Grid Sage Forums
Cogmind => Ideas => Topic started by: C45513 on March 01, 2017, 05:57:58 PM
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What format does the game's graphics take?
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The format is a simple monochrome png bitmap/spritesheet, so custom tilesets are fairly easy to do. The original specifications I talked about in my 2015 ad for a pixel artist (http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2015/01/wanted-pixel-artist/). (And there was followup voting on concepts (http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2015/01/tileset-concepts-an-open-poll/) as well as an eventual introduction to the set we currently have (http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2015/03/tileset-1-0/).)
The main issue with creating a tileset is that each bitmap is only usable by one of the primary UI resolutions, of which there are five, thus for everyone to be able to use a given set, it must be available in five versions! Kacper has done an excellent and meticulous job of recreating each sprite at five different sizes, maintaining their pixel-perfect appearance across different dimensions.
Certainly one other option for hobbyist tilesets is to make one that simply isn't available at more than one resolution, such as picking the most commonly used 1080p (18x18 fonts). Then only a single bitmap is needed.
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Thanks for the followup. To be clear, I love the look of the game and very much enjoy flipping between ascii and graphical modes in the middle of gameplay! This was just a thought I had during my first few games when I was struggling to remember which enemy type had what equipment loadout. If modding is accessible in the final version of the game, it would be neat to see what the community creates.
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Yeah this bit is totally moddable, even now. I'd just have to explain the spritesheet layout and let people know how to actually insert it into the game (which is quite easy).
I know there are a few people out there interested in making new tilesets, so I'm sure we'll see something eventually.