Its purpose is to allow developers to easily replace programmer art with high-quality, freely licensed artwork.

The project does not accept content licensed with clauses which prevent commercial reuse or remixing (like the Creative Commons license clauses NC or ND), as these are perceived to restrict users, thus making the content non-free.

[9] OpenGameArt.org is also affiliated with related websites such as Libregamewiki,[10] a database of purely libre games, the Free Gamer blog[11] and the FreeGameDev forums.

[16] This subsequently evolved into the Liberated Pixel Cup (LPC), a project to create a unified set of Creative Commons artwork.

[17] To stimulate new artistic contributions, the site also hosts an informal weekly competition called the Friday Challenge, wherein an artistic theme will be announced on a Friday, and entries will be voted on until a winner is decided nine days later.