@ElizaWy, that certainly makes sense. I think the two projects can certainly coexist and probably benefit from one another. Are you planning to organize the images as "objects" (like in the base assets) or as "atlases" (like in most of my submissions)?
I don't use discord, sorry. If you're willing to post a WIP version or share via PM, I'd be happy to take a look!
@MedicineStorm, thanks for all that feedback and encouragement! I agree throughout.
w/r/t what to include, I'm certain the devil will be in the details of specific examples.
Another issue I thought of is how (whether?) to handle recolors. A few people on this forum (Basxto in particular) are always agitating for assets to better support programmatic recolors. Right now, I'm envisioning recolors to be treated as separate "objects" (although with systematically similar names---chair_black.png, chair_blue.png, etc.) It would be nice if there was some more... method to this. Open to ideas.
Anyway, in terms of progress, I hacked together a dice_atlas script today and started working on an example (based on this submission https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-medieval-village-decorations ). Presently this takes a Tiled map with object layer(s) and extracts individual images from rectangle or polyline objects. See the preview images.
Next up, I'll extend the script to 1) spit out a new Tiled map to re-create the atlas from the constituent images, and 2) make attribution metadata files (based on object properties in the original Tiled map).
This is kind of starting backwards from where I hope the project ends up (objects are assembled into atlases, rather than making objects by cutting them out from atlases), but it seems like a more feasible way to bootstrap the project.
I'm already realizing that 1) the number of objects will be very large; 2) because of (1), it will be a challenge to keep the naming unique but also systematic. This will probably be the source of some bikeshedding.
Hey, very excited to hear about your efforts! Would you be willing to share a draft?
Also, I hope I could make as much of my art as possible available under compatible terms, not just the upholstery! If I do go forward with this project, I'll be re-examining the licensing of each of my submissions and making sure all the original art is licensed as liberally as possible.
While restricting the authors like that does solve the attribution problem, there's lots of great art by authors other than those, and I'm not willing to give all that up. I would rather solve this problem by contacting authors and requesting DRM waivers/relicensing, and/or replacing a smaller number of assets as needed. Splitting assets up as I've described also means that CC-BY-SA art can be "quarantined" from DRM-waived/CC-BY/OGA-BY-SA art (many of my submissions are CC-BY-SA, just because there's a few CC-BY-SA items that "contaminate" the rest, which are CC-BY or CC0). I've made an effort with recent submissions to distinguish that, but it's getting to be cumbersome (see e.g. credits to https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-food). That experience partially motivated my idea for this project.
(Personally, I'm not terribly concerned about the DRM clause-waiver issue, since IMO the solution it to distributing properly-credited art as a separate download, easily accessible from the app---this seems well within the spirit of the license and likely to satisfy almost anyone who cares)
There's also this submission with lots of wild animals: https://opengameart.org/content/animated-wild-animals . It's not the right perspective or exactly the right style, and there's only side-views, but the animations are really nice. It could probably work for wild animals that are grazing/wandering around and then run away when the player shows up.
It looks like in some of your art (mostly screenshot_2021-03-15_13-52-03.png), you may have scaled some of the tiles by a non-integer multiple, in a program like PhotoShop or GIMP, which is performing interpolations/anti-aliasing and is making the pixel art blurry. Try zooming in on the bricks in your image and compare to the image you started with, and you'll see what I mean---your bricks are blurry.
The best solution is to use a program that is designed for pixel art, like PyxelEdit or Aseprite, but if you want to use GIMP/PS/etc., you should avoid scaling/rotating pixel art and/or disable anti-aliasing/interpolation.
I'm not here to judge what's a worthy project---people love that mod that is remaking Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. Work on whatever excites you! I just want everyone to be aware of the legal/licensing issues, especially since we're on a FOSS forum :)
Hey, it's a neat project! You've done a lot of work and the map looks very nice!
