Jump to content

Photo

Tileset I'm working on


  • Please log in to reply
38 replies to this topic

#1 FnrrfYgmSchnish

FnrrfYgmSchnish

    Junior

  • Members

Posted 29 August 2012 - 12:17 AM

Just got back into working with Zquest recently, after finding that the beta versions are finally being called "2.5" instead of "beta (insert long string of numbers here")... and I've decided to make my own custom tileset.

It's actually based on a tileset I made in a long-lost quest (I still have the file, but it seems to have gotten corrupted in some way and no longer opens in any version of Zquest), which was essentially the classic NES tileset but with black outlines and more colors, and with some extra tiles and redrawn/modified enemies added in. I really had no idea what I was doing with the palettes back then, though, so they ended up being a jumbled mess full of barely-different shades that I had tacked on in an attempt to give the sprites more shading. I still liked the general idea of it, so I decided to start over from a blank file and make a new-and-improved version of that old tileset using the original as a reference.

So far, I've mostly been working on the enemy tiles, since monster graphics are probably my favorite tiles to work on out of the whole bunch. At the moment the only ones I don't have done are the BS Zelda Dodongo, Death Knight, Aquamentus, and Ganon. I also don't have any maptiles, item, or Link graphics done just yet, as you can probably tell from these screenshots...

IPB ImageIPB Image
Two sets of Gleeok graphics. An actual Gleeok on the left, and on the right a Giant Frog (which replaced Gleeoks in the lost quest I mentioned before.) Yep, that means multi-headed Gleeoks can become multi-tongued frogs. XD

IPB Image
More frogs, this time frog-wizards standing in for red Wizzrobes. There was an entire frog-themed dungeon in that quest, with water everywhere, "frogrobes" (both normal and wind) as regular enemies, and the "froGleeok" as the boss.

IPB Image
New Moldorm and Lanmola sprites.

#2 nicklegends

nicklegends

    Trofessional Pransposer

  • Contributors
  • Real Name:Ed
  • Pronouns:He / Him

Posted 29 August 2012 - 12:37 AM

Hello FnrrfYgmSchnish, and welcome to the forum! icon_smile.gif I have no idea how you remember your username. icon_xd.gif

I appreciate the effort in making a new tileset. It's impressive that you make the sprites you do without exceeding the NES' color limitations. While the sprites are a little difficult to make out by themselves, those present in Zelda 1 weren't really any different in that respect. So, keep it up. icon_smile.gif

#3 Cukeman

Cukeman

    "Tra la la, look for Sahasrahla. ... ... ..."

  • Banned
  • Location:Hyrule/USA

Posted 29 August 2012 - 05:47 AM

Really got a nice visual style going there. icon_smile.gif
Frogs are pretty quest-specific, but I'd think anyone would like to use the others.

#4 Zemious

Zemious

    Magicite: Bahamut

  • Members

Posted 29 August 2012 - 09:11 AM

It looks pretty good, at least you post screenshots unlike a certain someone I know.

#5 FnrrfYgmSchnish

FnrrfYgmSchnish

    Junior

  • Members

Posted 29 August 2012 - 04:24 PM

Wow, that got replies quicker than I expected; this forum must be pretty active.

I've started working on the maptiles now (currently have ground/grass/sand and mountain tiles done, working on water now), so I'll probably have more screenshots sometime soon showing off some of those.

QUOTE
It's impressive that you make the sprites you do without exceeding the NES' color limitations. While the sprites are a little difficult to make out by themselves, those present in Zelda 1 weren't really any different in that respect.


They're not actually exactly like NES graphics; most of them use one color too many to actually work on the NES. Of course, a lot of NES games (the Megaman series is a good example, and the player characters in SMB2 having whites in their eyes) used doubled-up sprites to add extra colors, so technically I guess you could say they're like an NES game with fancy graphics.

And yeah, I know what you mean about the original NES sprites being unclear sometimes. That's part of what led to some of these (is a Lynel a lion-centaur wielding two swords, or a goat with shoulder-mounted sword launchers? I'll probably have one of both in this tileset.)

QUOTE
Frogs are pretty quest-specific, but I'd think anyone would like to use the others.


Yeah, the frogs are extras, set aside from the other enemy tiles in an "extra sprites" section toward the end. This will probably have an alternate sprite for just about every enemy when these are done, though right now there's only alternate Wizzrobes, Leevers, and Gleeoks.

The default tiles (both new-style and NES-style) are set up to use regular Wizzrobes and Gleeoks.

Edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish, 29 August 2012 - 06:22 PM.


#6 Cukeman

Cukeman

    "Tra la la, look for Sahasrahla. ... ... ..."

  • Banned
  • Location:Hyrule/USA

Posted 29 August 2012 - 04:53 PM

QUOTE(Zemious @ Aug 29 2012, 07:11 AM) View Post

It looks pretty good, at least you post screenshots unlike a certain someone I know.


That's just remarkably false on so many levels.

