Art Specification Document

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Art Specs

At a Glance

When creating new brick sprites for Open Surge, please use the following export settings:

Bits-per-pixel 24
Transparency None
Transparent color #ff00ff    
Output format PNG
This document describes what it takes to make sure your artwork looks its best in the Open Surge game engine. While it is not complete, it should serve as both a good starting point and a valuable reference for all Open Surge artists.

Introduction

Open Surge is a retro game. This means: low-res graphics.

Specifications

The general idea is to recreate the look of a SEGA CD/32x retro game, including vibrant, saturated tones and an emphasis on pixel art. The original platformer style must be maintained.

Keep the following in mind:

Desert Brickset made by Celdecea
  • The engine supports portable network graphics (PNG) format. Think 2D pixel art; the PNG format handles that job well.
  • The color mode is 24 bits per pixel
  • The standard magenta (rgb 255,0,255) is used for the transparent color.

GUI

  • Acessibility is everything
  • Symbolic, minimal text (if any)

Level graphics

Open Surge is NOT tile-based. It is brick-based. Bricks are blocks that are placed freely on the scene (examples: platforms, ramps, trees, plants). Some bricks can be animated, while others are obstacles (floor/walls). Furthermore, bricks can be passable in front of the players or behind them (decorative bricks).

Bricks can be of multiple sizes, even in the same level. Your designs can combine a rough layout of large pillars and platforms with the detail of small rocks and bushes. We can even create classic circular loops by combining a few bricks.

Loops.png

  • Please read the detailed brick mechanism. REALLY.
  • The sizes of the bricks are diverse. The image to the right shows several different-sized bricks which are used to create a level.
  • Please read the detailed background mechanism.
  • The game supports Parallax Scrolling. Backgrounds are usually large in width (about 500~1000 pixels wide) and have diverse heights. We attach the backgrounds to different layers (having different speeds) in order to create the parallax effect.

Items

  • The items are diverse in terms of animation and size. Examples:

Checkpoint orb.png Spring pads.png Item boxes.png Switches and doors.png

Enemies

  • The enemies are also diverse, but they tend to be "small" in size and have few animation frames. Example:

Lady Bugsy and Slime Bullet.png Sir bugsy.png

Characters

  • Characters have many animations and many frames. Each animation frame must fit roughly in 50x50 pixels.
  • Available animations:
    • stopped
    • walking
    • running
    • jumping/charging/rolling
    • ducking
    • looking up
    • pushing a wall
    • death
    • getting hit
    • spring pad jump
    • breathing underwater (air bubble)
    • braking
    • hold the ceiling
    • ledge
    • flying (only for "Neon" the Squirrel)
    • climbing (only for "Charge" the Badger)
    • waiting
    • winning
  • Examples:
"Surge" the Rabbit


Visual References

  • Knuckles Chaotix (SEGA 32x)
  • Sonic CD (SEGA CD)

Please follow the links:

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3955/visualref1.jpg

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/8153/visualref2.png

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/2227/visualref3.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/8260/visualref4.gif

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/6457/visualref5.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/7159/visualref6.gif

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2167/visualref7.gif

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2757/visualref8.gif

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1176/visualref9.png

Testing your art on the game

Please read: Sprites