Starting Game Dev

[Gogan]

Well if I understand correctly, any rgb value divisible by 32 or 36 is acceptable. So, from that you can make up any palette you wish.

But a max 16 colors per sprite

[Arkhan]

Makes all the sense in the world. Does this "by 36" principle apply to most everything else?

anything that is using 9-bit color will have this same setup.... so MSX2, and Amiga have the same kind of thing.

9-bit isn't exactly precise so you could probably do steps of 32, 33, 34, and 35 also.  The image will work out just the same.

Steps of 36 and 32 are the easiest to remember/count by though.

I wonder....do you need some kind of palette to create the sprite images though ?

I have a few ideas but never managed to have them materialise . Like a platformer involving snowmen .

You just make sure you use up to 16 9-bit colors and you're fine.

[San Juan Wolf]

Stil not sure how to actualy draw stuff on a computer . If you have a reference of some sort I would be glad to see it .

[Arkhan]

Stil not sure how to actualy draw stuff on a computer . If you have a reference of some sort I would be glad to see it .

you just draw it in paint or whatever program you like to use, as long as it supports PCX files!

Photoshop, Neopaint, PC Paintbrush, GFX2, GIMP for example.

[San Juan Wolf]

Drawing in MS Paint ?

I don't posses any tools for drawing , and I can't very well draw it with a mouse , right ?

[Gogan]

A 16x16 pixel sprite,u could click-draw, being such a small piece of art.

If you want to have that pen-in-hand feel, look into a graphics tablet for your computer. They have many kinds, I have a Wacom and love it. You draw on the tablet, and it shows on screen.

[San Juan Wolf]

Yeah but unless they are giving them away free I probably won't be able to get it

I dunno , I have problems doing drawing anything like that in paint cause I always screw up the "border areas" aka the areas where one color more or less passes into the next .

[Gogan]

Haha, yea they not free.

Jus dive right in and start building it up pixel by pixel. Pixels don't mix together, they are the smallest unit of display

[San Juan Wolf]

Yeah I know . What I meant is I can not for the life of me arange them to look to naturaly blend into one another when viewed from a distance . Like hair for example .

I can edit pictures though , for example the Poop God from Toilet kids , I basicly turned him into a black guy in a read hat .

Not sure if I can do anything from scratch though . Maybe I'm just too afraid of it actualy .

[nectarsis]

Seriously man..is your signature big enough??

[San Juan Wolf]

What ? Was that directed at moi ?

[Gogan]

Practice.

[Keranu]

You don't necessarily always have to make graphics by drawing them pixel-by-pixel. If you're good at image editing, you could always just take pre-designed art (from a scanned sketch, photo, clip art, whatever), do whatever editing needs done (cutting things out, resizing, etc..), and convert the colors in PCE format. You could even take photos of your dog and edit them to be used in game! (Infact, HCF has already done so!)

But practicing pixel art is best, as Gogan posted. If you're making sprites that are in the 16x16 - 32x32 range, you're probably better off drawing by hand anyways. Lord_cack started making tiles with no experience and after a couple years he became an incredible artist.

[Gogan]

Bingo-bango

[Keranu]

P.S., there is a fantastic guide to pixel art here - http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/ .