to most freelancers, as there isn't a constant stream of Minecraft gigs to be had.  An easier way to score some texture work would be as follows:

If I we're to be looking for some Minecraft texture work now, I would take the following steps:  Firstly, I'd get together my best skins and textures and present them nicely by taking some screen shots in-game.  I'd compile these in one place on a web page so they are easy to view.  Then I would look at the Minecraft marketplace and research some contact info for the creators on there.  I would then reach out to them with a link to my Minecraft portfolio.

Texture packs are time consuming.  It takes me over a month to make a full pack, so there is demand for people who can make them, and there is plenty of work available.  If you know what you are doing, can work fairly swiftly and make some good quality textures, it's not difficult to get the work.

Skins or Texture packs

I started off by making skins.  This was a easy job, and most designers would find it easy, therefore, there is a lot of competition, and the packs in the marketplace have to really stand out.

Now, I exclusively work on texture packs, this is basically a reskin of all of the blocks, items, mobs etc.  It is more time-consuming and difficult, but there is less competition for me as an artist, and for my client also.

Tools

For designing Minecraft texture packs, you don't need any special tools.  I predominantly use photoshop, but you could use GIMP.  This is fine for all of the blocks and items.  for the mobs, I use novaskin which is a website with an editing tool for all of the mobs and entities.  I also use blockbench for any mobs that aren't on novaskin.  blockbench is free, as is novaskin.

You can download the entire resource pack for vanilla minecraft on the minecraft website, this works as a starting point for your designs, and also contains the models for use in blockbench.

Does it pay well?

I'm happy with the amount I receive for this work.  It is really reliable and pretty stress-free.  It isn't going to make me a millionaire, but I like it.

Sailing Tshirt Designs

Here are some sailing tshirt designs available in myshop, I am creating a range of sailing tshirt designs and spearfishing designs too.  Available here:  Sailing Tshirt

WIP designs for a restaurant rating app

Here's a simple and clean concept for a restaurant rating app.  It is a redesign of a current app, maintaining the existing functionality but with a more modern appearance.

Space Brew - A drinking game with cards

Space Brew is my new project.  It is a card game in which the players consume drinks in order to defeat retro space monsters.  Monsters drop loot such as equipment, cash and spaceship parts.  You can also hire mercenaries to help you.  The game is simple enough to be picked up quickly in a party atmosphere when players may already have been drinking.

There will be 200 cards or thereabouts and I will be launching the project on kickstarter as soon as I feel that there is enough buzz for the project to succeed.  Production and distribution are already priced and arranged.

Please visit and like my facebook page so I can gauge the awareness of the project and so you can hear all the updates:

Space Brew - Drinking card game

Here are a couple of samples:

Woodland Preschool - Educational App for Preschoolers on iOS and Android

Here's my latest app offering.  it's an educational app in which young children can learn basic counting, colours, numbers and shapes.  There's an achievements page to collect stars which are awarded according to performance.  I've released as a paid app with no in-app purchases or ads.  I will be adding more mini-games which will be delivered as free updates to app users.

As a father of a young child, I have a lot of apps like this.  It's aimed at kids under 5 and you can get it here:

Woodland Preschool for iOS

Woodland Preschool for Android

Woodland Preschool

Woodland Preschool

Dragon Wing - My new android game.

Here's a little re-skin of a game I made.  Pretty simple, avoid obstacles and score points.  The iOS universal version is in the queue at the moment with a gamecenter leaderboard.  I thought I'd try and get some run-off popularity from game of thrones by going with a dragon theme.  I decided on the 8bit style as that's what I like (child of the 80s).  It's free anyway so give it a try.  There's also no iaps just some interstatial ads for monetization:

Dragon App

Dragon Wing for Android

Mobile game design with a bird that isn't a flappy clone!

Here's a commissioned app that I have completer recently.  It's a simple, retro game in which you fly upwards past a range of obstacles.  It's a cross platform app available as an iOS universal download and also android.  Monetized through iAP on iOS and revmob on android.  Soaring Bird iOS universal  Android