Author Topic: RPG 8x8 tiles  (Read 9856 times)

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Offline Galandros

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RPG 8x8 tiles
« on: June 18, 2009, 04:49:07 pm »
I need a little push to start the graphic part that worries me a bit.

The idea is doing a RPG for TI-83+ with 8x8 tiles. You can combine some to make houses or higher trees for example.

But how good the graphics can get with this size? I would like some game examples and/or sprite sheets. I need sprites to study a bit.
I am curious and undecided between B/W and 4 lvl grayscale. 8 lvl grayscale is out of my reach right now.

How do you make graphics? Try on calculator or computer? And just changes pixels around until get a good effect? I tried to do parentheses for a font set and I never reached one that seem nice. And it was 8x8 not 4x3. X_X

I start to want to try Game boy pocket developing. xD
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Offline SolusIpse

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Re: RPG 8x8 tiles
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2009, 07:14:42 pm »
Paint and a lot of experimentation, and a lot of zooming in/out.

you should look at Digitan's Robot War tileset, which is pretty simple and effective.

also, is it an action RPG or FF style?  because world maps aren't a big deal for FF style RPGs.  Personally, I'd like to see more cool battle animations, like Golden Sun epicness.

if you really want nice looking world maps, you should just draw the map first and see how you can break it down into tiles.  If it's too many, than start simplifying things a bit.

imho, DS dev > GB only because so many people are doing it now so you have a large community to help you out.

edit:

so you're not going to continue LL1?

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: RPG 8x8 tiles
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2009, 07:35:44 pm »
Yeah I would agree with SolusIpse about DS dev. Since DS came out GB dev declined in popularity. The same will most likely happen to the Nintendo DS and PSP when Nintendo and Sony releases new handleds that are more powerful, though, but it will take a few more years at least.

As for tiles creation I generally do them using Paint or Photofiltre Studio. Paint Shop Pro and GIMP can also work. Photoshop is more oriented toward photo editing than pixel art, though. Paint.NET can also do a nice job. Just google it.

I hope you aren't quitting calc developpement, though. (Eventually, Omnimaga might be forced to expand toward ROM hacking and developpment on handled and more PC games, simply because the TI community isn't in a very good state, despite being more active in the past 6 months, and a lot of people are interested toward DS/PSP developpement, meaning they might move on, so we might need something else to back us up to keep our former TI users. However, I do not plan myself to get into console/handled programming, simply because for me it's too complicated. I might do some ROM hacking, though, with ROMs that got editors that allows you to edit the game without programming knowledge, like Lunar Magic for Super Mario World. Besides that, it would most likely be PC RPG making)

EDIT: Aren't all Lost LEgends tiles alerady done, though (if you are actually talking about Lost Legends)?

Offline Spellshaper

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Re: RPG 8x8 tiles
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2009, 09:23:05 pm »
I did my sprites in simple MS Paint. Nowadays, I'd probably use Paint.net.
Try b/w and grayscale sprites, transfer them to your calc and see how good it turns out.
And yes, with 8x8 I pretty much just randomly mess around with pixels until I get a general idea how I want it to look, which shouldn't take long. There aren't that many possible combinations. Don't worry, the smaller the tile resolution, the harder it gets to make the tiles themselves look good. Practice a bit.

Offline Galandros

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Re: RPG 8x8 tiles
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2009, 04:41:06 am »
I will do games for TI calculators. Just the screen of GB has so much resolution that more appealing things could be done (greater world maps) Also GB because it is a z80 and I have looked in a dissembler and it is pretty familiar to me. :)

I was not thinking in action RPG. But I am creating something original so never know what is going to be.
I played Golden Sun. Great game, with puzzles and epic journey. The battles animations were really legendary.
Maybe I can pull some good effects when I gain experience in asm. Like zooming and rotation a sword.

True, Lost Legends has all design done. It is just programming and put everything together. But its tiles are 16x16 by the way.
I need tiles for a possible next RPG. I am brainstorming it in a paper.

My complaint about Paint is that is hard to know if the sprites continue to be 8x8. But thinking on it discovered that making a chess like table with 2 colours can solve this...
Trying Paint.NET... The grid I need is there. But I haven't experimented enough to discover how to move a small 8x8 without it being expanded, it only lets in bigger selections...

Well, now it would be nice catching games with 8x8 tiles... Or sprite sheets around. I will see Robot War then.
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Offline Halifax

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Re: RPG 8x8 tiles
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2009, 07:41:10 am »
Wait, what's the problem with MS Paint? From what I could comprehend from your post, it appears as though you were saying you couldn't tell whether your sprites were staying 8x8 in size, and the lack of a grid?

Are you talking about something like this?:
There are 10 types of people in this world-- those that can read binary, and those that can't.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: RPG 8x8 tiles
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2009, 11:58:23 am »
I think he's talking about the very limited zoom. In most softwares you can zoom enough to make a 8x8 sprite fit half of the screen but in paint the max zoom is 8x (altough I heard rumors that there was a way to zoom 10x). I personally didn't mind this much back when I used paint because I worked on 800x600 resolution (15 inch monitor), but for someone working on a higher resolution it might be a small issue.

My other gripe about paint is that the mouse cursor position is a bit off/misleading. For example I'll point the pen to a pixel but when I click, it will colour the pixel above instead. This can get a bit annoying when doing small pixel art. But paint is still my second favourite when it comes to pixel art. I only use Photofiltre more now because it has layers and tools to replace a color in particular in a picture or turn sprites monochrom with checkered pattern, which can be very handy when making 3 level grayscale tiles
« Last Edit: June 20, 2009, 12:02:43 pm by DJ Omnimaga »

Offline Galandros

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Re: RPG 8x8 tiles
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2009, 08:54:25 am »
Wait, what's the problem with MS Paint? From what I could comprehend from your post, it appears as though you were saying you couldn't tell whether your sprites were staying 8x8 in size, and the lack of a grid?

Are you talking about something like this?:

eh nothing of that.
It is in Paint.NET. And is when you select a 8x8 tile, you aren't able seem to move it around, just dimension it because it is so small and Paint.NET only moves a block when you select from middle in a constant distant from borders... If I zoom maybe I can solve this. DJ talking about zoom helped. xD
Hobbing in calculator projects.