This is my first attempt at creating a moving sprite. For anyone who doesn't know what a sprite is (not a drink or magical creature), sprites are often used in video games Before the age of more advanced graphics processors and the boom of 3D technologies, sprites were all the graphics you saw if you ever played a computer game.
For me, they hold a lot of appeal. There is the nostalgia factor, as sprites remind me of every great game that entered into my childhood. There is the fact that they are NOT 3D, which is important as I tend to get motion sick when playing 3D games. (Strange, but true.) There is the fact that sprites tend to have a smaller processing requirement than newer 3D graphics, so games employing sprites can run on really outdated hardware.
Then there is the fact that sprites represent a real test in minimalist art. Creating recognizable detail with only a few pixels and a very limited color palette is difficult while doing it well is even more so. While working on the little slime guy walking above, I looked at a lot of sprites and there is a lot of lazy sprite art out there. When you find a well done bit of sprite work, though, it is really amazing to realize the level of detail the artist has packed into just a few square pixels. (Look up "Secret of Mana" or "Final Fantasy VI" some time to see what I mean.)
If I ever manage to make a video game as I would like to, I am pretty sure I want to use sprites instead of some newer technology.
1 comment:
Cute slime sprite. Slimes are like the "Hello World" of sprite design. :)
My brothers and I had fun designing sprites for characters in our game Lost Legends. We deliberately restricted the game's graphics to 16x16 per block for that retro feel.
I think that now is an ideal time to create games with 2-D graphics and have them find an audience: we've moved past the complexity-addicted early 3-D age, into the simplicity-loving portable age. Many best-selling games (think Angry Birds) sport cartoony 2-D graphics.
And graphics toolkits, including sprite-oriented ones, are more readily available than ever. My brother's playing with Allegro, a free one for C++. He's come up with a nice little game, despite only programming at a casual hobbyist level.
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