Working on a hack for FF1, would like some feedback on a sprite design

[MasterEn]

I had an idea for a ff1 hack. this is my first time working with sprites, so i would appreciate some feedback on my first design. it's based off of the warrior sprite sheet.
it's in a zip file since bmp files can't be uploaded. it's small, i pulled the bmp straight from the editor after adjusting the colors.

 

[DunkeyKong]

That looks cute man, would love to see a romhack of RGT-Tan

 

[MasterEn]

That looks cute man, would love to see a romhack of RGT-Tan

thanks. slowly working on some ideas. i would have used ff2/4 but i don't have any luck finding programs that edit the sprites. i found one that does literally everything else besides music and sprite editing. the ff1 hacker does allow for sprite and map editing but it is rough. i have to use microsoft paint to get acceptable bmp files at the moment. the maps have their own format just for them.

 

[DunkeyKong]

thanks. slowly working on some ideas. i would have used ff2/4 but i don't have any luck finding programs that edit the sprites. i found one that does literally everything else besides music and sprite editing. the ff1 hacker does allow for sprite and map editing but it is rough. i have to use microsoft paint to get acceptable bmp files at the moment. the maps have their own format just for them.

Sounds hard man, all I can say is that I wish you the best
Take your time

 

[Num]

focus more on the clarity of the form. its like you were too afraid to draw inside the silhouette but thats how you give it a more 3d look. so draw more within like show the arm and torso taking shape and stuff. also i dont really know how much youre restricting to the design itself but changing the outfit a bit could help too. like shorting sleeves to show more skin or something but im sure you could make it work even without that

 

[MasterEn]

Sounds hard man, all I can say is that I wish you the best
Take your time

thanks.

Post automatically merged: Jan 28, 2025

focus more on the clarity of the form. its like you were too afraid to draw inside the silhouette but thats how you give it a more 3d look. so draw more within like show the arm and torso taking shape and stuff. also i dont really know how much youre restricting to the design itself but changing the outfit a bit could help too. like shorting sleeves to show more skin or something but im sure you could make it work even without that

it's a super small space. 16x24 if i remember correctly. i've never have drawn something so small before. i had another version but i got so frustrated trying to get it loaded into the program that i just cleared everything out and started fresh. i must have been saving it wrong or something, but so far, only microsoft paint saves it correctly. fortunately, i can draw in another program and port it over to that one if need be.
i'm also limited to 3[4] colors. never worked with such a small amount but that's what the editor allows for. i now appreciate sprite art even more now if that's one of the limitations that game developers face.
i'll be making more versions, so hopefully the next one is much more improved.

 

[ThreePendants]

thanks. slowly working on some ideas. i would have used ff2/4 but i don't have any luck finding programs that edit the sprites. i found one that does literally everything else besides music and sprite editing. the ff1 hacker does allow for sprite and map editing but it is rough. i have to use microsoft paint to get acceptable bmp files at the moment. the maps have their own format just for them.

Ah, there's a great page called https://everything8215.github.io/ff6tools/ff6tools.html which despite the name is actually a suite for pretty much all of the first six FF games. It has an excellent sprite editing system for FFIV in particular.

 

[MasterEn]

Ah, there's a great page called https://everything8215.github.io/ff6tools/ff6tools.html which despite the name is actually a suite for pretty much all of the first six FF games. It has an excellent sprite editing system for FFIV in particular.

oh, that's cool! i'll check this out immediately. thanks for letting me know about this.

 

[RageBurner]

I'd suggest getting in touch with a FF1 hacker called Manall. They are extremely talented and have made very deep overhauls of FF1 with great custom spriting, classes and mechanics.

Manall's Mods

A pink alien's blog about the universe and her classic game mods

manallsmods.net

 

[MasterEn]

I'd suggest getting in touch with a FF1 hacker called Manall. They are extremely talented and have made very deep overhauls of FF1 with great custom spriting, classes and mechanics.

Manall's Mods

A pink alien's blog about the universe and her classic game mods

manallsmods.net

i think i picked up a ff1 hack with her name in it. hadn't gotten around to playing it yet. i'll bookmark the site for later. between the ffhackster program and ff6tools, i'm covered pretty well for ff1. and it works for all six of the early FFs. it even has stuff the first editor doesn't have. it also covers ff4, my personal favorite. haven't found out how to change monster graphics yet for ff4, but i still need to explore it more thoroughly.
thanks for the link to the website.

 

[RageBurner]

i think i picked up a ff1 hack with her name in it. hadn't gotten around to playing it yet. i'll bookmark the site for later. between the ffhackster program and ff6tools, i'm covered pretty well for ff1. and it works for all six of the early FFs. it even has stuff the first editor doesn't have. it also covers ff4, my personal favorite. haven't found out how to change monster graphics yet for ff4, but i still need to explore it more thoroughly.
thanks for the link to the website.

No problem, keep us updated on your progress!

 

[MasterEn]

No problem, keep us updated on your progress!

i will. i already got a few more sprites ready. almost six classes ready. i have to scrap one character that i wanted to include. the other sprites took some effort but they work, more or less. still working on the overworld map too. and i'll probably make the dungeons short.

Post automatically merged: Jan 28, 2025

did some more work. got six sets of sprites done. and job titles too.

in order from top left then down, and then top right down:
Game Master
B. Fighter
Monk
Ninja
Cleric
Mage
i used some sprites that i found over on the spriter's resource for the base and the various programs that i used converted the colors.
learning a lot about 3[4] color limits.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

it's in a zip file since bmp files can't be uploaded

Save as PNG. Offers compression and is lossless.

Looks like a cute Lego character.

edit: Now that i see your next post... jpg works too....

 

[MasterEn]

Save as PNG. Offers compression and is lossless.

Looks like a cute Lego character.
View attachment 18563

edit: Now that i see your next post... jpg works too....

yeah, i was having trouble with bmps. i've been saving in png while making edits. i export the final results as bmps when i'm done in microsoft paint.
i didn't notice the lego similarities; she does look very cute. thanks for the compliment,

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

yeah, i was having trouble with bmps. i've been saving in png while making edits. i export the final results as bmps when i'm done in microsoft paint.

I use BMP when using my own programs to read and process an image in interesting ways, as it's a format i can program easily without requiring an external library; However otherwise the BMP format is kinda... an old useless artifact. RLE (Run Length Encoding) is almost never used when you go above 16 colors or incorporate dithering, actually i'm sure a lot of programs don't even understand it.

Stick with PNG unless there's a reason not to. Reducing to under 256 colors PCX and GIF become options, but GIF is only used for web animations anymore, and PCX is... i've only seen it used in FractInt as image outputs (haven't thought of that DOS/win program in a LOooong time). WebP has a lossless option, but is still being adopted, and for manga the lossless state offers decent enough compression, usually 30%-50% on PNG's. But this site doesn't like it, so that one is probably out too...

 

[MasterEn]

FFHackster is the main program that i'm using and it mainly exports in bmps. it has another file type it uses but i got mixed results trying to look it up. ffm is the file type.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

FFHackster is the main program that i'm using and it mainly exports in bmps.

Ahh gotcha. I thought maybe you just did pixelart on a grid at the right resolution of what you'd expect to be using.

It likely just converts the header and gives you a 16 color bmp file, just invert the top/bottom order and you get a bmp.

 

[MasterEn]

Ahh gotcha. I thought maybe you just did pixelart on a grit at the right resolution of what you'd expect to be using.

It likely just converts the header and gives you a 16 color bmp file, just invert the top/bottom order and you get a bmp.

no, not yet. just had a random idea the other day about making a hack with RGT-Tan as a character in the game. i think the program is pretty old. i don't know if there's a new version of it out or not.