All sprites on this sheet need a transparent background. The image itself is a 1024 x 1280 .png file. The image at the bottom of this page can be used as a reference.
Note that all monster/player images should be facing the left. The game will render the image horizontally-flipped if the object is facing right.
Items needed for this screen that need to be redone:
The player object was ripped from one of my other games, and really should changed. I like the visual style of him and I like that he's blue, but the original character didnt have wings so i had to sort of tack them on and it doesn't look quite right. Also, the red shoes arent necessary. He's supposed to be some kind of baby dragon-y thing so I'm open to alternate character ideas. He does shoot fireballs so a dragon seems to make sense and fits with the style of the game. Its important that he has wings (he can hover) and arms and legs (he spends lots of time running so a human-like run cycle is important). He should also have large cartoony eyes. Anything else is up for interpretation.
Player Standing - 1 frame. Used when player is just standing on a platform not moving.
Player Running - 6 cycle animation.
Player Hovering - 3 frames, 4 cycle animation. Wings flag, legs flop around. The animation cycles between frame 0, 1 2, 1 then repeats
Player Rotating - 5 cycle animation. When a player hovers, he spins slower and cant shoot while spinning. These 5 frames represent the frames in-between facing left and facing right
Creature Bouncing - 4 frame animation, ~30 cycles. For this animation, frame 0 should be "squashed" as it hits the ground to bounce. Frame 1 is the "normal" frame, and frames 2 and 3 get cycled repeatedly while in the air (in my original game, frame 2 had the eyebrows bulge out a bit and frame 3 had the feet flail a little bit). It should be extremely subtle.
Note that I want 3 different monsters. In the sprite sheet below, I have 3 different colors but there need to be three completely different monster shapes. The one shown is some kind of cartoony, Simpsons-esque scorpeon. Note that whatever shape is used, its important to note that the monsters will fire from the TOP of the sprite. So for the scorpeon, it will shoot at the player from its tail. Other insects should either have a mouth at the top of the sprite where it will shoot, or an appendage that looks like it can shoot. These monsters should be more "cutesy" than menacing but should look angry since they are monsters and you are killing them. Another possibility would be a Qbert-y coiled snake creature that bounces on its tail and shoots from its head, or a blob with a handfull of eyestalks pointing up that shoot little eyeballs (?) at the player. I will create a 32 x 32 particle to represent the monser's missile.
Phoenix - 4 frames, ping-ponged (i.e. 0, 1,2,3,2,1,0, repeat). Should look way cooler than the one i have here. Should be colorful. Note that the feet should be fairly thin as the player's missiles won't hit them (or better yet, if the bottom 16 pixels can remain unused it will look better visually)
Creature Deaths - 4 cycle animations. When hit by a player missile, the monster should rip apart into smoke (no blood). The smoke should take the general shape of the creature in the first frame then dissipate and raise up (see the reference image)
Beholder - In the image below there are 8 frames. The breakdown is as follows: Frame 4 is the "normal" frame. When the beholder is stunned and it looks around, the game will cyle through frame 3,2,1,0,1,2,3 and repeat until it starts to chase the player again settling on frame 4. Then when it blinks, it cycles through frames 5,6,7,6,5 then settles on frame 4 again. Note that since frame 4 is the "reference" frame where the beholder is looking forward, the blink frames should have the eye facing the same direction so the animation looks correct (see the image below to see how frames 4,5,6,7 all have the eye facing "forward"). The beholder graphic was ripped from some other game. I added the scanning and blinking and I like the visual but it needs to be original.
Player death - When a player dies, it cycles frame 0,1,2,0,1,2,0,1,2, etc. Note that this animation and the running animations DONT ping-pong, they cycle through and start back at the beginning. In this animation, the arms and legs should flail around indicating the upcoming demise (inspired by the Sonic death-sequence).
Shield - 4 frames. Should be a cool effect that looks like an energy shield that rotates around the player.
Bug - 4 frames, 128 x 32. I hate this sprite, it needs to be redone, its just a placeholder. The only thing is that it needs to be 32 pixels high, width can change. Feet should animate (like a centipede???). Can be any type of insect thing.
Fish - Jumps out of the water at later levels. 2 frames right now, this can be expanded if necessary.
Special notes about the player and bouncer insect shapes:
Even though the sprite rectangle is 128 x 128, the player/creature should fit within a 96x96 section of the box. It can go slightly outside this area but should not by too many pixels. This smaller box represents the collision area of the object so the graphics should fill it up as closely as possible. Obviously, the feet should be at the exact bottom of the sprite and cannot exceed the large box.
The "hotspot" of each player/bouncer is at center bottom of the sprite so it should always use that point as the origin of the object.
Note in the image below, the bouncer death smoke is fully contained within the 128 x 128 box, and should include the "rising" effect of the smoke.
Note that the phoenix and beholder aren't constrained by this size limit, and should fill up the box (see notes above on the phoenix however).
Reference Image: