2D Action Game Sprites : Paper doll equipment or custom characters with unchanging appearance?

Stupice · 2012-03-31T03:04:23

I'm doing research for a 2D Action-RPG game project that uses 2d top-down sprites (think SNES and GBA Zelda, the Mana series, etc). I've already decided that I want the player to have different graphics for different weapons displayed in the main character's animations and I was looking at the possibility of adding a "paper doll" function to the game sprites. This would mean the clothes and appearance of the sprite would change as they put on or took off clothing/armor/accessories. I'm looking to the future and trying to conceptualize for a game with customizable graphics (like the skin-packs in games like Minecraft or Terraria), but in order to do that the game's sprites would have to be "standardized." By this I mean that the player's character sprite would have to always remain the same size and shape. For example... I create a human character with close to 60 frames of animation (which is as small as I can go) in a 18x30 pixel area for all of his actions/movements. I create a standard "cloth tunic" item that has to have 60 frames of animation to match each of the character's frames. (Which will be over-laid like a shirt on a paper doll.) I then create a dwarf character with the same 60 frames of animation. The cloth tunic will not over-lay on the dwarf correctly, appearing on his face because of the difference in size and shape. I then have to either lock certain items to certain character types or make 60 additional frames of animation for every character type who is wearing the same item (this would be insane). The point here is that I have a choice to make when it comes to player-made graphics and content. I either have a game with 1-2 "standard" character types (probably male and female human) that are generic in form and very easy to sprite for, or I can say no to paper doll equipment and that opens the door for a wide variety of custom characters whose appearance doesn't change, but their body types can be anything that fits within the character's hit box and matches the 60 frames of animation (and weapon animations). Or I could POSSIBLY decide to split the difference and make standard characters that will allow paper-doll animations and non-standard characters who can equip items, but will not display them. I'm a game artist so this question really hits home for me. Keep in mind that creating these custom animations and characters wouldn't necessarily be done in-game. Most likely it would apply only to the content created specifically for the game and then be an option for modders to take up in customizing the game (again, like Terraria and Minecraft). The big question, put simply, is this; do people want completey custom characters with no change in appearance based on equipment or just 2 characters with thousands of different "looks" based on equipment combinations?

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Stupice March 29, 2012 07:00 AM

10 comments, last by Dwapook 12 years ago

Bearhugger

1,276

March 30, 2012 05:35 AM

Yeah, that's correct. In my game, you have one armor slot and it represents the whole body, so you equip an armor and it changes the whole body art, not just the chest. Except the helm which is a different piece, but I decided to not show it. (Personal preference: for the good guys, I prefer to see my characters' head.)

About how to have every piece of a 2D sprite customizable, that's a very good question.

It's certainly possible to make a paperdoll where you can change parts of the body. Blizzard did it incredibly well in Diablo II. For example, look at the sprite of those corrupted girls from Diablo 2 in the first act. From memory, they have 3 types of lower body (one normal, one corrupted/naked and one with demon legs) then two types of shoulders (normal and with a horn), 3 types of head (long hairs, bald, demon head) and different weapons. And it's like that for most humanoid monsters as far as I know. (The game generates two sprites to be used by all monsters of a same type so you have to reload the game to see different variations.)

Those generated paperdoll sprites blend perfectly into a new sprite and have no glitches, so it really looks good. However, those were generated by a 3D package, not hand-crafted by a 2D artist.

If you're going to use pre-rendered sprites with a 3D package, then you should be able to pull that off. Could require some blender scripts to setup the rendering process, but it seems that scripting is hardly a challenge for those that frequent these boards. For 2D artists though, it could be challenging to make so many paperdoll sprites where every combination blends perfectly. I'm not exactly the best pixel artist out there, to me it is more work then I care for.

Dwapook

102

March 31, 2012 03:04 AM

Another option is 2D skeletal/bone animations..

Just saw this the other day http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539087245/spriter
Could be promising..

2D Action Game Sprites : Paper doll equipment or custom characters with unchanging appearance?

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2D Action Game Sprites : Paper doll equipment or custom characters with unchanging appearance?

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