The following is a collection of free resources perfect for 2D game creation, including sprites, spritesheets, maps and even complete 2d game kit projects.
Complete Game Kits
The following are links to sites that contain at least a few complete game kits. Generally this means several sprites that go together to compose a game level, or even an entire game with character and enemy sprites in addition to environments.
Kenney.nl
Kenney.nl is perhaps the most famous site for free game assets containing an absolute ton of sprite sheets, level game kits and even several 3D models. The only real downside to Kenny.nl is that they are so popular, they will be immediately recognized in most cases. It is one of the largest collections available and is a great place to start, especially if you are looking for placeholder artwork.
PixelGameArt.org
A mix of commercial and free game pack, PixelGameArt contains the work of ansimuz from itch.io and often contains a full game worth of assets, including even code examples of how to use the assets.
Kronbits
An artist hosted on itch.io, Kronbits offers both commercial and free sprite backs and development tools.
Quaternius
This is actually a collection of low poly stylized game assets from a variety of different themes from guns and buildings to cows and planets. There are a load of them and often include 2D renders in addition to the 3D model files.
GameArt2D
GameArt2D sell complete themed 2D game packs, although they also offer a ton of free complete packs. Their art style tends more toward the vector look than the pixel art approach.
CraftPix
CraftPix also offer a ton of commercial 2D game packs and have a ton of assets available for free as well. Split into different categories, such as icons, backgrounds, characters as well as full game kits.
Learn more about the above resources watching this video.
2D Game Resources
The following are great sites for finding 2D game content.
itch.io
itch.io is a community for indie game developers, both as a place to hang out and talk about games and as a place to showcase and even sell you titles. In addition to full games, there is a thriving marketplace for game assets on itch, including both free and paid resources. Many of the above graphic kits can actually be found on itch.
OpenGameArt
OpenGameArt is a large collection of game development resources. It’s not only for 2D graphics, but also 3D, audio and more, although the 2D section is the largest part. The quality of assets on OpenGameArt can vary massively, so it can take a large amount of time to find the diamonds, due to the sheer volume of content to sift through.