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CHARACTER SIZE IN RELATION TO RESOLUTION
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JosephSeraph
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CloseI know this is a rather shallow topic, but how do you feel about getting the right character / screen relationship?
I have seen a few games, for instance, where the graphics were really beautiful, but the character was 32x32 in a 640x420 screen, which prevented me to enjoy it that much. That's why I also don't enjoy much 16x16 characters in 2k/3 anymore. They look toooo small!
What do you think about this kind of issue? Do you feel the same way too?
I have seen a few games, for instance, where the graphics were really beautiful, but the character was 32x32 in a 640x420 screen, which prevented me to enjoy it that much. That's why I also don't enjoy much 16x16 characters in 2k/3 anymore. They look toooo small!
What do you think about this kind of issue? Do you feel the same way too?
I don't mind any size as long as they work with the graphics they're in. For example, I used 16x16 in a game where most houses are smaller in scale because I think it fits better than the default 2k/3 sizes.
As long as it's kept consistent, that's what matters most imo.
As long as it's kept consistent, that's what matters most imo.
Original NES/SNES resolution was 16 RPG Maker tiles across by 14 tiles vertical. The character occupied one of those tiles. Because we grew up with these games, this 1:16 ratio feels natural.
Normal RPG Maker screen size is 20 tiles across by 15 tiles vertical. That's why the small sprites that looked OK on a NES or SNES look too small.
Another thing to keep in mind is that RPG Maker works within that grid of 16x16 tiles, but the NES and SNES used 8x8 tiles. If you overlay a small-enough black frame around an RPG Maker game, you will notice that the character is offset about 8 pixels from the center of the screen!
Normal RPG Maker screen size is 20 tiles across by 15 tiles vertical. That's why the small sprites that looked OK on a NES or SNES look too small.
Another thing to keep in mind is that RPG Maker works within that grid of 16x16 tiles, but the NES and SNES used 8x8 tiles. If you overlay a small-enough black frame around an RPG Maker game, you will notice that the character is offset about 8 pixels from the center of the screen!
Elder71
1480
I made sprites for my game that are 32 wide by 64 high because I didn't want them to be small like the RTP sprites. All was well until I realised how much that size interferes with the overlay (star) layer. Took me ages to make it work. I often had points where I wished I'd stuck with 32x32 sprites.
SnowOwl
5188
author=Elder71
I made sprites for my game that are 32 wide by 64 high because I didn't want them to be small like the RTP sprites. All was well until I realised how much that size interferes with the overlay (star) layer. Took me ages to make it work. I often had points where I wished I'd stuck with 32x32 sprites.
That's why the next RPG Maker should have more layers, like RPG Maker XP had.
Elder71
1480
author=SnowOwlauthor=Elder71That's why the next RPG Maker should have more layers, like RPG Maker XP had.
I made sprites for my game that are 32 wide by 64 high because I didn't want them to be small like the RTP sprites. All was well until I realised how much that size interferes with the overlay (star) layer. Took me ages to make it work. I often had points where I wished I'd stuck with 32x32 sprites.
XP is one of the ones I missed - it sounds like a shiny beacon of hope. How I would kill for more than two layers. I found the solution to be making sprites of objects and walls - the 'Same As Character' level handles in front/behind perfectly.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
The main characters are on screen for the entire game. In a way, they don't need much height or width because they have so much length. You can get away with zooming out a lot as a result.
Letting the player see as far as possible into the surrounding environment is a lot more important, I think, in most RPGs. Much of the gameplay is based around exploration, after all. In the parts of the game where that's not true, like battle scenes, the menu, or cut scenes, having larger characters makes a lot more sense. Which is, in fact, what many games do.
Though the tradeoff is that this creates a much greater disconnect between the different parts of the game that use different styles of graphics... there's no perfect answer. Figure out how important the environments and the view distance really are to your game. Are there enemies to seek or avoid, secrets to find, puzzles to solve? Or is there consistently poor lighting, or do you want less view distance to add a feeling of danger to a horror game? And maybe how important the main character's appearance is to your game, if there's some reason that's different than usual. Is it an action game, does the character emote while walking around, is his/her appearance player-generated? Or are you bad at art and unwilling to create lots of poses and fluid animations, and want to hide your bad sprite work?
Letting the player see as far as possible into the surrounding environment is a lot more important, I think, in most RPGs. Much of the gameplay is based around exploration, after all. In the parts of the game where that's not true, like battle scenes, the menu, or cut scenes, having larger characters makes a lot more sense. Which is, in fact, what many games do.
Though the tradeoff is that this creates a much greater disconnect between the different parts of the game that use different styles of graphics... there's no perfect answer. Figure out how important the environments and the view distance really are to your game. Are there enemies to seek or avoid, secrets to find, puzzles to solve? Or is there consistently poor lighting, or do you want less view distance to add a feeling of danger to a horror game? And maybe how important the main character's appearance is to your game, if there's some reason that's different than usual. Is it an action game, does the character emote while walking around, is his/her appearance player-generated? Or are you bad at art and unwilling to create lots of poses and fluid animations, and want to hide your bad sprite work?
Elder71
1480
author=LockeZ
Though the tradeoff is that this creates a much greater disconnect between the different parts of the game that use different styles of graphics... there's no perfect answer. Figure out how important the environments and the view distance really are to your game. Are there enemies to seek or avoid, secrets to find, puzzles to solve? Or is there consistently poor lighting, or do you want less view distance to add a feeling of danger to a horror game? And maybe how important the main character's appearance is to your game, if there's some reason that's different than usual. Is it an action game, does the character emote while walking around, is his/her appearance player-generated? Or are you bad at art and unwilling to create lots of poses and fluid animations, and want to hide your bad sprite work?
I suppose the ideal is a carefully considered and relevant mix of the above, though the work entailed in creating sprites and tilesets at several different scales probably makes this post redundant to all except the hardiest and most patience makers.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Three different sizes of character graphics - field sprite, battler, and faceset - are actually the default in RPG Maker 2003, for what that's worth. XP, VX and Ace at least have two of the three. Though XP has no facesets, and VX/Ace have no battlers.
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