We want a media collection which is complete in many ways. This requires a methodical approach, so here are goals for the tile media collection:
Breadth -
how many distinct things for which we have tiles/etc.
Variety -
how many similar in type but different tiles/etc do we have for a particular thing, such as "adventurer sprite" or "commoner".
Activities -
How many activities are represented (for objects with actions).
We also desire high quality. Qualities desired include:
o Visual quality of individual tiles or collections thereof
o Quality of animation (number of frames, appearance of motion/speed)
o Completeness
(custom tiles/sequences for each facing and activity, or default tiles/sequences for many such For example, all human(oid) tiles might share a "character dies" animation sequence, but it would be at least somewhat better to have different death animations for each character type.)
Tile Sizes and multiple-tile graphics:
All tile media will be of a size which is some multiple of 32x32 pixels. Tiles of 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, 2x2, and so forth exist. Tiles with width or height not evenly divisible by 32 would complicate logic for whether they are visible, and we do not concern ourselves with such things now.
Tile Facing:
We desire that at least some tiles have "facing". For now, facing is orthogonal -- only facing North, South, East, West. In future, diagonal facings may exist, and I will solicit samples of at least 1 character with such for UI experimentation, but right now there is no point in doubling the art needs.
For tiles which do not have multiple facings, a South facing can be used as a generic substitute. Likely, some character/creature tiles will only have this "default" facing initially. Also, some tiles (for terrain, features/furniture, items) do not require more than this single facing.
Arrows and other projectiles are a notable exception -- we desire 8 facings for these, and may desire 16 or 24 if we care about excellent looking projectile flight paths.
Tile Animation:
2 frames of animation is OK for some purposes. For most character tiles, 4+ frames is desired; it will almost always look better with more animation frames.
For water, lava, or other "wave" surfaces, animating multiple tiles in sync looks OK and produces the right effect. For waving grass or similar however, we probably want the engine to be capable of displaying multiple tiles out-of-sync with each other.
In future, we may desire to have animation sequences with random variation -- so that jewels don't twinkle the same always, or grass repeatedly sway in the same manner.
Out-of-sync and randomly-varying sequences are not required for initial release however.
Activities and Transitions:
Animation sequences for various activities are wanted. This serves to improve the appearance of the player's character, and to allow the player to tell when NPC characters are doing something different from standing still and inactive.
There are two kinds of animation sequences:
- Activity animations
These are continually looped while a character is performing an
activity (including standing still / the idle activity).
Examples include (standing still, chopping wood)
- Transition animations
These are displayed once in response to some circumstance, and
then the sprite reverts to the previous animation (an activity
animation).
Examples include (death animation, strike a blow, cast a spell)
Animations illustrating a movement mode (walking, riding, swimming, sailing) are probably best treated as transition animations in a single-player turn-based game. The player for example might display such an animation after pressing a movement key, until the movement is accomplished. Repeated move-key pressing might present a continuous appearance of the movement animation.
In multi-player real-time games, movement modes will probably be treated as activity animations.
Character Tiles:
Adventurer
Appearance: armed (sword + shield), wearing armor, helm, boots, cloak
Size: 1 tile (32x32 pixels)
Facings: 4 (Facing North, East, West, South)
Optional: Facing (NW, NE, SW, SE)
Animation: 4+ tiles per facing per activity
Activities:
Standing (arms and legs move) Deliver melee attack (swing sword) Cast spell Take damage Die (fall down)
Optional Activities:
Deliver martial arts attack (foot sweep) Deliver martial arts attack (high kick) Deliver attack (shield bash) Use tool (chop wood with axe) Use tool (strike with pickaxe) Operate lever (on floor, on wall North, East, West, South)
Commoner / Peasant
Appearance: unarmed, simple clothing Size: 1 tile (32x32 pixels) Facing: Standard (facing camera / south) Animation: 4+ tiles per facing per activity Activities:
Standing (arms and legs move) Deliver melee attack (swing fist) Take damage Die (fall down)
Soldier / Guard
Apperance: armed (spear + shield), wearing chain armor, helm, boots Size: 1 tile (32x32 pixels) Facing: Standard (facing camera / south) Animation: 4+ tiles per facing per activity Activities:
Standing (arms and legs move) Deliver melee attack (spear thrust) Take damage Die (fall down)
... varying colors by altering palette entries? ...
