[INDEV] Pokemon Card GB Expansion | New Sprites 06/22/12 - Reconstructing OP

[Plino]

My all-time favorite card.

Scizor


This one's four colours.

[Gaia]

I mean the one which is in Eevee's ears and eyes.

Here's the thing..



While looking at the Charmander from Pokemon GB2, I noticed that the darkest shade of red was applied on both Charmander and the background, and of course the reason for that is that it was five colors, with the fifth being the color of the border (and the darkest color). I was following that rule with Evee (Neo Discovery).

[Yo-Yo Boy]

But if you use tranperacy where the darkest shade is, you can minimize the pallete or use another color.
What im trying to say is, that it should look something like this.

[Gaia]

Oh, so that's what I missed. Good to know, I'll keep this in mind.

[Plino]

SO! Excuse the lack of posts for the last... two weeks? Three? I don't know, school has cracked down on me. But I finally got some free time today and did a ton of expansion symbols and two new cards.

Kakuna


Lugia ex


I'm not entirely sure how much I like how it came out... so I'll probably redo it later.

Expansion Symbols

Expedition Base Set

Skyridge

EX Ruby & Sapphire

EX Sandstorm

EX Dragon

EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua

EX FireRed & LeafGreen

EX Team Rocket Returns

EX Deoxys

EX Unseen Forces

EX Delta Species

EX Crystal Guardians

EX Power Keepers

Diamond & Pearl

Mysterious Treasures

Secret Wonders

Great Encounters

Majestic Dawn

Legends Awakened

Stormfront

Platinum

Rising Rivals

Supreme Victors

Arceus

HeartGold & SoulSilver

Unleashed

Triumphant

Call of Legends

Noble Victories

If I did one that one of you already did, please excuse me. I checked to avoid that, but if I missed one, just tell me and I'll take it down if you'd like.

[Proton]

I understand the idea of making the card look true to the real image, but some of your cards Starturds, have poor readability.
Like Blaine's Moltres, Scizor, Scizor Ex, Skarmory Ex and Lugia Ex.

[Plino]

Well I agree with you on Lugia ex and Blaine's Moltres, but I think both my Scizor and the Skarmory have pretty good readability. Undaunted Scizor is debatable, because of its small palette, but like I said, the other two are good... though I'm probably biased, ha ha. Could you give me tips on how to increase their readability? These cards are really the first time I've ever tried spriting, so they're obviously going to have some problems, and I want to improve. I'm not very open to focusing on one part of the card though. All of the cards in the newer expansions (specifically starting on Pokemon VS and onward) and the trainer cards have already had parts cropped out to focus on the main art, and I don't really want to leave any larger portions out. I could try forcing the art to fit, but that would skew the dimensions...

[X Gamer 66]

I started a project with this exact same concept a few years ago, but it never really took off. This made my day, man! I'd post some of the old sprites from the project, but sadly (and surprisingly) I can't find them.

Anyway, stuff you have so far looks pretty fucking boss. Good luck with the project.

I managed to find a couple of the sprits from the old project. Not sure if they'll be of any use but I figured I'd post them. feel free to use them/edit them as you please

[Plino]

OH MY GOD

I feel absolutely terrible for leaving this unattended for two months, but I had to get my priorities straight. I had begun to fall behind in school, so I moved this along with other projects off to the side to focus on my studies. However, I'm finally on spring break! A whole week to myself. In the meantime I did some sprites. Hopefully not all interest/hope has been lost in this project.

Azumarill


Bellossom


Feraligatr


Jumpluff


Slowking

I really don't like how the light rays turned out on this one, but I had already reached my palette limit. If anyone wants to take a crack at it be my guest.

Steelix


Murkrow

I really like how this one turned out.

And last but not least this guy.

Electrode (Base Set)


This fellow was also left out of GB1 and GB2, along with Fossil Ditto. Bulbapedia thinks it was "most likely because of its complicated and potentially difficult to program Pokémon Power." I didn't bother sticking to the palette limit with him because even if this game ever goes through, he probably won't be included... this sprite has about ten colours, ha ha. Though if anyone wants to optimise it, go ahead!

