The art out there is really good... As an hobbyist game dev, why compete?

[Thunder-squall]

I just came from looking at isometric art for Bastion and Wakfu, and man, the stuff out there is beautiful!  It makes me wonder whether or why I should put effort into 'stand-in' art for my game projects, when I know that

(1) I could use polished stuff from other games as "stand-in" art in the short term, and

(2) in the long term, if I want pretty pictures with my games, I may as well just pay people to do some really good stuff.

And even though this is a Golden Sun focused site, the fact is that GBA Golden Sun graphics are pretty sh**ty by today's standards, and even fan stuff would do better to take assets from non-Golden Sun, or just develop new stuff in a better style.  Sprite art is actually pretty hard compared to the alternatives today.

I'm currently working on a game platform I could use for anything from GoldeSun:DarkDawn style puzzles, to tactics games like Disgaea, or to free flowing stuff like Bastion.  Y'know, just blocks in pseudo 3D space.  And because of that open potential, I'm really driven to work on it, since I know that everything I build will be a stepping stone to something else.

But ART is an exception to this -- I know any effort spent on art will ultimately need to be redone.  But as fans, sometimes art is the *only* thing we really engage in, when it comes to modding and stuff like that...  So I guess I'm just trying to force myself to *not* be distracted by the desire for there to be pretty pictures associated with my game, and instead to focus all efforts on the engine, and when that's done, the game play (which will probably necessitate tweaks with the engine).