Adventurous Characters:
Armored Knight Bowman Crossbowman Bard with Instrument (harp or lute) Duellist with Rapier Robed Mage with Staff Robed Mage with Wand Robed Mage with Orb Druid with Staff Tattooed Pict with Spear or Axe Acrobat with Pole Rogue with Knife Samurai in full armour with Katana and Wakazishi Samurai Archer in full armour with Yumi and Ya ... female adventurous characters
Mounted figures
Ordinary Characters:
Commoner / Peasant (male, female) Child (male, female) Woodsman with Axe Miner with Pickaxe Farmer with Hoe / Rake / Pitchfork Townsman (male, female) Townsfolk child (male, female) Beggar (male, female) Beggar, disfigured (missing arm or leg) (male, female) Child Beggar / Urchin (male, female) Nobleman, Noblewoman Noble Child (male, female) Guard / Soldier Noble/Royal Guard Bandit / Highwayman ...
Domesticated Animals:
Dog (small, large) Cat Horse (pony, riding, percheron) Cow Sheep Goat Chicken
Wild Animals:
Rat Snake Deer Elk Wolf Bear Bat Falcon Fish Insect Swarm
Fantastic Animals:
Kraken Sea Horse Giant Spider (wolf spider, black widow)
Monsters and Fantastic Creatures:
Slime / Ooze / Jelly (various colors and body forms)
Dripping from ceiling Puddle on floor Covering a human figure with melting features Round blob Large (cubic, pyramidal) mass
Unicorn Gryphon (Eagle head, lion body, winged) Hippogriff (Eagle head, horse forebody, lion hindquarters, winged) Manticora (scorpion tail or spined tail) Basilisk Wyvern (bat winged, two legs, no arms, stinger)
Earth Elemental (humanoid, non-humanoid) Air Elemental (humanoid, non-humanoid) Fire Elemental (humanoid, non-humanoid) Water Elemental (humanoid, non-humanoid)
Non-Human Folk:
Ork (an entire category here) Goblin (category) Ogre Giant (category) Centaur (with bow or harp/lyre) Nymph Sylph Nixie / Triton (Merman) armed with trident / javelins
Undead Creatures:
Skeleton (various arms and armor) Zombie (various stages of rotting) Mummy Ghul Liche Ghost (indistinct features) Spectre (frightening visage)
skeletal rat skeletal horse skeletal horse with skeletal rider
Grim Reaper (with sickle or scythe) Black Cloaked Figure Invisible Figure (man size and shape)
Terrain Tiles:
...
Terrain Feature Tiles: (these go over a terrain)
...
Furnishing Tiles: (these go over a terrain)
...
Portable Object Tiles:
Weapons Tools Clothing / Armor Jewelry / Worn Items Edible Objects Containers
Backpacks, Sacks, Chests
Icon Tiles: (for game UI purposes)
tile selection cursors animated target mode cursors mouse pointers for UI modes astronomy tiles (usually 16x16) Animated projectiles (weapons, spell blasts, ...) Character status icons (poison, sleep, charm, ...) UI frame tiles (basic lines and such) UI frame tiles (decorative widgets, indicator "jewels", ...)
Bitmap Fonts: (8x16 and 32x32 "sign" type fonts)
Cyrillic Characters "Old West" font "Sci Fi" font Hiragana / Katakana Hangul Egyptian Heiroglyphs Alchemical / Magical / Pharmacy Symbols
Portrait Art
Paperdoll Art