Section-Specific Rules
To keep things tidy and in one place, other sections' rules will also be posted here. Dividing the rules across several sections proved difficult to newcomers, so while this might make things a little long, all the rules can be checked in one place.
Custom Sprites / Pixel Art
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 aggressions 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 & Credits
The boards are mainly meant for custom sprites. You also are allowed to post sprite edits and recolors. 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, recolors 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, you can either attach them directly to the post or upload them to an image hosting site (like Imgur or a personal Dropbox account). When uploading to a third party host, use the direct image URL with the forum's image tags. For very large images, text links to the file should be provided instead.
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 else's 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 Development
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.
People will give C+C on your work, so don't go nuts 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.
We don't have a game requests section because the amount of effort required to fill a game request would likely result in the section going unused. 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 (we're 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.
Use dedicated external file hosting sites such as Mega.
5. What is Allowed in the Game Dev Section?
- Original games
- Fan games
- Programs and applications (e.g. gif animator, image editor, music maker, etc.)
- Romhacks, IPS patches, etc.
- Game mods, custom maps, etc.
- Open-source code
Other Creativity Boards
1. Tag What Kind of Topic You're Posting
Please label your topic with what it is using a tag at the beginning of the title (e.g. [ART], [MUSIC], [WRITING], etc.).
2. 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.
Requests
1. Request Requirements
People joining purely to make a request are not appreciated. Be sure to check our Resource websites (tSR, tMR, tTR, tSoR), 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 favor. 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 favor for someone they don't like.
Commissions
Commissions follow the same set of rules as Requests except for the following change to rule #1:
1. Request Requirements
Remember that if you request here, you MUST make it clear that you are offering monetary compensation in return.
Note: Requests and Commissions have been moved to the Discord (https://discord.gg/dykg). The above rules still apply and have been left above for reference but requests are no longer allowed on the forum.