Also, big idea here. I recently read about a guy who proposed to his girlfriend with a hack of the original Metroid game. The interesting part here, though, is that he "re-coded" the game from scratch in C++. Now this is of relevance. I for one don't know any programming languages, but maybe doing what he did and simply recreating the deck building and dueling functions of GB2 with C++ instead of trying to make a romhack would be easier. This is because for one, there are absolutely no utilities out on hacking either GB1 or GB2, two, it could very likely present a fix to the 8x8 tile restriction, and three, it would allow for extension of the main dueling screen to accommodate our oversized shiny sprites, which would be very difficult to do with a Game Boy rom because we would have to stay within the dimensions of the Game Boy's screen. I'm definitely going to start looking into this myself.

X Gamer, I still remember you, what with you being the first one to reply to my thread! Although the Sneasel card that you did was the first one that I sprited way back when, I actually haven't even looked at the Unown, so that's great. If you'd like for me to add your sprites to the OP, just say so.

__

Welp, that about covers what I wanted to say in this post. Hope people are still interested in this!

[Plino]

I am back with more sprites. This times I've taken a break from cards illustrated by Ken Sugimori (although I am a big fan of his earlier, watercolour-y style) and did some by Miki Tanaka. I really like the simple, crayon look of her art. I also did one by Sumiyoshi Kizuki, which, when coupled with and another Celebi card (which I should have up tomorrow), forms a really nice, larger piece. Anyway, here they are.

Farfetch'd


Horsea


Heracross


Sneasel


Good day.

[Sengir]

The hardest part with recoding is the attacks.

If you feel up to programming every type of attack then that's the best way to go I would think.

[Plino]

Blah, so my internet went out for a few days. I managed to finish Celebi but as a result could not make more sprites due to being unable to access bulbapedia for card images. But now it's back and running. So here's what I've done. I'll probably update this post later as I make more sprites.

Also Sengir, that's a good point. I've actually been looking at other methods for programming it, such as flash, but honestly I have no idea what would produce the best possible results.

Anyway,

Celebi


I didn't do the holo version of this card so that it would tie in better with the other two.

Donphan


Also, I have made a decision. Since it's beginning this project has had no real goal, other than "sprite cards." I wanted it that way. I felt that if there was more freedom, if sprites were made without restrictions or pressure, that the project would benefit from better sprites and happier contributors. However, I've realised that if this project really is to even begin getting anywhere, some sort of goal must be set. And so, I've decided that, until further notice, the main objective should be to complete expansions exclusive to the second generation, along with those from the first generation that have not been done yet. In other words, Gym Heroes to Skyridge. That doesn't mean other contributors can't do cards from other sets, but I'm going to pretty much stick to it.

Edit:

Cleffa


Edit 03/23:

Skarmory


Another one that's part of a larger art piece. I'm surprised that it still looks good even with the hatching.

[Plino]

Another sprite from the larger art piece the Skarmory card is from. Lugia is next and then it will be finished.

Ho-oh


Edit 03/25/2012

Lugia


Next is the art piece that is from, which includes Espeon and Eevee. After that I'll do another art piece that includes the three legendary beasts, to wrap up the art sets.

Last edit for today. There aren't enough trainer cards done. So far there's only Trash Exchange from Gym Heroes, so here's this.

Balloon Berry


I'm kind of unsure about how I like how this one turned out, so any CC would be nice.

[Plino]

Another Trainer card. This time it's a stadium card.

Rocket's Hideout


Edit 03/27/12

Raikou


Kind of unsure about the readability of this one. Mainly the tail, which is kind of lost in the clouds.

[Plino]

OK!!! So I finished expanding the main dueling screen, and I'm fairly comfortable with it. The base makes it seems cluttered, but when you put it into "practice,", it looks roomy enough. The only thing I need now is to add a spot for Stadium cards, and I'm not sure if that would be better off on the main dueling screen or the "Check whole play area" screen, and a spot for any counters that are placed on Pokemon (like Quilava's Char counter that is placed on opposing Pokemon).

So, here's the base-



The expanded size is 208x152, so it still follows the 8x8 tile style. Let me explain things.

