Pixel Tweaking Sprites and Tiles

Some graphics talk today-- Walking thru how I make the most of my assets using some simple pixel edits to make new things.

1st Pic- New map sprite from battler sprite

While doing the boss reworks, there were a some I wanted on the map - But they didn't look right. So I had to figure out how to make them into proper map sprites. Shrunk it down, got it pixelated, and made some tweaks to create motion in the front-facing frames. A few minor edits to re-accentuate certain things.  But that was the easy part.

Next, came the flip. How to make them face backwards??  Well for the golem fellow, it was a bit easier - mostly just redrawing with skin color, shifting the shape of the torso, and shaping his butt a bit XD   For the Lamia tho, Had to fill in all her hair, as well adjust the perspective/shading on her coiled up tail which took a while. It turned out OK, I think!

But the side profiles were the hard part. I don't love how they turned out. It's the front view, rotated and skewed, then re-drawn over since turning them warped some of the lines/colours. In a pinch they would do.  I think I could have stretched them wider after the rotation and drawn out a bit more detail for this side view. 

2nd pic- Sprite in action! 

In the end, I only used the front profile for now, previewed in pic 2.  I continued work after this too, so that boss encounter and scene has quite a bit more to it than v0.0.1!  But this is when I also felt like the boss room needed work too.

3rd pic- Tileset Preview

Castle Kyrych (the ice castle) was a bit too .. generic? Something felt missing, It wasn't a very spooky haunted castle, it was kinda just.. cold.

Considering the Baron and Baroness are more or less infernal blood mages, It seemed like there should be more blood.  Luckily, The tileset I was using had a bunch of squares I wasn't going to use... So, I duplicated the file. Then I copied the ice tiles into the area I wasn't going to use, and went about manually editing them to add a bit more sanguine flair. The tiles I was already using didn't move in the file- so I was able to slot the new modified tileset file right in, and start using it!  

Finally, as the player travels deeper into the dungeon, I started applying some special effects to the screen, like tints, weather etc. You can preview the results comparing Pic 2 to Pic 3 - And yes, the choice shown on screen will also change some things in the dungeon and the boss fight. Choose wisely, no take backs.

Wrapup- 

I'm no trained artist or expert, and don't have one on my team (it's just me!).. Learning as I go, really.  But I wanted to talk/show how you can have standard/licensed assets, but still make them feel uniquely "yours" with a bit of thought and work. I feel like I get a lot more out of them this way- I sharpen my own skills and can provide something at least somewhat unique rather than straight-out-of-the-box stuff. 

Besides, a lot of the stuff I want just doesn't seem to exist - There's plenty of rpgmaker resources out there but finding a match in content and style can be tricky. I like a lot of the same classical art influences shown in FF4 and FF6 for example, but with less machinery (at least for Asqueria's Origin era). Shout out to the Seraphic Circle Monsters Packs though - the source for these monster graphics.