My Little Pony: The Game

[Rikifive 24,125]

To this day I'm wondering on the sprites- because of the game resolution--- and I'm kind of stuck..

The pixel sprites I have so far are simply tiny, so in order to make them look right, the game resolution would have to be 640x360, which is.. not much.  

So I decided to do some SCIENCE!~ and check what size of sprites I'd need to go for HD resolution (1920x1080). Pixel art in HD isn't the best choice I believe, so I've tried re-doing the sprite as typical digital art and I ended up with that silly sketch:

Probably the outlines are too thick (I've noticed that when I colored everything), but that's just a 'prototype'.

In game in the HD resolution it looks acceptable I think.

 

Why 640x360 isn't enough for me? I can't complain when it comes to gameplay-screen, but it may bring problems in menus, where there may be numbers and text to read, which in smaller resolutions may look not nice. I actually had troubles with HUDs and interface in the past because of small resolution, so that's why I'm considering going with a higher one. Besides, that would look more accurate to the source material, where there are vectors used.

 

But I sincerely have no idea what would be worse to draw&animate- pixel sprites with smaller dimensions to cover, yet easy-to-harm details (sometimes a single misplaced pixel can wreck your eyes  ) ; or digital art, where there's more effort required, but the details aren't that visible- besides some not-perfectly drawn lines and such..

Oooh- system-related preparation is the worst... I'm really not sure what to do...  I know one thing- I keep wasting time on trying many things.  

[Ginger Ale 723]

5 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

To this day I'm wondering on the sprites- because of the game resolution--- and I'm kind of stuck..

The pixel sprites I have so far are simply tiny, so in order to make them look right, the game resolution would have to be 640x360, which is.. not much.  

So I decided to do some SCIENCE!~ and check what size of sprites I'd need to go for HD resolution (1920x1080). Pixel art in HD isn't the best choice I believe, so I've tried re-doing the sprite as typical digital art and I ended up with that silly sketch:

Probably the outlines are too thick (I've noticed that when I colored everything), but that's just a 'prototype'.

In game in the HD resolution it looks acceptable I think.

 

Why 640x360 isn't enough for me? I can't complain when it comes to gameplay-screen, but it may bring problems in menus, where there may be numbers and text to read, which in smaller resolutions may look not nice. I actually had troubles with HUDs and interface in the past because of small resolution, so that's why I'm considering going with a higher one. Besides, that would look more accurate to the source material, where there are vectors used.

 

But I sincerely have no idea what would be worse to draw&animate- pixel sprites with smaller dimensions to cover, yet easy-to-harm details (sometimes a single misplaced pixel can wreck your eyes  ) ; or digital art, where there's more effort required, but the details aren't that visible- besides some not-perfectly drawn lines and such..

Oooh- system-related preparation is the worst... I'm really not sure what to do...  I know one thing- I keep wasting time on trying many things.  

I can't wait to play the game, when do you think it will be downloadable @Rikifive ? You are making an amazing project.

[Fluttershy Friend 25,446]

Quote

Okay, finally I could get back to this project!  

Yay! Good luck!

Quote

Heh, it can't be that bad, can it? 

All will be good!

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Fluttershy Friend

[Compeador 101]

12 hours ago, Rikifive said:

To this day I'm wondering on the sprites- because of the game resolution--- and I'm kind of stuck..

The pixel sprites I have so far are simply tiny, so in order to make them look right, the game resolution would have to be 640x360, which is.. not much.  

So I decided to do some SCIENCE!~ and check what size of sprites I'd need to go for HD resolution (1920x1080). Pixel art in HD isn't the best choice I believe, so I've tried re-doing the sprite as typical digital art and I ended up with that silly sketch:

Probably the outlines are too thick (I've noticed that when I colored everything), but that's just a 'prototype'.

In game in the HD resolution it looks acceptable I think.

 

Why 640x360 isn't enough for me? I can't complain when it comes to gameplay-screen, but it may bring problems in menus, where there may be numbers and text to read, which in smaller resolutions may look not nice. I actually had troubles with HUDs and interface in the past because of small resolution, so that's why I'm considering going with a higher one. Besides, that would look more accurate to the source material, where there are vectors used.