I hate to be the Bad Guy, but before you get much further, I want to point out a few issues with copright:
The sprites you are using from the StardewValleyExpanded mod are not completely original---the cliffs and trees for instance are direct edits of the sprites from the original game. Therefore you probably cannot use them in this way, and you definitely can't license them as CC-BY-SA-NC. I wasn't able to find an official license or terms of use for the original game, but I'm pretty sure the art is not licensed under CC-BY-SA or similar. I understand that ConcernedApe is cool with mods for Stardew Valley distributing the art (or modifications thereof), but I doubt that they are also okay with completely separate games that re-create their game but use their art. I know the authors of the StardewValleyExpanded mod say their repository is MIT-licensed, and that might apply to the code or original artwork they have done, but they don't own the copyright to the artwork from the original game, so they can't release it under such a permissive license. I may be wrong about the license for the original game art from ConcernedApe---if so, correct me---but I doubt it.
I also question a bit whether re-creating the map tile-for-tile is permissible. Arguably the map from the game is subject to copyright, so by copying it, you are violating the author's copyright. Re-creating the general layout of the town is probably fine, but creating a (near-)exact replica tile-by-tile is probably not. Likewise if you make a few tiny changes so that it's slightly different, but otherwise make it nearly identical, you're still creating a derivative of the original. Finally (because it's a common misconception), just because you place the tiles/pixels yourself, does NOT mean you are creating an original (non-derivative) work. For example, if I opened up a sprite of Mario from Super Mario Bros, then opened GIMP in another window and re-created it, pixel-for-pixel... I've still *copied* Mario, and I've clearly created a derivative work, in violation of Nintendo's copyright.
If you are just using the Stardew Valley sprites for your internal prototyping, that's fine. But since you are distributing them online with your FLARE mod, it's probably time to start looking for art that you have a license to use.
Again, I say all this not to rain on your parade, but to help you make your project successful and legal :)
Those screens look better (although they remind me that the trees need some work; some are very stylistically inconsistent :p). However, I think they reveal two other, subtler issues:
- there are many different kinds of trees, and they are all about equally common. Counter-intuitively, I think this makes the scene feel less diverse. I suspect it would look better if most of the trees were one symmetrical simple shape (like the base LPC tree), with a much smaller number of the other, more asymmetrical trees sprinkled in.
- the trees still seem to be somewhat uniformly distributed within each space. I know this probably isn't exactly the case, since you've written about it before https://pvigier.github.io/2019/06/09/vagabond-forest-generation.html , but whatever is happening... it still doesn't look right.
I think the trees would benefit from a few slight recolors too. Having all the trees be exactly the same colors looks a bit strange
I can try to put together some manual examples if it would be helpful.
Maybe "drumsnake," and it can have flavor text about how it "tastes (suspiciously) like chicken"? :p
When walking around the overworld, the vegetation still feels very sparse. It would be great if trees (and other decorations, like plants, rocks, etc.) were more tightly clustered and there were less wide open space.
This is awesome! As someone who clearly has a fascination with drawing plants, I'm delighted to see all these farming systems!
Your screenshot reminds me that I should really add a version of the food assets with shadows. They look kind of strange just sitting on the ground with no shadow!
I also really like the lighting and would love to see what more you do with it. I remember seeing this article about some of the tricks used in Graveyard Keeper to get pseudo-3D lighting effects with 2D graphics and a pixel art style: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/SvyatoslavCherkasov/20181023/329151/Grav...
I am also curious about your skill tree. I think it's kind of funny that "grafting," a technique probably developed in the fertile crescent >=500 BCE is on the same level as "genome sequencing," a technique developed in the end of the 20th century :p But that was in our world, not EHB's!
I'd echo pvigier's suggestion to post the code! All the better to get feedback and participation.
Let me know if you need assets, I'd be happy to collaborate!
@ElizaWy, that certainly makes sense. I think the two projects can certainly coexist and probably benefit from one another. Are you planning to organize the images as "objects" (like in the base assets) or as "atlases" (like in most of my submissions)?
I don't use discord, sorry. If you're willing to post a WIP version or share via PM, I'd be happy to take a look!
