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[Malignanttoe]

Hi, I wasn't sure what else to title this, but I was hoping someone could help.
How would one set up a system so that pixel sprites update their appearance based on say, gear equipped or clorhing ect?
I wasn't sure if there would be a basic idea behind this or if it may be very different based on game engine. I'm hoping the answer isn't to make every sprite with every possible gear combo.

[Bino]

It's a bit trickier with sprites than with 3d models. I've never seen a good way with sprite sheets.

My first approach would be to look at 2d skeleton sprite animation systems and check out the runtime. I've never looked but I'd be surprised if you couldn't swap out sprites.

You could also roll your own character system with the same idea. But it'd be very hard to have the look and feel of a masterfully crafted sprite sheet.

This style of art has a certain look to it which might not work for your project.

http://dragonbones.com
http://esotericsoftware.com/

Just an idea, hope it helps.

[Malignanttoe]

Thanks for the reply. That was kind of what I was expecting, but with my lack of experience, I just wasn't sure.

I'll check out those links. Thank you!

[Bino]

No worries.

Something else that might be worth considering is pixel art generators - https://itch.io/tools/tag-generator/tag-pixel-art

This one highlights what I meant by rolling your own -  https://0x72.itch.io/pixeldudesmaker
You could have your base "naked" character and attach items, change colours etc. This example is done pretty seamlessly.


But... being procedural... the art becomes somewhat "samey". Worth investigating.

Good luck!

[TonyLi]

If you're OK with a more vector-like art style and skeletal animation using Spine or DragonBones as Bino mentioned (Castle Crashers and Plants vs Zombies are good examples), then you can swap sprites in and out.

If you want true pixel art, you'll need to make spritesheets. But you won't necessarily have to make every sprite with every gear combo. If your characters are all approximately the same proportion, you can layer spritesheets. For example, draw the base body sprite, then the pants sprite, then shirt, then hair/helmet, then arm, then weapon. Each spritesheet will need to be the same dimensions and have the same number of animation frames.

For further customization, if you draw most of the spritesheets in grayscale, you can tint them different colors (e.g., brown hair, red hair, blue hair, etc.).

[ArsCreativa]

In Diablo I & II, all the characters where pre-rendered sprites, composed in real time from various layers for every weapon / armor type.
But that it's a very tedious way to go, very difficult to do with hand drawn characters.

[Thaumaturge]

I suspect that with at least some engines--and I'd be unsurprised if it were most engines--you might be able to layer sprites at runtime, much as is shown above. Thus you could create a series of "breastplate" sprites, with the selected item layered over the torso of your base sprite; and a series of "sword" sprites, with the selected weapon attached to the hand of your base sprite; and so on.

[Bino]

Saw this and thought of this post. Thought I'd share

https://visustella.itch.io/stella-character-generator