Doubts with sprites/tiles

[Fithos]

Hi there,

As a solo developer with practically no knowledge in arts, I'm finding very difficult to design my game and decide how things should be done.
I feel lost in what I still consider to be the basics but at the same time I feel like I'm wasting time watching more tutorials as practically all cover the same I've already seen. So I want to take the leap and start prototyping.

There is one thing I have not very clear. Take FTL game as example.
What I see there is a single ship in which characters can walk on and with different systems/actions installed on each room of the ship.
Would the whole ship be a single sprite?
Are the rooms part of the sprite or just tiles painted on a different layer on top?

Thanks,

 

[SnortySnoopy]

Though I've never played FTL before. I guess this sprite sheet might help answer a little bit of your question.
https://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/67685/

 

[nacho_chicken]

Though I've never played FTL before. I guess this sprite sheet might help answer a little bit of your question.
https://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/67685/

Just a note: those sprite sheets are ripped by a third party - often without an extraction tool - and are not necessarily how the image data is stored in the game itself.

I don't know anything about how FTL works internally and I've never played it, but I can share how I would handle something like this.

• Hull of the ship is a sprite
• Walls, grid, and grid decorations are tiles
• Doors/windows/room indicators are individual sprites

 

[pixeltroid]

Hi there,

As a solo developer with practically no knowledge in arts, I'm finding very difficult to design my game and decide how things should be done.
I feel lost in what I still consider to be the basics but at the same time I feel like I'm wasting time watching more tutorials as practically all cover the same I've already seen. So I want to take the leap and start prototyping.

There is one thing I have not very clear. Take FTL game as example.
What I see there is a single ship in which characters can walk on and with different systems/actions installed on each room of the ship.
Would the whole ship be a single sprite?
Are the rooms part of the sprite or just tiles painted on a different layer on top?

Thanks,

I dont know anything about the game you are talking about. But I looked it up and got this:



It appears to me that the ship is a single large image and the room layout is part of the ship.

It also looks like the smaller objects -- including the yellow highlight and doors are separate sprites drawn on top of the ship.

 

[Fithos]

Thanks for your responses.

It was kind of my guess but, at this early stage of making a first game, a lot of doubts arise.

Thanks again!

 

[Yal]

If I'd make FTL in GM, I probably would do like this:

• Ship images are just decorative, and they're at the bottom.
• Rooms are their own objects, one object per room, and drawn on top of the ship layer. This has several benefits:
  • I can use several different layouts for the same ship graphics (e.g. warship with more gun rooms, invasion ship with more teleporters, cargo ship with more storage space) to add more game content / variety without having to create more resources
  • Room resources can be reused, so if I make prettier graphics I don't need to redraw EVERY ship, just room assets
  • It's easier to have changes to a room, like damage to the hull making it depressurized
  • Room objects can be used for pathfinding
• Doors, items and characters are their own objects with their own sprites and drawn on top of the rooms.
• A layer above that would have entire-ship effects like energy shields.

You might also enjoy this GDC talk by the FTL devs, they talk about how a lot of FTL's design is since they wanted to have as little GUI elements as possible.