looking to be apart of a platform fighter ssb clone (artist)

[ceriux]

i should move to to a larger sprite size?

Definitely not. The NES can only handle 64 sprite pixels before flicker sets in, and I'm not even sure if you would want this to be 4 player or not. By the way though, the picture isn't working.

One thing though is that you could aim for more human shaped characters and have a 32x48 sized sprite.

thanks for the tip. a new question if anyone knows, is there any tools that someone might suggest for nes sprite making?

i also just uploaded the sprite to the previous post.

EDIT:

quick try at the 32x48 sprite.

[tokumaru]

That's a very good sprite.

I just draw everything in MS Paint, and convert to the NES format as a last step. But if you're after a tile editor, YY-CHR appears to be the best option. Even if you're drawing somewhere else, you can paste the graphics into YY-CHR to convert them to NES format.

[Drew Sebastino]

quick try at the 32x48 sprite.

That looks good! You shouldn't have to worry about having the characters limbs extending past 32 pixels when punching or kicking because it will only last for a split second and it is often unlikely that both character's limbs will be on the same level. Even if you are having the game be 4 player, you might actually be able to get by with characters that size because if it's like SSB, then many times, characters aren't at the same height because they are on different platforms. Now that I think about it, even without the sprite limit, you probably wouldn't want the characters much if not any bigger because the whole stage has to fit on the screen because there obviously cannot be any zooming.

I just draw everything in MS Paint

I use gimp. It works just fine to me, and you can zoom in really close and set up grids to help you.

Here's how 4 of your characters would fit onscreen:

32x48.png (2.82 KiB) Viewed 2505 times

That might actually be too big! This is about how 24x40 sized characters would look, but they'd obviously be a little smaller because of how they wouldn't fill up the entire space. One downside is that the characters would no longer perfectly use 8x16 sized sprites, but you could always use them and leave about 8 pixels of blank space on top. Otherwise, you'd use 8x8 sized sprites and each character would be 15 sprites x 5 = 60, so you'd have about 0 room for anything else. With 8x16 sized sprites, you'd have 9 sprites x 4 = 36, but you'd have 3 blank tiles over the top of the character. Off course, not all characters would be the same size, so you could have a really tall guy be 24x48 or you could have a wider person be 32x40.

Anyway, this is about how it would look:

24x40.png (767 Bytes) Viewed 2505 times

[tepples]

Even if you are having the game be 4 player, you might actually be able to get by with characters that size because if it's like SSB, then many times, characters aren't at the same height because they are on different platforms.

Can someone take a screenshot of Final Destination in some Smash Bros. game at an appropriate zoom level to confirm this?

[Drew Sebastino]

Can someone take a screenshot of Final Destination in some Smash Bros. game at an appropriate zoom level to confirm this?

Thanks smart a**. Look up super smash bros fight on google and there are a ton of examples where characters aren't on the same level. A little flicker doesn't kill anyone anyway.

[tepples]

But more seriously, comparing your character's scale against Mario in a screenshot of Battlefield might help us understand how much of a stage will fit in 256x224 pixels.

[Drew Sebastino]

SSB Scale.png (93.69 KiB) Viewed 2487 times

The largest character is Ike, who is 24x32, (24 because of the sword, but you only need an extra 8x8 for that) and the smallest is Mario, who is 16x24. You could actually probably get by using 8x8 sprites instead of 8x16.

(The picture is 256 pixels wide and 211 tall, with what would be the top clipped off because the NES doesn't have a perfect 4:3 aspect ratio.)

[tokumaru]

Even if you are having the game be 4 player, you might actually be able to get by with characters that size because if it's like SSB, then many times, characters aren't at the same height because they are on different platforms.

There will be flicker, there's no way around that. You'll probably have to design the levels in a way that encourages and facilitates vertical movement, to avoid the situation where 4 characters are standing on the same platform. 3 should be OK for brief periods.

I use gimp.

I'm of the opinion that it's better to draw sprites in whatever software you already use for drawing, because you're already used to the tools and workflow. Tile editors usually don't have tools that are as versatile, and their interfaces tend to encourage the drawing of blocky graphics.

One downside is that the characters would no longer perfectly use 8x16 sized sprites, but you could always use them and leave about 8 pixels of blank space on top.

I usually prefer to leave blank space on the bottom, because when characters are standing, the blank sprites will be inside the ground, where there usually aren't any actual objects. On the other hand, keeping the blank space on the top gets it quickly out of the way when jumping.

[Drew Sebastino]

Here's a crappy thing I did. I basically just traced over Mario in the screenshot with 3 colors:

Mario.png (220 Bytes) Viewed 2476 times

[tokumaru]

Here's a crappy thing I did.

He's a little blocky and undetailed (I would certainly go for larger sprites), but the choice of colors is pretty good to represent modern Mario.

With 4 characters on screen, I can see no other way (that doesn't require sprite layering or doesn't result in extremely monochrome designs) than to give each one their own optimized palette, leaving nothing free for effects, items and such. Any suggestions on how to handle that?

Effects are easier, since they are too quick and abstract to draw attention if they're slightly miscolored, but items have to be easily discernible.

[ceriux]

maybe make it 1v1 only ? does the nes even have a multi-tap?

[Drew Sebastino]

[tokumaru]

maybe make it 1v1 only ?

But then it's not much different from a regular fighting game.

does the nes even have a multi-tap?

Yes.

[tepples]

maybe make it 1v1 only ?

But then it's not much different from a regular fighting game.

Of course it's different, so long as you're not on Final Destination (or Omega stages in Super Smash Bros. For). The whole stage doesn't quite have to fit on the screen, though switching to a half-size version of the stage might help once a match comes to long-distance projectile wars.

[Drew Sebastino]

The whole stage doesn't quite have to fit on the screen, though switching to a half-size version of the stage might help once a match comes to long-distance projectile wars.

So you mean that if everyone is too far away from each other, a new half sized picture of the stage will be loaded along with half sized characters? I can't help but think that this project is better suited for the SNES. (You could use Mode 7 to scale the map and just use software sprite scaling. You'll only have 1 BG, but you'd only have 1 on the NES anyway. There shouldn't be a problem with palettes.)