 

But I sincerely have no idea what would be worse to draw&animate- pixel sprites with smaller dimensions to cover, yet easy-to-harm details (sometimes a single misplaced pixel can wreck your eyes  ) ; or digital art, where there's more effort required, but the details aren't that visible- besides some not-perfectly drawn lines and such..

Oooh- system-related preparation is the worst... I'm really not sure what to do...  I know one thing- I keep wasting time on trying many things.  

You may want to try vector art for HD resolution, but IMO it's ok even if it's in pixel, though 

 

12 hours ago, Ginger Ale said:

I can't wait to play the game, when do you think it will be downloadable @Rikifive ? You are making an amazing project.

 shh, never ask the release date of an indie game, it'll only bring pressure to the developers

[Rikifive 24,125]

18 hours ago, Ginger Ale said:

I can't wait to play the game, when do you think it will be downloadable @Rikifive ? You are making an amazing project.

Me neither.  

On 20.08.2017 at 7:30 PM, Rikifive said:

Hopefully I'll get this done before 2025.

Just kidding!
Peeeeeeerhaps the demo, that would contain prologue, that covers the first and the second episode revealing game features would be ready in ~6 months (then the updates would be coming much faster from there), if not the sprites. Preparing the sprites itself will take months (tons of drawing and animating), so at this point the game production (system-wise and such) is stuck. To not lie, I'm afraid it will take at least a year to get to the point, where the game will actually have something. Hopefully...  

I think there are special programs designed to help make animated sprites, but sadly I don't have any, nor have any experience to use them. I'm planning to draw each frame one-by-one, in the veeery simple and lame way.

Thank you. I really hope it won't end up as a disaster.  

14 hours ago, Fluttershy Friend said:

Yay! Good luck!

Thank you!  

14 hours ago, Fluttershy Friend said:

All will be good!

Uh. So many technical aspects in English. Może lepiej pisz po polsku proszę !

I sure hope so. 

Uh, yeah, that may seem confusing.  I was thinking of this, but that would be against the rules.  

 

7 hours ago, Compeador said:

You may want to try vector art for HD resolution, but IMO it's ok even if it's in pixel, though 

I was considering this, but I'm afraid that would slow down the process even more. ...And I'd have even bigger problems with animating it.  Sprites probably aren't my strong point.  

It kinda feels bad for trying to leave pixel environment, but... oooh what to do...

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

Me neither.  

Just kidding!
Peeeeeeerhaps the demo, that would contain prologue, that covers the first and the second episode revealing game features would be ready in ~6 months (then the updates would be coming much faster from there), if not the sprites. Preparing the sprites itself will take months (tons of drawing and animating), so at this point the game production (system-wise and such) is stuck. To not lie, I'm afraid it will take at least a year to get to the point, where the game will actually have something. Hopefully...  

I think there are special programs designed to help make animated sprites, but sadly I don't have any, nor have any experience to use them. I'm planning to draw each frame one-by-one, in the veeery simple and lame way.

Thank you. I really hope it won't end up as a disaster.  

Thank you!  

I sure hope so. 

Uh, yeah, that may seem confusing.  I was thinking of this, but that would be against the rules.  

 

I was considering this, but I'm afraid that would slow down the process even more. ...And I'd have even bigger problems with animating it.  Sprites probably aren't my strong point.  

It kinda feels bad for trying to leave pixel environment, but... oooh what to do...

Pixels are fine. In fact, some well done pixel art can be absolutely godly.

[Rikifive 24,125]

17 minutes ago, Niko said:

Pixels are fine. In fact, some well done pixel art can be absolutely godly.

That's true. I'll try both styles and see how they'll look like..

[Guest]

Just now, Rikifive said:

That's true. I'll try both styles and see how they'll look like..

Yeah look at Dead Cells or even Sonic games for example.

[HereComesTom 2,266]

Weird thought:  what if you had higher resolution and then used scaled-up pixelart anyway?  It might work, stylistically, and it might save you some time.

For the sprites, you're probably a bit too worried:  if you can build a base animation, then all you need to do is recolor, flip horizontally as needed, and add in some extras like tails and manes (and even those could be recolored for different background characters) in order to get your animations.  All you'd need if you had an all-mare cast is about five base animations:  one for up, one for diagonally up, one for the side, one for diagonally down, and one for down.

...Probably this is stuff you know already.

[Rikifive 24,125]

12 hours ago, HereComesTom said:

Weird thought:  what if you had higher resolution and then used scaled-up pixelart anyway?  It might work, stylistically, and it might save you some time.

For the sprites, you're probably a bit too worried:  if you can build a base animation, then all you need to do is recolor, flip horizontally as needed, and add in some extras like tails and manes (and even those could be recolored for different background characters) in order to get your animations.  All you'd need if you had an all-mare cast is about five base animations:  one for up, one for diagonally up, one for the side, one for diagonally down, and one for down.

...Probably this is stuff you know already.

-and that works, because I was doing that for some of my other games.

And that itself takes some time.  The sprites themselves aren't really an issue, but animations, where you basically have to do the same thing multiple times may get problematic. I know what you mean and that's what I was doing- making a base sprite, then giving them the design. That's what I did for the MCM gifts, yet it still took a while to configure each frame correctly.
Yep- 5 directions for idle, walking and running - that makes 15 animations already, for each character. There'll be even more for battles.  Does that sound fun?  

 

I'll give a try to make typical digital sprites and see how it goes. Both styles have their pros and cons, so I'll see what will be better for me.

One of the cons of pixel art is, that a single pixel can break the image, where in digital art it may be a little bit sketchy without actually ruining the effect.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Rikifive

[StrawCherry 1,673]

I want to see moooooore screenshots of what you're doing.

[EclipseNightshade 26]

I honestly really like the pixel art you drew of Twilight. Some of the best sprite work I've seen, actually. It's akin to some of the AAA sprites I've seen, and they look 3D!

Great to see you back man. Looking forward to possibly being able to help out!

[Rikifive 24,125]

30 minutes ago, StrawCherry said:

I want to see moooooore screenshots of what you're doing.

Whenever I'll get something to show, I'll be sure to post it here.  

12 minutes ago, EclipseNightshade said:

I honestly really like the pixel art you drew of Twilight. Some of the best sprite work I've seen, actually. It's akin to some of the AAA sprites I've seen, and they look 3D!

Great to see you back man. Looking forward to possibly being able to help out!

Why thank you.

Happy to hear that.  We'll see when I'll finally get into coding.  

 

---

I'll try something and then post a comparison of both styles.  I hope I'll get the results this weekend, but there may be delays dependable on difficulties.

 

[Rikifive 24,125]

I'm not sure if I'll get the comparison done today as planned, but it all is almost ready, so the delays shouldn't be that long... I was going to try something out, but I guess I'll simplify the results a little by making them look slightly sketchy - and eventually improve later.

The pixel style screenshot is ready, but I'll wait with posting it until I'll get the one with HD resolution.

 

For now, I'll post the little things I'm working on, so that you'll have a tiny preview of the works behind the scenes.

Here's how more or less the pony sprites will look like:

(Scaled down version for game - original is 2500x2500)
No too thick outlines this time.   The mane, tail, eye and cutie mark are work in progress, due to being hand-drawn. The body is the only thing, where there are proper lines, thanks to paths (tool). Either way it will be good enough for a preview- I wanted to see if that will look at least acceptable in-game first. I think everything went well there.
To animate it- I want to give 'Spriter' a try. No idea how it will go, I have never used software like this, but I won't know if I'll not try. Heh, probably animating pixel art would be simpler, at least recoloring there is super easy.  

 

Currently I'm working on the Sweet Apple Acres map (fragment), to have something to screenshot in the game. Map is almost ready, but I thought of adding some details for better preview. With that being said, at the moment I'm working on the well (the one near the entrance).

Well, it took me three tries to get the shape to work with.  Well, I hope it will go Well.

 

But I'm still working, so there is a tiny chance, that I'll get this done today. . .

 

On a side note, when I opened my game project I realized, that I got 'dumber'.  It's been a while since I was coding something last time and it will take a while to get back on track.  It's not that bad though- I need to take a look at what I was working on before.

 

To this day I'm still not sure what style to pick - more details soon, along with comparison.

Thank you for visiting and have a nice day!  

