Spriting & Pixelart Rules

1. Board purpose

This forum is mainly to help people to improve and develop as spriters / pixel artists. Furthermore, it serves as a form of quality control for those who intend to submit custom sprites to the tSR website. Here, you can show your pixel works in order to get comments and criticism. Feel free to help others with advice and your opinion.

2. Be friendly and polite

While you're encouraged to share your opinion, don't get upset when someone decides not to follow your criticism. Likewise, you shouldn't get upset when you disagree with the comments and criticism you receive. Keep agressions at a minimum. The general guideline applies: If you feel offended, make use of the report system to contact staff instead of picking a fight. Moreover, if you have nothing of value to add, rather leave a topic alone instead of making insulting remarks.

3. Offer your advice and criticism in a proper way

Aside from being polite, it's also important to be understandable. Keep in mind not everyone is familiar with all the pixel art specific terms. While we do have a Spriting Dictionary topic, it's never wrong to explain your points in more detail, especially when helping newcomers and beginners. Try to keep your advice simple and clear.

4. About custom sprites & edits

The boards are mainly meant for custom sprites. You also are allowed to post sprite edits and recolours. However, don't be surprised when you don't receive the comments you expect. Most people prefer to offer their help on custom work so chances are the only answer you will get is that (and in the best case, why) you should make custom sprites instead.
Again, stay friendly and calm when explaining why splices, recolours and edits are discouraged. If someone insists on making them, let them.
Sprite showcase threads are also allowed, however if you appear to block all criticism, you may end up not getting any replies. Note that criticism doesn't necessarily need to be applied to the current piece, but can also be applied to future work only.

5. Images & attachments

In order to show your sprites, upload the image file to an image hoster (like Imgur, Minus, Dropbox or one of the countless others). You can also use the attachment system on the new topics / post page. You can embed your image by using IMG tags (example below). For really large images (like ones that stretch the page), it's advisable to put them in SPOILER tags.


6. Sprite Discussion Threads

To prevent drowning out other people's threads and to reduce the general topic chaos, users are encouraged to use general sprite threads for their creations instead of creating a new thread for every single sprite they make. Note that this doesn't mean you should use someone elses sprite thread to discuss your sprites, which on the contrary is prohibited unless it is an open project or event.
If your last sprite thread is rather old, feel free to make a new one instead of bumping it if you prefer that. However if it is quite fresh, please re-use it instead of opening another one!

Game Dev Section Rules

READ IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME POSTING IN THIS SECTION! ANY THREAD THAT DOESN'T FOLLOW THE RULES WILL BE CLOSED AND THE ORIGINAL POSTER WILL BE WARNED.

1. Post enough content.
We won't accept a thread that barely describes your game, and especially not if there's no game or content at all. If you're making a game, be sure to include actual evidence of the game being worked on. In other words, make the game available for others to play, show screenshots, talk about the gameplay/programming, etc. If you're working on a game idea, tell us how the game will play, show some concept art of characters and/or places. If you're making a program or application, tell us what it does, the requirements to run it, etc. Include -something- in your thread to let us know what it is that you’re posting.
Don't forget to say what programming language/game-making program you're using for the project.

• 1.1: This also means reserving threads is prohibited.
  Threads with content such as "I am making a game, will post it when it's done" will be locked on sight. Those are completely pointless and aren’t useful for anything. Post only when you've got actual content.

2. Everything posted here is prone to criticism.
People will give C+C on your work, so don't go apeshit if you don't get the sugarcoating you wanted. Consider this a way to promote your game; we’re giving you advice on how to improve here and make your game the best it can be.

• 2.1: Don't be rude though.
  You're free to give C+C on anyone's work here, but this doesn't mean you can say 'you suck' or 'this is shit' and just leave it at that. Give the OP very concise AND constructive criticism so they can improve their work.
  

3. Requests are strictly prohibited.
We don’t have a requests section just because. If you plan on making a thread in which you're the “idea guy” and just want us to “make sprites for your game”, forget it. Either post it in the requests section like everyone else, or don’t post at all.

• 3.1: Recruiting, however, is allowed.
  While it’s technically a request, recruiting for your project is allowed if you meet the requirements. If you have enough legitimate content in your game (as in, you’ve actually done a large amount of work on the game YOURSELF), and have enough reputation from people (I’m not talking about the green number below your avatar; I'm talking about REAL reputation), you can recruit people to help you. Note that they may want money for their work, however. Be sure to explain how you'll pay the contributors, how much, and when.
  
• 3.2: Don't post purely to advertise.
  If you joined just so you can cheaply advertise your game, tough luck. We're no ad board. Post only if you sincerely want to get feedback and criticism. Pure ad threads will be locked and all references to your product will be removed. Don't try to be sneaky, either.

4.How to upload files.
Use dedicated external file hosting sites, such as Mediafire, Filebeam, Dropbox or another site of your preference.