@MedicineStorm, thanks for all that feedback and encouragement! I agree throughout.
w/r/t what to include, I'm certain the devil will be in the details of specific examples.
Another issue I thought of is how (whether?) to handle recolors. A few people on this forum (Basxto in particular) are always agitating for assets to better support programmatic recolors. Right now, I'm envisioning recolors to be treated as separate "objects" (although with systematically similar names---chair_black.png, chair_blue.png, etc.) It would be nice if there was some more... method to this. Open to ideas.
Anyway, in terms of progress, I hacked together a dice_atlas script today and started working on an example (based on this submission https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-medieval-village-decorations ). Presently this takes a Tiled map with object layer(s) and extracts individual images from rectangle or polyline objects. See the preview images.
Next up, I'll extend the script to 1) spit out a new Tiled map to re-create the atlas from the constituent images, and 2) make attribution metadata files (based on object properties in the original Tiled map).
This is kind of starting backwards from where I hope the project ends up (objects are assembled into atlases, rather than making objects by cutting them out from atlases), but it seems like a more feasible way to bootstrap the project.
I'm already realizing that 1) the number of objects will be very large; 2) because of (1), it will be a challenge to keep the naming unique but also systematic. This will probably be the source of some bikeshedding.
Hey, very excited to hear about your efforts! Would you be willing to share a draft?
Also, I hope I could make as much of my art as possible available under compatible terms, not just the upholstery! If I do go forward with this project, I'll be re-examining the licensing of each of my submissions and making sure all the original art is licensed as liberally as possible.
While restricting the authors like that does solve the attribution problem, there's lots of great art by authors other than those, and I'm not willing to give all that up. I would rather solve this problem by contacting authors and requesting DRM waivers/relicensing, and/or replacing a smaller number of assets as needed. Splitting assets up as I've described also means that CC-BY-SA art can be "quarantined" from DRM-waived/CC-BY/OGA-BY-SA art (many of my submissions are CC-BY-SA, just because there's a few CC-BY-SA items that "contaminate" the rest, which are CC-BY or CC0). I've made an effort with recent submissions to distinguish that, but it's getting to be cumbersome (see e.g. credits to https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-food). That experience partially motivated my idea for this project.
(Personally, I'm not terribly concerned about the DRM clause-waiver issue, since IMO the solution it to distributing properly-credited art as a separate download, easily accessible from the app---this seems well within the spirit of the license and likely to satisfy almost anyone who cares)
There's also this submission with lots of wild animals: https://opengameart.org/content/animated-wild-animals . It's not the right perspective or exactly the right style, and there's only side-views, but the animations are really nice. It could probably work for wild animals that are grazing/wandering around and then run away when the player shows up.
Hello, I am sorry this is such a pain. Looks like BenCreating has answered most of your questions. I believe the remaining random recolors were mostly done by bigbeargames, as discussed in this thread https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/lpc-spritesheetcharacter-generator-at... .
If you check https://github.com/sanderfrenken/Universal-LPC-Spritesheet-Character-Gen... , all assets in castelonia's current generator https://sanderfrenken.github.io/Universal-LPC-Spritesheet-Character-Gene... should have attributions in that file.
Let us know if you have other questions.
Very nice to see! I like the new beginning :)
It looks like in some of your art (mostly screenshot_2021-03-15_13-52-03.png), you may have scaled some of the tiles by a non-integer multiple, in a program like PhotoShop or GIMP, which is performing interpolations/anti-aliasing and is making the pixel art blurry. Try zooming in on the bricks in your image and compare to the image you started with, and you'll see what I mean---your bricks are blurry.
The best solution is to use a program that is designed for pixel art, like PyxelEdit or Aseprite, but if you want to use GIMP/PS/etc., you should avoid scaling/rotating pixel art and/or disable anti-aliasing/interpolation.
Can't wait to see more!
I'm not here to judge what's a worthy project---people love that mod that is remaking Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. Work on whatever excites you! I just want everyone to be aware of the legal/licensing issues, especially since we're on a FOSS forum :)
And let me know if you need any art! ;-)
Hey, it's a neat project! You've done a lot of work and the map looks very nice!
