Art Specification Document

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Revision as of 03:01, 13 March 2011 by Alexandre (Talk | contribs) (Introduction)

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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

Introduction

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

Surge playing.gif

Why low-res? Please read our philosophy. In a nutshell: really wide portability.

Specifications

Overview

The general idea is to create the look of a "cartoon-ish" retro game, including vibrant, saturated tones and an emphasis on pixel art. Keep the following in mind:

  • 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
  • Minimalism ("less is more")

Minimal screenshot.png

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.

  • Official bricksets must be grid-compatible. That is, the width and the height of every brick must be multiple of 8 (e.g., a brick of 16x16, 32x16 or 16x32 is okay, but one of 17x23 is not). Please read: Bricksets
  • 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. Please read: Backgrounds

Loops.png

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


Testing your art on the game

Please read: Sprites