 

---

...Or it took four tries. Now I think I can polish the shape and color it.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Rikifive

[Magic_Spark 154]

What game engine are you using. Read a lot of posts and didn't see it.

I went to college for games.

What most do is use 3d models and render out the sprites from there. Makes animation much easier in some cases. 

Other than that what your doing is good.

Keep it up. 

[EclipseNightshade 26]

The game engine is Game Maker Studio professional edition, if I'm not mistaken. Not as good as GMS2, but still perfect for what this project entails.

[Rikifive 24,125]

21 hours ago, Magic_Spark said:

What game engine are you using. Read a lot of posts and didn't see it.

Yep, as @EclipseNightshade said, I'm using Game Maker Studio Professional. Actually I'd love to jump into GMS2, but ... that means additional costs ... in $, which is less fun for my currency. I'll wait with it a little, probably for a some kind of discount.

21 hours ago, Magic_Spark said:

I went to college for games.

Oh, that's nice! I regret I didn't do that (or at least something similar) back when I was going to school...  I wasted my life because of what I have chosen. Going for something you don't like? That's what I did...  Can I just make a new character?
I hope you've chosen the right path, good luck!!!

 

21 hours ago, Magic_Spark said:

What most do is use 3d models and render out the sprites from there. Makes animation much easier in some cases. 

I can imagine that would be pretty effective, though I don't think I'd be able to handle 3D models.  

 

21 hours ago, Magic_Spark said:

Other than that what your doing is good.

Keep it up. 

Thank you! I will.  

[Magic_Spark 154]

Just looked at the engine. Very nice but it looks like it costs. Now if you already payed for it then your good. (I also have experience with Unreal engine as well. Its what the taught us in college)

The engine I use is great as it has a large community support, its free, and you can develop for the iphone/ipad/android and I believe it does do Xbox. (Not sure about PS4)

I am in no way suggesting you change. Just thought I would let you know of its existence as its free of charge. Source code included.

Also I know how to develop for this engine as I have had a license since 2001. Just have not been able to get people to develop games with. :/ Last couple of game groups I was with were too much into wanting to do state of the art. I tried to get them to start off slow and do things gradually but no one bothered to listen. 

I use a game engine that is free. They have a 2d and 3d version. 

Here is a link to the 2d version of the game engine site. http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-2d

 

 

Creating sprites by hand is very tedious and its why I said that most go with 3d models and then animate them and render the frames needed.

I have all the pony's geometry and can texture them any way you want. Rendering them out would be simple for me as I have all  the tools. 

I must have spent about 10k for the stuff I have. Not all at once but over a period of the past 5 years. 

I have a license for Maya, 3ds Max, Motion builder, Zbrush, 3d-Coat, Mudbox, Torque3d (I payed for the version that allows web publising) and several other applictions for programming and digital painting. Too many to list.

Hope your game gets going well and it looks like your off to a good start.

Edited September 1, 2017 by Magic_Spark

[Rikifive 24,125]

 

Originally I planned to get this done much earlier, but I wanted to give it a more serious approach, to have a better preview, hence the delays. Sorry about that.

 

So, getting to the point~
At first, the game was going to be in pixelated style, but I started thinking about going into HD resolution.

Why?
I'm not quite sure, but I think it would match the source material better and perhaps would look better? There were times when I was bumping into a wall of limits thanks to small resolution. Sometimes it was hard to catch all the details I needed in HUD and interface, thus I had to give up on few little features. However, pixelated-simpler style also has its pros, so at the moment I'm just not sure.

 

Honestly, I like both styles-- and let's talk about them a little.

PIXEL ART
I love pixel art, because let's be honest- our little pixels always make us think of games. It gives the retro feel and all that nostalgic stuff.

This is the style the game was developed so far and it would look more or less like this:

Note: That pink pony will be removed. I've used the sprites I had already implemented in game for testing purposes.

The target resolution of the game would be 768x432, as seen in screenshot.
Actually that resolution wouldn't be comfortable to work with (issues with scaling), so it probably would be higher than that (either 960x540 or 720p).

 

HD
In the show we have vectors, so it would be more accurate if there would be some fancy smooth graphics in the game. Much bigger resolution would allow me to make smoother and more detailed HUD and interface. However, it probably would require much more time to draw objects and animate them if needed.

