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edlinklover · 3 years

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Hey how did you make your backgrounds and sprites in your game? I'm trying to learn and I wanna know what the best way to start is cause I wanna make my own stuff to put in the game

I only have the rpg MV do I need the other add ons?

oh my god I accidentally refreshed the page and lost my entire progress of my answer to this so bear with me (IT WAS REALLY LONG TOO)

I just draw everything in Paint Tool Sai, though you could get away with ms paint! You don’t even have to draw in pixel art if you don’t want to as long as they fit the right dimensions. But if you want to know specific dimensions and stuff and how to like. actually draw them correctly so they work, I can try to help with that but uhm,, bear with me because I Do Not know how parallax mapping works and I am an amateur.

Disclaimer: I have RPG Maker VX Ace AND MV (no add ons or anything, I don’t think you NEED add-ons unless you can’t draw yourself) but MV is a very recent addition to me. I’ll still try my best (If any RPG maker people are reading this and are like HEY NO THERE ARE EASIER WAYS I’m sorry. i do not know those easier ways)

So sprites? Pretty easy! For RPG Maker MV, I use this 576 x 384 px grid to organize them!

RPG Maker splits sprite sets in a certain way, and if you mess with the dimensions, it might not work correctly anymore, so I generally stick to this size (There IS a way to get bigger sprites, but I do not understand them)

As you can see, each sprite is about one square big. I referenced default RPG Maker MV’s sprites by comparing them to my handy grid and being like, oh! They are one square big! I should also make my sprites one square big each! In general, I recommend taking a look into RPG Maker MV’s files, overlaying the grids over the tilesets and characters, and trying to study how they’re split up. I also recommend making a base sprite!

I didn’t bother making the in between animations of the actual movement, but if you’re having trouble figuring them out, just study the base sprites of rpg maker mv and you’ll figure out how walking works!

For faces, I use these for RPG Maker MV! Each individual box is 144 x 144 px (the canvas’ total size is 576x288 px)! I make a 144x144 px canvas, draw my faces, and then copy and paste them into each box until there’s a full set of 8! I don’t recommend messing with the sizes, and I don’t think you can get bigger sizes unless you ditch the face icon feature altogether.

My tileset process is way more convoluted because I don’t understand MV yet so I reference RPG Maker MV’s default assets a lot. For example, say I want to make an original floor set, but I’m not sure what dimensions I’ll need to make sure RPG Maker MV will read it and implement it into the program properly. I look into RPG Maker MV’s files and choose a floor tileset to reference. In this case, I open up inside_A5.png and put my grids over it to break it down.

I look at this, and say hm! Each floor pattern is about one square big! My floor pattern should also be one square big.

(Don’t ask me why I started from the bottom) If you put my grid overlay on top of these patterns I made, you will see that indeed, each floor pattern takes up one box!

As for planning maps, I have the most convoluted method so I apologize in advance. I will try to explain it.

So first off, each square in RPG Maker MV is 48x48 px. Cool. But your default size in RPG Maker MV is 17x13 for some reason? Well, multiply each number by 48. All of a sudden, you find out your map is actually 816 x 624 px! Whoa! Let’s say you’d prefer a bigger map, like 20x15. Multiply both by 48 and you’ll get the right canvas size. Anyway, we’re sticking with 17x13/816 x 624 because I recommend against huge maps and 17x13 can be cozy.

To properly plan my map, I need to open up a canvas in my art program that’s 816 x 624 px.

Bam. I also put my grid down, making sure there are no half squares because we’re trying to mimic how RPG Maker MV’s grid works. If there are still half squares but you’re sure you placed the grid right, check your math!

I start planning out my map! I recommend making sure your floors and walls don’t take up any half-squares, but your furniture can be literally whatever. As you can see, my grave takes up one and a half squares. Anyway, say we’re done. Now we transfer them onto tilesets.

We focused on floors already, so I’ll just explain transferring objects. To transfer them onto a tileset, each item’s gotta take up the exact same number of squares it takes up in the planned map. If you don’t, you won’t be able to replicate your map plans into RPG Maker MV as perfectly as you’d like. For example, the rug in my planned map could take up just 2 squares if I shifted it to the left or right, but then it wouldn’t be centered at the entrance like a normal rug would.

(SF_Inside_B.png) I kept the overlays and stuff so you can hopefully better understand my process. I moved the rug (just because), but I made sure it still took up 3 spaces like a man on the train who sleeps across the seats. Don’t put anything else in those half squares either, it’s all belongs to the rug. When you’re ready to place the objects in the program, you should be able to replicate your map no problem.

I’m so sorry if this didn’t help, I really don’t know what I’m doing and it’s a miracle I made two games by myself hsdghd There’s tons of resources out there! If something I said was almost helpful but you’d like me to elaborate more, please let me know too!

#eddie speaks #my methods are so convoluted im sorry #this is like how i learned how to play ocarina by watching YTers #i still cant read music #noeggets

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milesgaylsprower · 7 years

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Drawn to You

This is a Pixel/Tablet fic for Graffiti Kingdom. I’ve been sitting on chapter 1 for a while but I’m hoping that, by posting it, it’ll get me to actually work on writing it. You can read it on AO3 or below the cut:

Chapter 1: Stirrings

“Well, I am a demon.”

Pixel wasn’t sure when it had happened, but at some point, that phrase had gone from being an excuse to being something of an inside joke between friends.

He wasn’t sure when they had gone from being rivals to being friends either. But here they were, lying on a hill in the Canvas Plains, their bodies outstretched in opposite directions and their heads next to each other. His companion was Tablet, the former prince of the demons. Overhead, cotton ball clouds drifted through the sky, each one having a unique shape that the two boys had spent all afternoon identifying. In a different world and a different time, it would have been strange – taboo even – for a human and a demon to be friends. But this is how the world was now, how it had been for… How long?

Three years, thought Pixel. It had been three years since Pixel had accidentally released the ruler of the demons, Medium, from the seal that had imprisoned him for centuries. Throughout Pixel’s journey to undo his mistake (or get out of undoing his mistake, as it were), Tablet was there, being a general nuisance and a total creep.

When exactly did I start being friends with this weirdo?

It had to have been after Pixel defeated Medium, since that’s when everything started to change. Demons started to integrate into human society not long after Pixel’s victory, an idea that was not well received by every human. Eventually humans learned to see demons less as a threat and more as inhabitants of the town. The only demon who hadn’t learned to cope with the change was, not surprisingly, Medium. His continuous efforts to reestablish the demon kingdom lessened over time as Pixel time and again foiled the Devil’s plans.

Tablet’s face suddenly filled Pixel’s vision. “Are you even paying attention to me?” Tablet asked. “That is so rude, I thought we were friends.”

Pixel couldn’t help but snicker a bit. “Sorry. Guess I had my head up in the clouds.”

Tablet laid on his stomach and propped his head up with his hands. “I did not think that last cloud looked like you.”

Pixel laughed even more, which earned him a bit of a stern look from Tablet. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant… I was thinking about something.”

“Oh, I see. What were you thinking about?” Tablet asked.

Pixel sat up and spun around to face his friend. “I was thinking of when we became friends.” Pixel gathered up a handful of grass and started letting the blades go one by one.

“Hmm, as I seem to recall, we became friends shortly before my sister killed me,” Tablet said.

Pixel winced a bit. “Okay, first of all, your sister didn’t really kill you.”

“A mere deception on my part,” Tablet said with a tiny shrug. “We demons accept deception as the way things are.”

Pixel clenched his fist, crushing the grass that remained in his hand. Even though Tablet hadn’t truly been killed by Palette, the memory stung Pixel deep down. It wasn’t even the deception that bothered him; he could forgive that. Watching Tablet fade away was hard, though. Harder than it should have been. Now that they were closer, it only hurt more to think about it, and that bothered Pixel in ways that he would never admit.

“And second of all,” Pixel said, “that was just you demanding to be my friend.” Before Tablet could protest, Pixel added, “What I’m talking about is… When did things to get to be like this?”

“Does it really matter?” Tablet asked. He smiled warmly at Pixel, his hair swaying in the warm breeze.

Pixel’s stomach was instantly filled with the sensation of butterflies. “Eh, I guess not,” he said. But it did matter because what he was feeling now was… Disgusting. This was the crux of Pixel’s problem: he wasn’t sure when, but at some point, somehow, someway, he had gone from feeling friendship for Tablet to feeling…

Pixel abruptly stood up and said, “Come on, let’s go back to the castle. If we don’t, Pastel will probably have an even bigger lecture in store for me than her usual.”

Tablet nodded and stood up as well. “Very well,” Tablet said, smoothing out the long scarf that he wore. “We would not want to deprive Pastel of her favorite activity, would we?”

And, of course, Pastel had a lecture ready for Pixel as he strode into his room.

“Pixel, you’re the prince of the kingdom! You can’t keep skipping school like this!” Pastel said.

Even though she balanced out her fun moments with plenty of moments where she seemed determined to be as annoying as possible, Pastel was Pixel’s best friend. It was Pastel that introduced Pixel to the world of graffiti. It was Pastel who cheered (and sometimes berated) Pixel toward victory during his journey to free the kingdom from the clutches of Medium. And it was Pastel who Pixel always turned to when he needed counsel. She was three years his elder (give or take a millennium, Pixel guessed) and a skilled graffitician. Her skill with a graffiti wand was matched only by her skill at nagging.

Pixel waved his hand as he walked past Pastel. “Ah, come on Pastel, it’s not that big of a deal!” Muttering under his breath, Pixel added, “Not like I care about what that teacher has to say anyway.”

“It is a big deal though. What are you going to do when it’s time to ascend to the throne and you don’t know the first thing about making a law? Or the history of your kingdom?”

“Pastel, that’s so far away, it won’t matter for a while.”

Pastel started to say something more, but Pixel tuned it out and flopped unceremoniously onto his bed. These lectures were more of a routine for the two friends than anything else. Though at one time they had been conducted with earnest concern, like everything else, somewhere along the way it had changed. Pastel knew that Pixel would stop listening at some point and Pixel knew that Pastel would finish what she wanted to say eventually and give up, which she would punctuate with a sigh.

Sure enough, after her tirade was over, Pastel exhaled sharply. “Where were you anyway?”

“Hanging out with Tablet.”

“Again?” Pastel was silent for a moment. “It seems like you two spend a lot of time together these days.”

“He’s fun to hang out with.”

“I didn’t think you liked him that much.”

Pixel felt his stomach twist into knots. Disgusting, Pixel thought, the word echoing in his mind, each reverberation becoming louder. “What’s that supposed to mean?” The words tumbled out of his mouth with more venom than he had expected them to have, catching both Pixel and Pastel off-guard.

Pastel blinked a bit. “N-nothing, nothing at all. I just thought… you thought he was weird.”

“He is weird. He is such a weirdo, but he’s also my friend.” Pixel thought for a moment of opening up, telling Pastel that he wanted Tablet to be so much more, but his stomach twisted tighter and he abandoned that idea. “Besides, hanging out with him is more fun that whatever boring lesson I’ve got to sit through.”

Pastel sighed. “Your job as the prince of this realm is important. People are going to look to you for leadership and protection. I’ll admit you have the protection thing down pretty well, but…”

“Pastel, you make it sound like it’s the hardest thing in the world. It can’t be that bad! All my parents do is sit there all day, and it’s not like they even care about where I am or what I’m doing.”

Pixel had a point there. His parents were lenient — perhaps too lenient — with their son. They were calm people in general, but when it came to Pixel their patience seemed to be limitless. Their expectations of him couldn’t have seemed more nonexistent. Maybe they were partly to blame for Pixel’s laziness, but at the same time Pastel at least hoped that Pixel would show some initiative on his own. Even during Medium’s take over three years ago, when circumstances were dire, Pixel had proven to be a difficult person to motivate. At the end of the day, Pixel was a boy who did things by his own schedule, and if your item wasn’t on his agenda for the day, he wasn’t going to get to it.

While Pastel sat quietly and wondered how to get the crown prince to have more interest in actually being the prince, Pixel had turned his attention elsewhere. He idly waved his graffiti wand through the air, drawing out random patterns and shapes. As soon as they would materialize, he would dematerialize them just as quickly, only to start over on something new.

Pastel huffed when she saw this. “Pixel, the graffiti wand is an important tool! It’s not for doodling!” This comment earned no reaction from Pixel. “Maybe you and I should start training more.”

Pixel sat up, and the shape he had been drawing suddenly materialized and dropped beside him onto the bed. “Training?! What for?”

“Well, if you’re going to be a graffitician, you might as well hone your skills.”

Pixel scratched his head. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Pastel, but my skills have been more than enough to keep Medium in check.”

“But, but… there’s so much more to being a graffitician! It’s not just drawing things and using them to fight, you know!”

Pixel shrugged. “But it’s all I’ve ever needed. Why bother with learning something new when I’m not going to need to use it?”

Pastel shook her head; her patience had reached its limit. “Forget about it. I’m not going to try to keep wasting my time like this.” She turned on her heel and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Stupid Pixel, she thought. She normally didn’t react like this to Pixel’s indifference, but the fact that he was getting so close to Tablet had set her on edge. She knew she couldn’t tell him about everything that had happened in the past, but she also felt like she was betraying him by leaving him in the dark. As uncomfortable as the war had been, she knew that one day all the details would spill out, and her friend would learn the truth about everything that had happened. How exactly would he react when he learned about where she had failed, when he learned about what Tablet had done? Her thoughts were interrupted when a familiar voice called to her.

“Hello, Pastel.”

Speak of the devil, Pastel thought. Or at least speak of his son.

His arms were folded and he was leaning against the wall. “Are you finished lecturing the prince?”

“No, I- wait, what do you mean lecturing? Ugh, is that what he calls it?”

Tablet laughed. “He calls it many things. If you are done with him though, I think I may go see him myself.”

“Look, Tablet. Just… promise you’ll be careful with him.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

Pastel rubbed her arm a bit. “I don’t want to see him getting hurt. Not like… you know…”

Tablet’s eyes narrowed. “Like who, Pastel?”

Her lips moved as she tried to say a name, but the sound was lodged in her throat. Despite this, Tablet knew exactly what she had said.

“This is nothing like that! Why do you insist on keeping the past alive when it’s over with?”

“Over with? Pixel has been dealing with the aftermath of what your father did for three years now! Maybe you two are friends now, but how long is that going to last? How long before you betray him to help the demons?”

Tablet’s voice was usually level no matter what was going on, but now he found himself getting louder. “Do not accuse me of betrayal! I was doing what I needed to do. Everyone knew whose side I was on!”

Tears had started to drop down Pastel’s face. She hated remembering the past and she hated discussing it even more. Their heated debate had attracted the attention of several guards who looked ready to pounce on Tablet, but Pastel had no intention of letting things get that far. “He thought he knew whose side you were on, but I guess he was wrong,” she said in a low voice. “Don’t ever do that to Pixel. If you do, I will make sure that you are completely erased from this world.” She took off running down the hall, not even looking to see Tablet’s reaction.

Tablet grumbled and, after shooting a glare at the watching guards, made his way for the castle exit.

Night had fallen on the kingdom and almost everyone was getting ready for sleep. Deep in the tunnels beneath the village, however, Medium paced about restlessly. In one of his hands he clutched an old book, its cover too faded to be read. The paper was tattered and yellow, and the paint used for the illustrations was chipping. He thumbed through the pages, sometimes turning them too hard and tearing them even more.

“The answer has to be here!” he said.

The book was one of the oldest books in the castle library and detailed the events of the original Graffiti War. He had pilfered the book, which earned the wrath of several guards, but the information in this book was well worth the price. Or so he had hoped. Unsatisfied with the contents of the page he was currently on, he roared out in frustration and slammed the book against the tunnel wall. A few pages scattered, and what remained bound to the spine was laying open on the dirt.

“Every time I try something, I’m always stopped by that boy. Look at me, the great Devil, reduced to this! And it seems to me like my servants don’t even care, like they’re actually happy to live among the humans! Even my dear, sweet Palette is eating out of their hands…”

And then there was his son. Tablet’s betrayal still aroused an anger in him that was almost matched by his hatred for Pixel. Part of him couldn’t help but be proud, in a way. After all, it was in the nature of demons to deceive, and Tablet’s deception had proven to be a fine piece of work, even going so far as to fool the boy. He learned after the fact that the two had fought, and that Pixel had soundly defeated Tablet. Instead of the whole affair ending with bitterness over the deceit though, they shared a moment laughing together, and that’s what Medium hated the most. His own son, the would-be heir to the demon realm, befriending a human, the very human who was responsible for preventing the rise of the demons.

Ah, but you shouldn’t be surprised, Medium thought. After all, it’s just like… Well, no. The first time, things were different.

Having calmed down a bit, Medium went over to the book and stooped down to pick it up. He lifted it up to see what page it had landed on, and immediately the meticulously painted images on it caught his eye. They depicted events that were very familiar to him. In fact, he knew this scene by heart; he had, after all, seen it with his own eyes. It was when humans pleaded with the gods for a way to defeat Medium and his demons as they razed the lands. After countless bloody battles that often ended with humans as the clear losers, humanity turned to the gods as a last resort. The gods answered their plea by bestowing several humans with the power of graffiti.

Suddenly, an idea formed in Medium’s mind. “Yes. Yes! That’s it! It’s perfect!” Medium bellowed out in laughter. “Why didn’t I think of that before?”

It seemed so obvious. A way to conquer humanity once and for all, without the interference of that detestable boy or any other so-called graffiticians. All he needed would be one thing.

“Yes, yes, this will work. As long as I can get there fast enough, even the boy won’t be able to stop me.” Medium tore the page out of the book and slinked off into the darkness, eager to set his plan into motion.

Pixel yawned as he pulled back the sheets to his bed.

A familiar voice called from his room’s balcony. “Going to bed so soon?”

Pixel jumped and spun around to meet the source of the voice. “Tablet! Ugh, how many times have I told you about coming up here like that?”

“If I surprised you, I am sorry. That was not my intention.” Tablet smiled.

Pixel’s stomach was overtaken by the sensation of butterflies again. “Yeah, well, stop doing that. What are you doing up here anyway?”

“I wanted to know if we’d be hanging out tomorrow.”

Pixel raised an eyebrow. “You came all the way up here, at this time, just to ask me that?” He crossed the room to where Tablet was standing.

Tablet chuckled a little. “Well, maybe I wanted to see you again.”

Pixel swallowed hard and looked into Tablet’s eyes. He wanted so badly to move closer to Tablet, to throw his arms around him. The space between them simultaneously felt too large and too small and Pixel felt torn between his desires to either close the distance or increase it. If he was too forward, he’d lose Tablet, and if he was too cold, he’d also lose Tablet. His mind screamed at him that it was wrong to be attracted to Tablet, but his heart screamed back just at hard that he wanted to be close to Tablet.

“Aren’t you going to tell me I’m weird?” Tablet asked, finally breaking the silence between them.

Pixel blinked a bit and took a step back. “Sorry. Uh, yeah, we’ll hang out tomorrow. Want to meet at the usual place?”

Tablet nodded. “But of course. I hope you sleep well, Pixel.”

Pixel took a few steps back into his room and took a hold of the balcony door. Tablet’s words warmed Pixel deep inside, though he made every effort to hide that. “Yeah, thanks.” He started to shut the door, but stopped himself. “Oh, and Tablet?”

“Yes, Pixel?”

“Stop being so weird.”

Tablet beamed and said, “Never.” With that, he back flipped off the balcony and down to a rooftop below, where he’d surely continue his overly acrobatic route out of town.

Pixel shut the door, trying his hardest to ignore the fluttering in his chest and the protests in his mind. It had been months since he had started feeling like this and to his dismay nothing had changed. If anything, the feelings had intensified.

Why couldn’t I have been attracted to Pastel instead, Pixel wondered as he climbed into bed and pulled the covers up around him.

Then again, what’s so wrong with liking Tablet? Pixel laughed a bit at the obvious answer.

“Well, he is a demon.”

#graffiti kingdom #tabpix

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