MW Devlog #1: Resolution & Scale
The advice I have received countless times on starting game development is "start small". Think of the smallest game you could make then make it even smaller.
I've decided that for my first game I will create a simple house and a sprite in a top down Zelda style. The objective will be for the player to walk inside and find a specific item. (still to big?)
I am currently using a drag and drop game engine called Stencyl. I have played with it for a few years but never really got anything done but hopefully now that will change.
Resolution
I don't see any reason why this project would be scaled up in any kind of way so I will be using 640x480. For future projects if I have the desire for the game to be 720p or higher I can set the resolution at 480x320 and use Stencyl's built in scaler. It can scale up to four times reaching the max resolution of 1080p under the aforementioned parameter.
Further reading: Check out this article by Matthias Zarzecki on envato tuts+, it is a good reference for choosing a resolution for your game.
art
TILE SIZE
Always use the power of 2 for the tile size: 8x8, 16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128 etc.
I did some research on what tile sizes the NES, GB, and SNES use.
NES tiles are 8x8 or 8x16
GB tiles are 8x8 or 8x16
SNES tiles are 8x8 or 16x16
I was always fond of the GBC Legend of Zelda pixel art so I will use the 8x8 tile size.
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons for the Game Boy Color
SPRITE SIZE
The sprite size is the same as the tile size for the Game Boy. It is 8x8 or 8x16 according to the Game Boy CPU Manual.
FYI the sprite sizes for the NES, GB, and SNES are:
NES sprites are 8x8 or 8x16
GB sprites are 8x8 or 8x16
SNES sprites are 8×8, 16×16, 32×32, or 64×64
That said, I am going with a 16x16 sprite size. I learned that 8x8 tiles can go together to create tile blocks.
To go a bit more in depth on how sprites and tiles are classically scaled together...
In the picture below I have outlined four 8x8 tiles in blue.
The four 8x8 tiles are put together to create one block level tile that equates to 16x16.
Forgive my bad drawing
This Link sprite is 16x16, so when placed on the tiles...
...The sprite covers most of the surface area of the block level tile.
I think the programmers may have originally split some of the sprites up into two sets of 8x16 and combined them into a 16x16 one. I came to that conclusion after looking through this Game Boy Dev sprite documentation.(still not sure though)
Update: I read that 8x8 is commonly used for detailed corners and variations now since we obviously don't have any hardware constraints using our computers.
-I am still going to create 8x8 tiles just in case but i'll design them as simple 16x16 tiles.
The sprites can be imported into stencyl at a higher resolution and be scaled down.
example: Resize and import 16x16 sprite at 256x256. You can choose the 4x scale parameter in the dropdown and it will scale down to 16x16 and cache sprites for 1.5x, 2x, and 3x resolutions. Stencyl can also generate hi-res variants. Good for retro type assets.
lastly It is important to choose equal numbers for the sprite size so if it is scaled up or down it does not become distorted.
Personal note: Some of this information may seem a bit superfluous but honestly I feel a lot more confident. When I tried creating sprites and games before I just drew without thinking and slapped it on a canvas with a random resolution. I don't completely knock what I did before though. It's nice just to play around sometimes.
REFERENCE:
GB tech specs: Posted during GBJAM 5, It includes the system's sprite and tile size specs along with the Game boy's original resolution.
Game Boy CPU Manual: This document has a comprehensive look at the specifications for the GB.(see page )
Game Boy Developer Kit Sprite tutorial: This tutorial shows you how Sprites were built using the Dev Kit.