Overworld Sprite Tutorial

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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.

BYOND has a very powerful pixel art editing system built into it. If you've installed NEStalgia then you've already got a program called "Dream Maker" on your system (Program Files>BYOND>Dream Maker) - it's the software used to actually create BYOND games like NEStalgia. Linked here is a .dmi icon file, which is the format that BYOND uses for icons:

NEStalgia NPC and Monster Overworld Sprite Examples (.dmi icon file)


Icon demo.png

You can also use any simple image editing tool like MS Paint to create sprites for NEStalgia and submit the different motion frames and directions as one large image.

Reminder: Like all NEStalgia sprites, overworld sprites should be drawn in 16x16 pixels. Please see the Sprite Size Tutorial for further instructions.

Humanoid NPCs

Overworld NPC sprites are generally limited to four colors: skin color, hair color, and primary/secondary clothing color. When NPCs carry weapons, the established light gray weapon color from Player sprites can also be included.

Monsters

Overworld monster sprites should be limited to 3 colors plus light gray if necessary. Most monster sprites will only need two colors - for example a Red Slime's overworld sprite only required two shades of red. Using three shades of the same color would too close to a 16-bit look, and is discouraged.

Red slime icon.png


The perspective on monster sprites allows for a bit of wiggle room. Generally speaking, monster sprites should be drawn from an elevated overhead perspective but not top-down. Please see the sprites included in the above .dmi file for guidance.

When creating the animated frames, keep in mind the fact that a little bit of motion goes a long way. If a monster's sprite bounces like Slimes do, only a single pixel space of movement up or down is required to portray the effect. Animations should not be jarring or distracting.


Parrot animated.png


NEStalgia Icons.dmi