I've gave it a try and it would more or less look like this:

Note: The bottom HUD (pony status) is a rough sketch at the moment. That's what I meant by saying, that it will take some more time. The reason is, that in pixel art I can move pixels one by one without any quality loss, where in typical digital art moving parts around may harm the lines and colors, which sometimes simply means having to redraw things. Not mentioning, that it's best to use paths for smooth curves and things like this. That's why it's better to make some sketches first, before approaching that.

The target resolution of the game would be 1920x1080, as seen in screenshot.

 

---

Honestly though, both styles have their pros and cons and that's why I can't decide. So... which one do you think would work and look better? Personally I'd lean more towards the HD, due to way more possibilities and the smoother look, but pixel art is great too...

 

Oooh what to do...

I know one thing- it will take years to get it all done.  

 

 

---

@Magic_Spark Hmm.. it all looks promising, but it's not even about the engine itself, but the scripting language it uses. It's not that easy to jump between scripting languages.  

 

On 1.09.2017 at 9:29 PM, Magic_Spark said:

Also I know how to develop for this engine as I have had a license since 2001. Just have not been able to get people to develop games with. :/ Last couple of game groups I was with were too much into wanting to do state of the art. I tried to get them to start off slow and do things gradually but no one bothered to listen. 

But I'd have problems, most likely.  Yeah, I kinda know that feel. Personally I prefer to work alone, for the most part. It's not that I don't like teamwork, but that way I don't have that feel, that I may disappoint anybody and/or waste their work. I'm not a professional game developer, so there's always that possibility, that I'll simply fail -- or need more time to come up with solutions/ideas. ---but if somebody understands that and is willing to help anyway, then I'm always open for teamwork, for obvious reasons. It's also more fun and motivating that way.

Sorry to hear you haven't got a chance to work in a proper team yet- you seem like a really experienced person, so I can imagine, that you'd like to get into something seriously. I wish you good luck either way. 

On 1.09.2017 at 9:29 PM, Magic_Spark said:

Creating sprites by hand is very tedious and its why I said that most go with 3d models and then animate them and render the frames needed.

I have all the pony's geometry and can texture them any way you want. Rendering them out would be simple for me as I have all  the tools. 

Personally I don't have experience with 3D stuff, so I'd perform terrible there.
You made me curious though- I'm really interested to see how it would look like. The sprites with the required amount of them will surely take sooooo much time, so having a way to get this through would drastically make the development progress faster. I'm not hiding, that any help would be appreciated, as by myself, I'll be probably sitting for months, if not years making all the necessary sprites and animations...

 

On 1.09.2017 at 9:29 PM, Magic_Spark said:

I have a license for Maya, 3ds Max, Motion builder, Zbrush, 3d-Coat, Mudbox, Torque3d (I payed for the version that allows web publising) and several other applictions for programming and digital painting. Too many to list.

---and I don't have much.  That's quite impressive. I can imagine, that you're way more experienced at everything than I am.  I wish I had time to get into all of this and be able to come up with something good.

 

On 1.09.2017 at 9:29 PM, Magic_Spark said:

Hope your game gets going well and it looks like your off to a good start.

Thank you very much!  This game (and basically the show itself) started my whole adventure with game development, so I really hope it will get somewhere. I won't be able to feel accomplished if this project will fail. It's not just a game for me. 

 

Sorry I haven't replied sooner- I've noticed the notification, but was so busy back then, that I forgot to reply afterwards.

Edited September 26, 2017 by Rikifive

[HereComesTom 2,266]

2 hours ago, Rikifive said:

Honestly though, both styles have their pros and cons and that's why I can't decide. So... which one do you think would work and look better? Personally I'd lean more towards the HD, due to way more possibilities and the smoother look, but pixel art is great too...

 

Oooh what to do...

I know one thing- it will take years to get it all done.  

I know the feeling of working on something for years---I'm working on adding ways for data to flow through the if-statement dialog commands my level editor right now

But which of those two options will get you a better chance of finishing sooner?  It sounds like switching to HD will basically press the reset button on all the progress you've made so far.  And plenty of modern games still use pixels; Sonic Mania's a terrific example.