I hate to be the Bad Guy, but before you get much further, I want to point out a few issues with copright:
The sprites you are using from the StardewValleyExpanded mod are not completely original---the cliffs and trees for instance are direct edits of the sprites from the original game. Therefore you probably cannot use them in this way, and you definitely can't license them as CC-BY-SA-NC. I wasn't able to find an official license or terms of use for the original game, but I'm pretty sure the art is not licensed under CC-BY-SA or similar. I understand that ConcernedApe is cool with mods for Stardew Valley distributing the art (or modifications thereof), but I doubt that they are also okay with completely separate games that re-create their game but use their art. I know the authors of the StardewValleyExpanded mod say their repository is MIT-licensed, and that might apply to the code or original artwork they have done, but they don't own the copyright to the artwork from the original game, so they can't release it under such a permissive license. I may be wrong about the license for the original game art from ConcernedApe---if so, correct me---but I doubt it.
I also question a bit whether re-creating the map tile-for-tile is permissible. Arguably the map from the game is subject to copyright, so by copying it, you are violating the author's copyright. Re-creating the general layout of the town is probably fine, but creating a (near-)exact replica tile-by-tile is probably not. Likewise if you make a few tiny changes so that it's slightly different, but otherwise make it nearly identical, you're still creating a derivative of the original. Finally (because it's a common misconception), just because you place the tiles/pixels yourself, does NOT mean you are creating an original (non-derivative) work. For example, if I opened up a sprite of Mario from Super Mario Bros, then opened GIMP in another window and re-created it, pixel-for-pixel... I've still *copied* Mario, and I've clearly created a derivative work, in violation of Nintendo's copyright.
If you are just using the Stardew Valley sprites for your internal prototyping, that's fine. But since you are distributing them online with your FLARE mod, it's probably time to start looking for art that you have a license to use.
Again, I say all this not to rain on your parade, but to help you make your project successful and legal :)
Those screens look better (although they remind me that the trees need some work; some are very stylistically inconsistent :p). However, I think they reveal two other, subtler issues:
- there are many different kinds of trees, and they are all about equally common. Counter-intuitively, I think this makes the scene feel less diverse. I suspect it would look better if most of the trees were one symmetrical simple shape (like the base LPC tree), with a much smaller number of the other, more asymmetrical trees sprinkled in.
- the trees still seem to be somewhat uniformly distributed within each space. I know this probably isn't exactly the case, since you've written about it before https://pvigier.github.io/2019/06/09/vagabond-forest-generation.html , but whatever is happening... it still doesn't look right.
I think the trees would benefit from a few slight recolors too. Having all the trees be exactly the same colors looks a bit strange
I can try to put together some manual examples if it would be helpful.
Maybe "drumsnake," and it can have flavor text about how it "tastes (suspiciously) like chicken"? :p
When walking around the overworld, the vegetation still feels very sparse. It would be great if trees (and other decorations, like plants, rocks, etc.) were more tightly clustered and there were less wide open space.
I hope to test it out more later!
This is awesome! As someone who clearly has a fascination with drawing plants, I'm delighted to see all these farming systems!
Your screenshot reminds me that I should really add a version of the food assets with shadows. They look kind of strange just sitting on the ground with no shadow!
I also really like the lighting and would love to see what more you do with it. I remember seeing this article about some of the tricks used in Graveyard Keeper to get pseudo-3D lighting effects with 2D graphics and a pixel art style: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/SvyatoslavCherkasov/20181023/329151/Grav...
I am also curious about your skill tree. I think it's kind of funny that "grafting," a technique probably developed in the fertile crescent >=500 BCE is on the same level as "genome sequencing," a technique developed in the end of the 20th century :p But that was in our world, not EHB's!
I'd echo pvigier's suggestion to post the code! All the better to get feedback and participation.
Let me know if you need assets, I'd be happy to collaborate!
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