NEStalgia:Battle Sprite Tutorial

When creating NEStalgia sprites, don't worry about the color palette that you're using. The development team will recolor accepted sprites to match the game's established palette. Please also make sure to read the Sprite Size Tutorial before you get started.

Monster Size

Every NEStalgia monster is composed of multiple tiles (16x16 when drawn, then scaled up to 32x32 when put in the game). Sprite contributors don't need to chop their final monsters up into tiles, but they should consider the average height and width of monsters when designing them. The average NEStalgia monster is 2x2 or 2x3, with some exceptions. That means they are drawn as 32x32 or 32x48 pixel sprites. Some examples:

From left to right pictured here are a Slime, a MiniMage, a Clamjaw, a Zombie and a Maneater. The Zombie and Maneater are 2x3 tiles, and the rest are 2x2.

Colors, Perspective and Shadows

When drawing a monster sprite, you should limit the number of colors that you use. The general rule of thumb is that monsters with two distinct colors use a total of 4 colors (2 different shades of each color) plus white if necessary (ex: the Zombie and Maneater). Single color monsters can use three colors - three shades of them same color, plus white if necessary (ex: the Slime and the MiniMage).

Perspective is harder to nail down. A dead-on flat view of a monster doesn't work, but an extreme overhead or side-view of the monster won't fit either. One of the keys to perspective is shading: all NEStalgia monsters should be drawn as if there is a light source to above their right shoulder (from the players perspective, above and to the left). These before and after images illustrate the different than proper perspective and shading can make:

On the Slime nothing has changed except for the shading. The new slime has much more depth - it no longer looks like a flat object. The MiniMage's the new sprite has a cleaner design with less of a head-on perspective, and the shading also makes a huge difference.

Perspective

When drawing a monster sprite, you should limit the number of colors that you use. The general rule of thumb is that monsters with two distinct colors use a total of 4 colors (2 different shades of each color) plus white if necessary (ex: the Zombie and Maneater). Single color monsters can use three colors - three shades of them same color, plus white if necessary (ex: the Slime and the MiniMage).