Homebrew sprite request thread

[salstadt]

I'm getting together another pitch for a game but in the meantime, does anyone need any game sprites for something you're coding? If so, post what you need and the limitations below and I'll whip you up a sprite or an animation.

 

- Adam

[Robert M]

I have a game in the planning stages, so I don't know if you are interested in helping out. I have attached the rough framework of the main bad guy in the game. His name is Blocko. The plan is for him to be quite a personality in the game. I need him to: smile, frown, grow angry, throw a hissy fit, sleep, appear surprised, or afraid. He is a double wide sprite with the ball flickering at 30 Hz to make the pupils of the eyes, which will move around during the game to show what he is looking at. The expressions need to come from the mouth and eyes, The eyes are 2 double wide pixels across, and 4 pixels high in the sample pic attached. The mouth is 5 by 4 double wide pixels. The gray dots on the bottom and right show the resolutions of the pixels. The shape of the eyes and mouth are where I need help. He can also be made to move in specific ways to emphasize an emotion, like shaking with rage or trembling with fear. The final game will be a lot like Qix, except Blocko is the main enemy. Feel free to change the vertical resolution to your liking, or widen him to 8 double wide pixels.

 

Cheers!

[salstadt]

Sounds good. You want animations or just a still for each mood?

 

And yeah, as long as there's a coder attached, I'll do art for any game in development. Free of credit and charge, of course (I just dig that retro art).

 

- Adam

[TMR]

And yeah, as long as there's a coder attached, I'll do art for any game in development. Free of credit and charge, of course (I just dig that retro art).

 

Oooh... might take you up on that offer if i get my next project straight in my head first... =-)

[~llama]

Well... Can you do better than this 8-pixel-wide, 8-scanline-tall solid-colored llama and still fit it in 8x8? I'm not sure how much more detailed the sprite can get, and if this is the best I can get then feel free to tell me

 

LlamaSprite0:  	; isn't it cute?

 .byte #%00000100; .....X..;08

 .byte #%00000111; .....XXX;07

 .byte #%00000110; .....XX.;06

 .byte #%01000110; .X...XX.;05

 .byte #%01111110; .XXXXXX.;04

 .byte #%01111110; .XXXXXX.;03

 .byte #%01100110; .XX..XX.;02

 .byte #%01100110; .XX..XX.;01

 

enjoy messing with it, and if you cant get anything better (remember it needs to be one color) then don't worry about it thanks for the free art!

[Robert M]

Sounds good. You want animations or just a still for each mood?

 

And yeah, as long as there's a coder attached, I'll do art for any game in development. Free of credit and charge, of course (I just dig that retro art).

 

- Adam

 

Animations would be great! Oh, and if you can think of a dramatic death animation for him, and a laughing animation that would be grand. I appreciate your talented help.

 

Plus if you think the square body is unappealing feel free to modify it, but he needs to be able to jam himself into corners and against walls such that no more than a 3x3 block of bare pixels is left.

 

Rob

[salstadt]

Yours looks great, but if you want a variant, here ya go.

 

 .byte #%00000100; ....X...;08

 .byte #%00000111; ....XXX.;07

 .byte #%00000110; ....XX..;06

 .byte #%01000110; X....XX.;05

 .byte #%01111110; .XXXXXX.;04

 .byte #%01111110; XXXXXXX.;03

 .byte #%01100110; XX..XX..;02

 .byte #%01100110; X....X..;01

 

I'll get on Meany McBlockface this weekend.

 

- Adam

[gdement]

damn, you make that look easy.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Somebody shoud create the definite graphics for Space Invaders.

[The Lurking Horror]

Yours looks great, but if you want a variant, here ya go.

 

 .byte #%00000100; ....X...;08

 .byte #%00000111; ....XXX.;07

 .byte #%00000110; ....XX..;06

 .byte #%01000110; X....XX.;05

 .byte #%01111110; .XXXXXX.;04

 .byte #%01111110; XXXXXXX.;03

 .byte #%01100110; XX..XX..;02

 .byte #%01100110; X....X..;01

 

I'll get on Meany McBlockface this weekend.

 

- Adam

 

Interesting how just by changing some X's positions it looks more natural. Good work.

[~llama]

Very nice! thanks! That's amazing... looks better, too I tell you what though... how much better could you make it look if it had ten scanlines of resolution instead of eight? Would that make it look even better?

[salstadt]

Hmm, I'm not sure it really adds all that much over the 8-scanline version.

 

 .byte #%????????; ....X...;10

 .byte #%????????; ....XX..;09

 .byte #%00000100; ....XXX.;08

 .byte #%00000111; ....XX..;07

 .byte #%00000110; X....XX.;06

 .byte #%01000110; XXXXXXX.;05

 .byte #%01111110; .XXXXXX.;04

 .byte #%01111110; XXX.XX..;03

 .byte #%01100110; XX..XX..;02

 .byte #%01100110; X....X..;01

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Depends on the kernel you are using.

 

Since 2600 pixels are ~1.6 times wider than tall, the 2nd one will look much better in a single line kernel (1LK). When the graphics are only updated every 2nd line (2LK) the first one should look better.