[Rikifive 24,125]

31 minutes ago, HereComesTom said:

I know the feeling of working on something for years---I'm working on adding ways for data to flow through the if-statement dialog commands my level editor right now

But which of those two options will get you a better chance of finishing sooner?  It sounds like switching to HD will basically press the reset button on all the progress you've made so far.  And plenty of modern games still use pixels; Sonic Mania's a terrific example.

I'm pretty sure many developers know that feel.  What does that exactly mean?  How the works are going?  

I think pixel art-- but it really depends. Some things are easier to draw normally, than build out of pixels- some work the other way around. That's why I can't decide... I enjoy drawing the typical digital art, because I can practice my drawing skills better that way.  As for the current progress- to be honest I don't have much. There's literally not much, so having to redo things will not be the problem here - that's why it's a perfect time to consider which path should I take. As for the progress visible in screenshots in the main post- well they're pretty much irrelevant now, as I'd have to edit them either way. (They're from the game I had in other engine, back before I have switched to GM). Sooooo everything basically is up to be made.
I know, but the HD one seem to look nice.  Aww, I don't know!  

[Fluttershy Friend 25,446]

You know that I'm not a gamer. However I have some idea about this threat. If you need my advice Riki please send me a PM. It will be easier to me to write it in Polish. 

Edited September 19, 2017 by Fluttershy Friend

[Totally Nyx 36,007]

Haven't had much time to visit this thread in a while, woopsies! I hope your game's coming along well.

As for the poll, I'm throwing my vote into pixel art, but feel free to ignore that. I have no idea how hard it is to do one version over the other for various aspects of the game. My reasons for choosing pixel are purely selfish unfortunately. I'm much more partial to the older games than newer ones. It doesn't have to look lifelike to be good.

Here's a thought, you could possibly mix the styles. Ok, ignore that. I typed something up but reading through it I think I had just made your problem a lot worse. xD

 

Anyway, good luck with this game!  If you ever need help from someone pretty inexperienced with this stuff, I'm more than happy to contribute. (I actually have a little programming experience, but I've, uhh, been letting it slip)

[Rikifive 24,125]

On 19.09.2017 at 5:34 PM, Fluttershy Friend said:

You know that I'm not a gamer. However I have some idea about this threat. If you need my advice Riki please send me a PM. It will be easier to me to write it in Polish. 

If you'd like to share your ideas, feel free to message me.  

19 hours ago, Totally Lyra said:

Haven't had much time to visit this thread in a while, woopsies! I hope your game's coming along well.

As for the poll, I'm throwing my vote into pixel art, but feel free to ignore that. I have no idea how hard it is to do one version over the other for various aspects of the game. My reasons for choosing pixel are purely selfish unfortunately. I'm much more partial to the older games than newer ones. It doesn't have to look lifelike to be good.

Here's a thought, you could possibly mix the styles. Ok, ignore that. I typed something up but reading through it I think I had just made your problem a lot worse. xD

 

Anyway, good luck with this game!  If you ever need help from someone pretty inexperienced with this stuff, I'm more than happy to contribute. (I actually have a little programming experience, but I've, uhh, been letting it slip)

And these purely selfish reasons are more than enough! Seriously though, I don't require you to know how the works would look like behind the scenes, I'm just asking for the simplest opinions regarding which one would you like to see. As for difficulty in making- both styles have their pros and cons, that's why I can't decide, so I was thinking of some random thoughts from the others, to help me decide.  I'm also a fan of retro games (Amiga and NES will be always remembered), so I know, that the game doesn't have to be in majestic HD to look good. I value gameplay over visuals. 

Actually a mix of pixel and non-pixel art is pretty common thing nowadays. Sometimes you may notice pixelated characters in not exactly pixelated environment, such as slightly blurred backgrounds for visual effects and such. I may also 'cheat' a little like this, but that's another story.  

Just sharing opinions and helping improving things are more than enough.  Ah, the fun fact is, that I haven't touched the code that much lately, as these graphics took the whole spotlight now.  Either way, thank you!  

[LostVagabond 25]

Much prefer the HD look than the pixel version, particularly for the characters. That being said, it certainly would take a lot longer to complete, so I suppose it would really come down to how easy it would be to implement. Either way, both look extremely well done.

Edited September 22, 2017 by LostVagabond