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.

Art Style

Over time NEStalgia has developed a distinct art style for monster sprites, and one of the main reason we've opened up the doors for contributions is because not all of the older sprites match the newer ones! Although the feel of the style is hard to articulate, it's generally shifted towards a somewhat hand-drawn look with fewer details and not such a harsh look. Monster sprites generally shouldn't have a ton of intricate details, and generally speaking monsters shouldn't look too "realistic" or evil (but not goofy either!).

The use of black outlines is important, and also factors into the established style. When a two different parts of a monster overlaps (like when a knight's arm crosses his body, or a monster's tail droops in front of its leg) you should likely use a black line to divide the two. Don't be afraid to use black in general - thicker black lines are often useful when trying to convey size, and fading into black works for certain types of shading.

Some examples of monster sprites that match NEStalgia's art style include the following:

Some sprites that don't match:

From left to right:

• Mega Moth - No shading and perhaps a bit too simple. Needs better use of black outlining.
• Snake - Much too simple, drawn with a very flat head-on perspective. No shading to speak of.
• Bandit - A bit too much detail work, the stance is a bit extreme and makes the perspective clash with other sprites.
• Wolf - Poorly drawn, no shading, bad use of black outline on the head.
• Snowman - Close, but needs better shading and the face probably out to be redrawn to look better.
• Mouse - Too detailed, looks a bit too realistic. Shading doesn't match other sprites.

In spite of all of this direction, don't get too hung up on the art style. So long as you make an effort to match it, any changes that need to be made will likely be doable during the reviewing process. It's not an exact science, and we don't expect people to get it right on their first try.