CURRENTLY IN SIGN UP STAGE ONLY (as of 18 DEC 08)

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What: - I'm hosting a class here at dA on making your own game graphics for an old school, online 2d mmorpg game (think SNES style.) On the graphics end we will cover pixel art, ripping graphics, making tile sets, putting it all into the game files and much more. Although we will concentrate on graphics, you will finish with a working online game. Sound cool? Hell yeah! Sound like a lot of work? Frickin-a-right baby but hey, no one will care about you once your dead anyway. And you know you ALWAYS wanted to be (cue trumpets...) "The Owner" of YOUR own game, right? I'm sure you will use your powers for good

You Provide: the following...
1) Photoshop - an image editor (or the best image editing software you've got, I'll be using psp)
2) A Windows pc with an internet connection (I've heard it will run on Vista but I'm on XP Home SP3)
3) Microsoft Paint - yeah the old school app that came on your pc. Intriguing? Discouraging maybe? heh
4) ZSNESW - a SNES (Super Nintendo) emulator
5) SOM2 rom - the Secret of Mana II snes game (aka rom, usually a .smc file)

#4 and #5 are optional. They are 2 of the tools used to rip the graphics distributed with the game from old SNES games. Students can work instead from screen shots I will provide. I also use some other tools, namely Irfanview which is THE freeware image viewer imho. I will make sure that students can find and get any and all other needed files including the game engine with one exception.. I will not help anyone use Limewire or torrents to find programs, roms, etc.

How: - Well, first we're gonna see how many people are interested. If you are, send me a note and I will add you to the list. I'm also going to whip up a tiny yet working version of a game and distribute it to all students. Hopefully, I will be able to host it from home on the nights we use it. I will also start a new page here at dA just for this event.
Once we are ready to roll, we will make sure everyone has all the files needed, get everyone's game engines running, and then start learning about the game files we will be editing (there's only like 3.) Then we will go over how to put our own graphics in. We will examine the graphics that come with the game and how the mapping system works. Then we'll cover how the stock graphics were ripped, how to rip your own, all in the context of learning the do's and dont's of creating your own graphics. Its a huge job making your own graphics, being pretty or cool isn't enough, they need to be useful to future mappers as well.

The Engine: - The game engine is Player Worlds version 1.4.2 which is an old freeware game system (but you are not allowed to edit the .exe's) that flourished, stalled out, and died during an attempted re-birth into a new system. There was a great community full of excellent people who carried the PW torch for us all (Dr. Spoon, Reindeer, etc) and a little Googling will net you tons of information on the entire system.
There are many people who would argue that this game format and system is borderline vaporware and I could vouch for some of their points. But this is a free, relatively easy way to get your feet wet in game graphics and mapping. You will find that many of the techniques are either still used or are the basis for what has evolved since.

When: - I'm not sure yet. It mainly depends on how many people sign up. I will add news and links to the top of this journal as needed.

And a few last details...
The game system stores its graphics in 3 files items, sprites, and tiles. First you paste your new graphics into the files, then you use the client software's in-game editor to map everything. You use a similar system to create npc, warps, etc but we will concentrate mainly on the graphics. The backgrounds are drawn using 32x32 pixel size tiles. The game utilizes a simple but effective method of arranging and layering the tiles to create maps with ground layers, objects players can walk behind, and simple animations. I will be sharing my own personal tricks and tips that demonstrate how to make beautiful scenes that overcome some of the game limitations that stump other mappers.

My main account is



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