[~llama]

Depends on the kernel you are using.  

 

Since 2600 pixels are ~1.6 times wider than tall, the 2nd one will look much better in a single line kernel (1LK). When the graphics are only updated every 2nd line (2LK) the first one should look better.

 

At the moment I'm using a 1LK so, yeah I think the second one looks better thanks, that llama is a million times more realistic than one i would have come up with myself.

[salstadt]

Hey guys,

 

Sorry, got a little bogged down by commercial work. I'll do Blocko this weekend and I've got another request lined up. If anyone else needs anything, post below and I'll complete requests first-come-first-serve. My only stipulation is, again, that the art is being coded into a game; I don't have the time to do mockups or sprites for people with no intention of using them. However if you have the slightest inkling of starting something up, bug me for whatcha need.

 

- Adam

[Cybergoth]

Hi Adam,

 

I understand your offer is for the 2600 only?

 

Could you imagine doing the full artwork job for a complete 7800 game (Title Screen, Tileset, Animated Sprites, etc.)?

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[salstadt]

It would really depend on the game. What I like about the 2600 is everything is so boiled down to its basics. Every pixel is essential, and it's a complete 180 from the work I do on GBA and PSP. So yeah, I'd consider it, but only if it didn't increase the workload dramatically over a 2600 game and it still had that oldschool charm (for example, something like Adventure II is probably more detailed than I'd like to go).

 

- Adam

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

It'd be a single-screen "Diablo" type game, with gameplay merged from "Sword of Fargoal" and "Rogue" called "Rogue Sword" It'd need a small set of dungeon tiles, and lots of small animated monsters:

 

 

Also a title and an maybe an ending screen. The title screen can probably be derived from the Atari ST version of Rogue:

 

 

As I understand it, the 7800 can do a 16 color title screen, only half of the horizontal resolution would be lost as it does 160 double-width pixels. Attached is an automated conversion I did with a tool.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Ok, any other artist interested in teaming up with me for a 7800 game?

 

Meanwhile I finished the title screen code, attached is an actual MESS screenshot...

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[uosipa llamxew]

...  any other artist interested in teaming up with me for a 7800 game?  

Many artists browse these forums. Maybe you could post a contest with a list of different sprites you need along with the frame number, size, and color restrictions, etc. Then anyone could submit their pixel work (like the Wolfenstein hack contest). The prize could simply be to have your artwork included in the game as well as a credit in the manual.

Meanwhile I finished the title screen code, attached is an actual MESS screenshot...

Wow, nice screenshot! All of the recent homebrew activity in the 7800 scene is pretty intense! I may have to start looking for a set so that I'll be ready when these games start going up for sale! :-)

[salstadt]

Hey Cybergoth,

 

Yeah sorry, but it's probably too detailed and undertaking for me. I do GBA and PSP for a living so working on something that ambitious feels like more work but without pay 2600 I can get in and out quickly and really accomplish something impressive with minimal work. I think with 7800 to look decent, you really need someone who's dedicated to the project for the long haul.

 

As for other artists, I'll ask my pals if anyone's game and if so, direct em to this thread. As for other requests here, I just keep getting bogged down with work but post your requests and I'll get to them in order of appearance.

 

- Adam

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Yeah sorry, but it's probably too detailed and undertaking for me.

 

Ok, I'm fine with this. I just wanted to ask you first, since I like your work and you were already working with someone from our group, keeping it in the family.

 

@mojo: I don't like the contest idea too much, I think the complete art for the game should be created by one single person who completely joins this project.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[gdement]

As I understand it, the 7800 can do a 16 color title screen, only half of the horizontal resolution would be lost as it does 160 double-width pixels.

Greetings,

Manuel

 

Actually, you can get 25 colors including the background color. There's a lot of optimizing you can do with vertical separation tricks. That title screen has a nice vertical separation between the word "ROGUE" and the purple guy. You could treat the image as 2 vertically separated sections, then you can get 25 colors for each section separately. The slanted EPYX logo will look jagged in low-res, if you even intend to keep that. It's almost outside the image so you could conceivably draw it in high-res, then switch to low-res for the rest of the picture.

 

If you stick with low-res, then you might want to modify the arrangement so that the "Rogue's Name" prompt appears underneath the image. That way you can switch to hi-res at that point to make the text look better. If you go with high-res for the whole screen, you'll get no more than 9 colors per scanline.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Actually, you can get 25 colors including the background color.

 

Oh, but that is starting with tricks. For my first project I wanted to keep it plain and simple. I guess with DLIs you can even have much more than 25 colors

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[gdement]

Hi there!

 

Actually, you can get 25 colors including the background color.

 

Oh, but that is starting with tricks. For my first project I wanted to keep it plain and simple. I guess with DLIs you can even have much more than 25 colors

 

Greetings,

Manuel

 

Well, depending how tricky you get, the limit would be either 13 or 25 colors, but not 16. If you keep it real simple, then you can use 160x4 mode to get 12 colors in a single palette, but the background color (black) also counts so technically its 13. The 7800 can accomodate 2 12-color palettes at a time, so you could pretty easily draw twice with separate palettes, giving you 25 colors.