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{{Short description|Temporary or placeholder art}}
{{distinguish|algorithmic art}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2025}}

In [[video game development]] and overall [[software development]], '''programmer art''' refers to assets created by [[software developer|programmers]].

{{Multiple image
| image1 = Simple Stick Figure.svg
| alt1 = A stick figure.
| image2 = Kenney.nl platformer characters - soldier vector (cropped).svg
| direction = horizontal
| total_width = 400
| caption2 =
| footer = An example of what programmer art might look like in a video game. The programmer art will often be quite low-quality until it is replaced with a real sprite.
}}

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]] 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|end-user]] display. The effort invested in an asset depends on its context and whether it will be replaced or not. Generally, programmer art is 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.

In [[Indie game|indie games]], 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.

Common forms of programmer art include [[stick figure]] [[Sprite (computer graphics)|sprites]] in side-scrolling games, [[Fuchsia (color)|fuchsia]] [[Texture mapping|textures]] in games using [[3D modeling|3D models]], and grid textures for level geometry. Games with a "top-down" perspective tend to use alphanumeric characters and simple [[2D computer graphics|2D graphics]] to represent characters and landscape elements.

== References ==
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[[Category:Video game development]]

Programmer art - Revision history

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