WHAT IS ALLOWED IN THE GAME DEV SECTION?

• Original Games
  
• Fangames
  
• Programs and Applications (gif animator, image editor, music maker, etc)
  
• Romhacks, IPS patches, etc
  
• Game Mods and Custom Maps, etc
  
• Open Source Code
  

Any mod has the rights to update these rules when they feel it necessary.

Creativity Board Rules

Check the actual forum here.

1.Tag what kind of topic you're posting.
Please label your topic with what it is. If it's art, writing, or something else. Put the label in the title ([ART], [MUSIC], [WRITING], for example) or in the "Description" field. Pretty simple, easy, stick it in, done. Simple. Fast. Pucka.

2. Don't just say it's bad.
If you plan on telling someone that their work isn't very good, tell them why. And remember to be a bit gentle about it. Be as brutally honest as you can by all means, but don't just say "that's terrible" and don't get personal with it. Tell them how to improve if you can, and if you can't at least say that you don't know how they can correct it.

• 2.1: This also means...
  This rule works for anything concerning personal work, be it art, sprites or game. Do not act like an ass, take your time and help the artist improve.
  

3. Don't Get Angry or Upset.
If you can't take the criticism, then you shouldn't be showing your work. It's as simple as that. Of course if someone has just said your work isn't that good you should be upset, maybe even angry, but just accept it, and if they were just flaming you with no real criticism, then report it to us and we'll take care of it.

4. Basis of Artistic Nudity.
Artistic nudity is allowed, but please mention if there is nudity involved in the art. If you do not label it as having adult themes, there will be SERIOUS consequences. And there is a difference between artistic nudity, and just nudity. Don't post hentai and porn.

Request Rules

1. Request Requirements

Members need a minimum of 20 posts and must have been registered for one month or longer to be allowed to make requests. People joining purely to make a request are not appreciated. Note that spamming to get those 20 posts will get you in trouble.
Be sure to check our Resource websites (tSR, tMR, tSoR, tTR), use the Forum Search and Google (or whatever you prefer) before making a request.

2. Be clear and understandable

When posting a request, make clear what you want. Be precise and to the point, give all necessary information (game, system, style, character...). If people have to research what exactly you want, they may be less inclined to help.

3. No one is required to fulfill your request

Fulfilling someones request is doing them a favour. You cannot expect anyone to do what you want and you cannot demand anything. Note that smaller requests are more likely to be fulfilled than large and complicated ones. Furthermore, you're free to offer incentives like money to raise interest.
If no one fulfills your request, chances are no one wants to or no one knows how to do it. We're people, not slave machines. Wait at least one or two weeks before bumping a topic and accept it when a request won't be fulfilled. Consider learning how to do it yourself.
In general, stay friendly and respectful. No one likes to do a favour for someone they don't like.

4. Fulfilled requests

Fulfilled request threads will be locked and moved to Completed Requests. If you think you have something valuable to add, contact the requester or a mod.

The Lounge Rules

Check the actual forum here.

Welcome to the TSR Lounge. It's a place to relax and talk about things that really don't fit in GD. You know - GD has that stuffy sorta air about it that you talk about something and you gotta STAY on that topic, and you can't post about the quarter you found while doin the laundry. WELL HERE YOU CAN.
This is pretty much off-topic.

Now, I've got one simple rule so far.

Most other rules within the forum apply. (Check Universal Rules for additional info.)

Special Lounge Rule
You CAN make spam topics, but the spam stays IN THAT TOPIC [A mod can even label these [SPAM] in the topic title if they want]. If there's a "serious" topic ongoing in this lounge, you CANNOT derail the topic, start posting trash and kill the nature of the thread.

IF THIS HAPPENS, THE TOPIC WILL BE CLOSED AND THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR WRECKING DISCUSSIONS WILL BE ISSUED A 10% WARNING.

Real Life Rules

Check the actual forum here.

1.Give a quick check to see if a thread exists already.
The Happy/Not Happy Threads cover most bases, but threads about school life and such are two-a-penny. Contribute to existing threads if the topic you want to discuss is related.

2.This board is semi-serious.
Or at least more serious than other sections on this forum. As such, a reasonable amount of thought is required to your posting. That's not to say that light-heartedness is banned, just have a little content to back up your image posts, or reasoning behind why you agree/disagree with someone.
There's an exception to this with the Photos of Yourself thread, which generally thrives on being a bit silly.

3.There's a difference between arguments and flame-wars.
Some topics discussed are going to be personal matters to some members, so heated discussion is just fine. Just bear in mind that being refuted on a point isn't the same thing as a personal attack, and personal attacks are DEFINITELY not the same thing as refuting a point. Let's all act like sensible adults here.

• 3.1: Furthermore:
  No one cares about running 5-year old jokes into the ground anymore.
  
  I don't know why this bears mentioning; but TSR dumb memes are still dumb memes. Overuse (or use at all in some instances) will be reprimanded.