For the small marked grey outlines with pink outlines within them, those are for energy and status icons. The main grey ones are for placing those sprites that are 8x8, and the pink ones are for placing 7x7 sprites. In general, anything smaller than 8x8 is placed in the bottom left of the tile, but I marked it like that anyways.

The large outlines with slightly smaller ones within them are where the active Pokemon are placed. For cards whose art goes outside of the frame, I've set the limit to 88x56, so it's still a multiple of 8. This doesn't mean that an 88x56 border should be created; the border should still stay at 64x48. It just means that the pieces of the art that stick out shouldn't exceed the new limitation. You'll see what I mean if you scroll down a bit.

The marked grey outlines near the little cards below/above the HP counters are for indicating each player's amount of benched Pokemon/remaining Prize Cards. The number sprites deviate quite a bit from the lower left rule, so I didn't bother marking internal outlines.

The marked outline to the bottom left of the player's active Pokemon is where the sprite for its type goes. After that sprite, the name goes in the tiles right after it, with a space of one pixel between each letter (actually, the game stores tiles of two-letter and one-letter combinations. So for "PIKACHU", the "PI", "KA", and "CH" are grouped on the same tile. "U" gets its own tile, since there isn't another character with which it can be paired). After the name is finished, the "Lv" sprite or any other special sprite (such as the golden star for Pokemon star; it's part of their names) goes on the tile right after the last letter tile. This looks fine for single-letter tiles, since there is still a space of seven pixels. However, in GB2, this is still followed for double-letter tiles, resulting in there being only a one pixel space, and the "L" in "Lv" looking like it's part of the Pokemon's name. So for the mod, an empty tile should be allowed between final double-letter tiles and level/other name tiles. Finally, the numbers are also stored as double-digit tiles, and the tile goes right after the level tile.

The marked outline to the top right of the opponent's active Pokemon is the digit tile. So it would be like the "17" in "Lv 17". After that, just follow the rules outlined above to get the Pokemon's name looking right.

The marked outlines above the HP counters are for placing Energy sprites. In GB1 and GB2, I believe you can attach up to seven Energy to your active Pokemon before the eighth Energy sprite would be cut off and replaced by "+". Since the highest HP in GB1 and GB2 is 120, it would be six Energy (one for every HP counter on the top bar) plus one more which hung off, then the plus sign. Now, the highest HP is 200, so I added four counters to each bar, resulting in eleven visible Energy before the "+". Even for Pokemon with HP lower than ten (a full top bar), the Energy display stays in the same spot.

The marked outlines next to each active Pokemon are for indicating Special Conditions. In GB2, there is Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, and Poisoned. I believe Paralyzed, Confused, and Asleep go on the bottom, and Poisoned goes on the top. That means that any of the bottom Conditions can be stacked with Poisoned but not with each other. I still haven't decided where counters will go, nor have I made a sprite for Burned.

The marked outlines directly to the right of the HP bars are for attached Trainer Cards. In GB1 and GB2, there's only PlusPower and Defender. They can be stacked with themselves and with each other (that is, you can attach, say, 2 Defenders and 3 PlusPowers to your active Pokemon). The wording on these cards doesn't prohibit them from being stacked with other Trainer cards, since there were no others at the time. However, the Neo expansions introduced Pokemon Tools like Balloon Berry, whose wording explicitly states that they cannot be attached to a Pokemon that already has a Pokemon Tool attached to it. This creates a loophole, since Defenders and PlusPowers are not identified as Pokemon Tools. Even so, I don't think that the mod should allow stacking of PlusPowers/Defenders with Pokemon Tools. The order for PlusPowers and Defenders would be Defenders at the bottom, and PlusPowers at the top. The marked outlines to the right of these would indicate how many of each are attached to the Pokemon in question.

Finally, you'll notice that I created sprites for each option on the bottom menu. I did this because expanding the screen left a lot of empty space, so I thought that those would make it look nicer. Instead of an arrow pointing at the currently selected option, though, I thought that the sprite next to it could blink instead. The arrow would make it look really cramped on the leftmost side.

Well, I think that covers it. So now, here's an example I made.



Yo-Yo Boy's Pikachu * versus my Steelix! Don't ask me how either Pokemon got statused, I don't know.

Hope you guys like it! Any feedback on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated.