Good Character Pixel Size For Game Design

The market has never been so full of games, small and big as it is today. Thanks to cellphones, a host of small hand held devices and consoles, gaming is now mainstream. Everyone wants to play and a lot of programmers out there have a need to original, good looking, compatible and easy to access game resources. Most important of them are sprites. Sprites are graphic elements of games that is 2d and is a character or an object. It is animated in most cases and of a standard size (depending upon platform and resolution) Remember the good old Mario (well it's still hot on Nintendo), the mushrooms, the powers, the coins, all are sprites, get what i mean?

Old retro video game background. Classic retro style game design scenery

Do not let the concept intimidate you! Sprites are not hard to make for a designer and you can get started once you understand a few basic rules. Sprites are just like another graphic object or resource but done in a certain way. For example an exploding bomb is a sprite that is animated, you will need to create all the images in the sequence for a given size. Let's see what you need, clear a few basic concept and how to get started.

Tools:You do not need special tools other than your trusted old image editor. There are certain sprite specific design tools, If you like the way they work, go ahead, by all means use what you need. You want to be flexible and ensure good future proof upgrades? You could use illustrator for base shapes. Other than base shapes, illustrator will not be of much help in my opinion as you will need to finish the export in a raster editor. But it is of importance for certain projects. For example if you want a print poster design for the same game characters, you can just export and retouch in PS and viola, you get a great looking poster and save a lot of time. The choice of tools is really personal. Even MS paint will work for some most sprites. Then there are pixel editor and online sprite/pixel editors. I would just advice GIMP or PS for most cases though. GIMP is free and you can check my comparative blog "GIMP VS Photoshop". For hardware, I would strongly suggest a tablet.

Size options:Not all platforms run the same size. It's always a good idea to start with a large size that you are targeting and then downsize the sprites. Remember to look at smaller thumbs to see if the same effect is being displayed. Not all sprites look the same when reduced to a smaller size. There are 16X16 and 32X32, 64X64 is quite common and so on (size in pixels). Check what possible clients or projects your work is targeted to and adopt the required size. Offer multiple sizes if possible.

Animated Cute Bear Character Sprites

Concept:Conceptualise what you will be creating. What are the characters, what objects, what kind of world do you want to design. Often a complete world series sells the best. Slipping updates in form of parallax backgrounds and new objects in series is a great idea for clients to come back and get the new updates to seamlessly add new levels to their games. Always have a story to your characters and their world. Think about the complete package as to what the programmer might need for a design. offering a complete solution is a great way to sell most of your images time and again, generating more and more sales for you. A sizeable number of clients would buy extended licences.

Symmetry: Keep the elements in symmetry with each other, use similar theme, relative sizes and resolution. Making on a grid is an ideal component of creating usable sprites that do not conflict with each other while implementing.

Animated parts: So let's take an example of a bear walking. The main body could be moved up and down, while you could move around the hands and the legs, depending upon the application, you can make the bear walk lazily, angrily or tired. Although you do not absolutely require a GIF animator to preview, but it's a good idea to output the sprites and animate to see if you are getting the desired result. The end result is quite important to see if your animation sequence is turning out to be appropriate.

Let me also give you some brief bullets on what you need to research while going deeper into the subject as writing it out in this blog may be a little going too far, for starters.

Some technical aspects you need to research on:

A. Outlines and antialiasing

B. Colors and Dithering: Really important, Dithering is the way to go with sprites as regular gradients are a no no.

C. Highlights and shading.

D. Shadows and effects

Tips:

1. Limit your colors

2. Avid gradients, use Dithering.

3. Use a tablet

4. Clean up before delivering

5. Ensure continuous look at the thumb while designing

6. Name your sprites/artboard and output conveniently, like Bear-Lazy-walk, Bear-Lazy-leap, Bear-angry-run.

Always remember that adding updates to your existing series and adding more objects and backgrounds to them is of key importance if you want your clients to keep coming back for more. The more successful they are with their games, the more they will come back. Thank you for reading!

Photo credits: Pzuh88, Vasilyrosca.