Goonstation Spriting Guidelines

Adapted from the Goonstation Spriting Guidelines hosted on HackMD.

Please also read this short forum post explaining what to put in a patch for new sprites. This wiki's Spriting page also has more practical advice, such as how to make an .dmi.

Basic Style

• New sprites should be in ¾ perspective. Example here.
  • Handheld item sprites should be shown side on, see tool and gun sprites for examples of this.

• Keep colour palettes simple and where possible sample existing colour palettes to create consistency within departments.
• Hue shift your shadows and highlights. Example:

<img src=https://i.imgur.com/9iGrBo9.png">

• Do not use straight black for outlining, instead use a darkened version of the colour at the edge of the sprite. Example:

<img src=https://i.imgur.com/eUL0qTx.png">

• If you just shrink a jpeg and submit that you’re fired. Do not something like the pancakes sprite: .

• Unique in hand sprites are encouraged for every new item, this is especially true for items that need to be visually identified in combat.

• Referencing popular culture is allowed but try to be subtle about it. Commonly available content should be original.

• Icon states should generally be centered on the middle of the canvas.

• Keep the use of your sprite in-game in mind, it’s difficult and frustrating to click tiny sprites or sprites with 1px holes in them
  • To fix this, add a transparency 1 pixel in the hole.

• Try to keep scale in mind in general. Things don’t need to be actually proportional, they just need to “feel” right in the game.

• It’s good (but not mandated) to distinguish different objects by more than just color if possible, to accommodate the colorblind.

Implementation

• Keep the names of your icon_states simple but descriptive.

• Use already existing .dmi files that fit your purpose if possible.

• Use the widthXheight files (ex: 120x120) for larger-than-normal sprites.

Meta

• Do not be precious about your work. Be open to criticism and change both from other developers and players.

• Most untrained people can visually identify when something looks wrong or bad, it’s your responsibility as the artist to parse that criticism and find a solution.

---