#7 Lightwulf

Lightwulf

    Master

  • Members
  • Real Name:I'm not telling you my secret identity!!!
  • Location:Ainrofilac, Ceh Sha Ah (I'm libingual)

Posted 30 August 2012 - 11:51 AM

Well, I must say good job so far! icon_smile.gif Welcome to PureZC, too!

It definitely looks like it will be a unique tileset. I haven't released mine, but I made a custom tileset for my first quest based off of the Classic tiles but adding black borders and using twice the number of colors. Similar idea but different graphics. Nice to see another take on the idea. "Custom Tileset Power!" icon_awesome.gif

#8 FnrrfYgmSchnish

FnrrfYgmSchnish

    Junior

  • Members

Posted 30 August 2012 - 12:19 PM

Here's some random screenshots showing off some of the maptiles I've made. So far I'm pretty much done with the mountain and water/pit tiles, and have started on the trees and other various objects.

IPB Image
A fairly ordinary "cset 2 green mountains and Octoroks" screen. Except with lots of waterfalls. The waterfalls aren't quite finished yet (there will be a different tile for the "waterfall splash" at the bottom, in addition to the ripples in the regular water that are already there.)

IPB Image
A desert area, with cacti and Leevers. I edited those Leevers from one of the extra sprites in the default tileset, which was a Zelda 2 Leever if I remember right.

IPB Image
Snow Armos! Also, the first Lynel sprites I've ever made (in the old version of this tileset, for some reason I used a Gameboy-type Lynel sprite from another tileset instead of making my own... I guess I had a hard time getting them to look right before.)

Edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish, 30 August 2012 - 12:21 PM.

  • Cukeman likes this

#9 SpacemanDan

SpacemanDan

  • Members
  • Location:Ontario, Canada

Posted 30 August 2012 - 12:23 PM

This looks really cool. I like the overall style you're going for here. Nicely done so far!

I really like the frog boss idea - very unique. icon_smile.gif

#10 FnrrfYgmSchnish

FnrrfYgmSchnish

    Junior

  • Members

Posted 01 September 2012 - 02:09 AM

Just finished up the dungeon entrance tiles today, including many variations. There's the regular Z1 "spooky tree" and "monster-faced building" entrances (with glowing-eyed versions of the tree and one of the monster-faces, and following-eyeball versions of all three), and also a doorway into the trunk of a huge tree (the leafy kind, not the spooky dead kind.) There's also something that I've wondered why the default classic set never had, despite adding lock blocks and even lock BUSHES--locked dungeon entrances!

IPB Image
They sure have improved dungeon security lately. (See also: world's cutest Pols Voices.)

Ideally the dungeon's "eyes" will be set to open when the door is unlocked, possibly even changing to the following-eyeball type for added creepiness. Also, there are fences (two kinds, wooden and the metal ones seen above), which can have locked gates.

I also made some sealed entrances with no keyhole, for when you need to push a block or use some special item to make it open (or when you just need to blast it open with bombs, of course. That's always an option.)

Started fiddling with item sprites too now, starting with the swords, shields, and hearts. Of course, I haven't touched the subscreens yet, so they don't use the new hearts. And the sorta-tilted-but-not-completely-diagonal sword sprites didn't come out quite so well, so I'll probably redo them (or just use the upward-pointed swords for all of them.)

Edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish, 01 September 2012 - 02:12 AM.


#11 Shane

Shane

    💙

  • Moderators
  • Pronouns:He / Him
  • Location:South Australia

Posted 01 September 2012 - 07:07 AM

Wow, that looks nice, I love the style you're going for and the new additions such as the locks, I'm looking forward to seeing more. icon_biggrin.gif

QUOTE(Cukeman @ Aug 30 2012, 07:23 AM) View Post
That's just remarkably false on so many levels.

Don't worry, I've seen you post screenshots. I honestly don't know what Zemious is talking about, frankly. icon_shrug.gif

#12 SpikeReynolds

SpikeReynolds

    Ironically bald furry

  • Members
  • Real Name:Spens
  • Location:Grand Rapids, Michigan

Posted 01 September 2012 - 07:16 PM

It's cool to see something new every now and then. You've got a very unique style going on here, and I love it.

#13 FnrrfYgmSchnish

FnrrfYgmSchnish

    Junior

  • Members

Posted 02 September 2012 - 02:25 PM

IPB Image
Ignore the weird bow/arrow positioning; I haven't moved the items around at all yet on this screen, so it's still expecting a vertical bow/arrow sitting next to each other instead of the "arrow diagonally across bow" sprites I had set up for them. Also, I'm not entirely sure what that random rupee is doing there, but I'm guessing it's supposed to be a heart-container piece that ended up with the wrong sprite somehow because of how I positioned them in the tileset.

Finally got almost all the item sprites done--all that's left for those is the spells and scrolls, and I think a few weapon sprites used by some items (mostly magic, boomerang/arrow sparkles, and stuff like that; the main weapon graphics are all pretty much done.)

Haven't done much with the subscreen yet, but I did do all the little icons for hearts, rupees, etc. and trim out the ones that seemed unnecessary (30 hearts seems like way too much unless you're inflating your difficulty to the point of insanity by having enemies do 15 gazillion damage, plus Zelda games always seem to have hearts in multiples of 8 from what I remember and 32 wouldn't work since the two extra hearts sitting up next to "- LIFE -" were really awkward-looking. And I'm pretty sure level-specific keys don't show as part of the "all keys" counter unless you're on that level anyway so a separate counter for them doesn't really seem necessary.)

I might trim down the magic meter also, depending on what I decide to do with the rest of the subscreen (leave the background all black, or make some sort of border between it and the screen?)... though that would make the Cane of Byrna basically impossible to use since it seems to eat up magic absurdly fast compared to every other magic-costing item.

EDIT: I think I'm just about done with overworld maptile stuff (and close to finishing both enemies and items); next will probably be Link, then on to dungeon stuff. Here's some more screenshots:

IPB Image

The short hookshot is now actually short (had to cut the length down to 8 from something like 50 to get this length; it's at its longest point in the screenshot. The long hookshot has the 50 length and 32 chains from the default "short" hookshot.)

IPB Image
Link: You can climb with this thing? I always thought it was a little portable bridge!

IPB ImageIPB Image
One of the new dungeon entrances: the MEGA-GRAVE! Originally the entrance to a "King's Tomb" dungeon from the quest that used the old version of this tileset; it's almost the same as the old version, except that the old version had a bunch of random barely-different shades of some colors and a big red crystal in the middle of the cross (tiles for the cross with crystal are included, but due to palette issues it isn't ever red. Though it can be red-brownish or blue or purple or green.) Also, the cracked graves are "BS Grave" type, crumbling into the "empty slab with rock shards" tiles seen in these screenshots.

Also, the Ghini in the second screenshot is one of the unkillable flickering ones; I forgot to set the ringleader flag when testing this. XD

=================

And finally...

IPB Image

Link sprites are done, at least the shieldless ones.

Edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish, 03 September 2012 - 04:24 PM.

  • Cukeman likes this

#14 FnrrfYgmSchnish

FnrrfYgmSchnish

    Junior

  • Members

Posted 07 September 2012 - 10:34 PM

I figure double-posting is probably frowned upon, but it's been a few days since the last one and I do have a pretty significant update here...

http://i518.photobuc...ungeontiles.png (this is probably too big of an image to just post here, heh. Probably should've just gotten an in-game screenshot again.)

Yep... dungeon tiles. And aside from the side-view tiles, they're pretty much done.

The walls are edited from the BS Zelda dungeon tiles (one of the... three or four dungeon wall sets found in a BS Zelda tileset I found here; it was the one set to all the dungeons by default so I assume it's what BS Zelda itself actually used), not actually imported into the quest file but redrawn one tile at a time while looking at the originals for reference. So there are minor differences between them, aside from this one using almost-Zelda-1-esque colors and the original BS Zelda being SNES colors. I think I made the doors a pixel or two bigger so I could fit the boss key's horns on the door tiles, for example. I will probably add a second set of dungeon walls in, possibly also based on BS Zelda walls for consistency.

The bridges are edited from the classic bridges (the ones on this screen become the cracked bridges and then fall into the lava or water below when you step on them; the already-cracked ones will just fall down as soon as you enter the screen.) The lava is 100% custom-made; it's a four-tile animation with the usual generic lava bubbling effect. There's no built-in lava tile so I just made them 4-heart damage tiles for now (another alternative I thought of is that the lava tiles could just be water, but with flippers disabled on every screen that has lava, so you will always "drown" in it and take damage. Speaking of that, is drowning damage editable or is it always a quarter-heart? I know the official Zelda games I've played usually had it do a half-heart of damage, so I wonder why that isn't the default...)


EDIT: IPB Image
Collapsing bridges over lava in action (and also more of Link; his sprites are all done now, shields and all. I didn't bother to fill out the Z3-style animation sprites, though, since it's kind of silly to use those in an NES-inspired tileset with only two walking sprites in each direction.) Right now the timing for them can be a bit tricky; sometimes Link just... doesn't make it in time, even if you walk straight across with no stops. He ends up with just a couple pixels too many of his body still on the falling bridge as it turns into damaging lava (and with only three hearts, dying instantly.) But not always, oddly; it's hard to predict when it will and won't happen (I've cleared all three collapsing bridges on the first try when testing, and I've also had him fall in the lava when crossing on my second step across.)

I think I'll make the "cracked bridge" tile's animation take just a couple ticks longer to prevent that from happening so often... happening sometimes is okay, since lava's not really an early-dungeon thing anyway. XD

Edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish, 07 September 2012 - 11:44 PM.


#15 SUCCESSOR

SUCCESSOR

    Apprentice

  • Banned
  • Real Name:TJ

Posted 07 September 2012 - 10:58 PM

I've been meaning to post here but have kept forgetting. I am think this is awesome! I can't wait till you finish.

And I don't think you have to worry about double posting as long as you have something significant to add and/or a good deal of time has passed.


0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users