itch.io

Hi there. Just a clarification that the “2.7” is not the version number. The pack is called “dwarvesv2” and the .7z refers to 7zip, the program I use to create archives. 7zip is a very common and well known archive software but because it is an archive it will be flagged by anti-virus software just like an .exe would. It’s a false positive, in other words, there is only .png image files in the archive.

I get the same warning every time I DL something from the open web. If I may suggest, try googling about 7zip and virus detection and see for yourself.

Just a notice that the problem described in comments below, where previous purchasers lost access to the pack, has been resolved.

The issue had to do with something I missed when setting up the demo/paid dynamic for the pack.

Now anyone who buys this pack should be able to download updates. Apologies to all for the inconvenience this has caused!

Yes! I could do a better job of showing it but ALL of my character sprites are 4 directions. Occasionally I will use a flip for the left/right but I usually try to respect my own asymmetric character designs haha.

I think, for now, the character sprites in this pack are flips. I will eventually change that in an update.

Thanks!

Animating even my relatively simple sprites is a huge undertaking. It may come down to flaws in my work flow or something, but I’ve never been able to think up a way to do it at scale. I have over 200 unique character sprites across my various packs for itch (released and unreleased).

So the main question for me is always “which sprites get the animations?” Do I use a “heroes only” approach where only a handful of my sprites get the full suite of animations? Do I use a blank template sprite w/ all the animations included and just leave my customers to do the editing themselves? Will people actually buy that or is it a non-starter to force users to edit sprites?

Any thoughts you might have about this could be helpful.

Thanks! Since horror is so popular w/ RPG Maker devs, I hope this gives someone some ideas!

You’re probably right about including those frames and I have done exactly that in previous versions of this pack and existing versions of other packs. I try things slightly different some of the time so that I can see what works for people but I’m small so it’s slow going w/o much feedback. What you’re saying is very helpful and based on this alone, I’ll likely start to make sure even animated elements are represented somehow in the base tileset sheets.

Also totally understand about engine differences. I started out packaging this stuff in a loosely defined, generic sorta way (engine agnostic) but RPGmaker requires strict formatting and most of my early feedback was from RPGmaker users. As more of an RPGmaker user myself, it seemed to me that I could adhere to those formatting standards without causing any inconvenience to users who operate on less restrictive engines like Godot or Unity. Anything that lets you slice a spritesheet internally, basically. But that doesn’t mean I should neglect simple stuff that makes users like you have an easier time with my assets.

Please come back with any additional feedback or questions or issues in the future!

Sorry for any inconvenience! I can confirm that the door sprites should be in the pack.

They aren’t on the core spritesheets for space and redundancy reasons, at least originally. Because I am revamping a lot of props, especially things like doors, to include animation, I have organized the file architecture of packs a little differently than before.

For yourself and anyone reading this, the place to find the doors (and other animated props/tiles) is “animated prop spritesheet” which is a folder in the pack structure.

If you still can’t find it, I would love screenshots to get a look at the folder contents for the pack you’ve downloaded. Maybe there is an issue I don’t know about.

All that said, I should also ask you if you would personally prefer non-animated instances of doors or similar included in the tilesets. This is of course possible, especially with the revamps where I am doing a lot of “alt” versions of tilesets to include variants of props and tiles. If there’s a need, even for convenience, to have these on the core tileset sheets, I can include them in future updates and in new packs with similar elements.

Okay, so that means it wasn’t just happening for one person. Very good to know. I am in contact w/ itch support and I’ll get this worked out ASAP.

In the meantime, I am sending you the updated zip at the email you provided. Thanks for your patience!

Hey! Thanks so much for providing this info. Did itch support tell you that you can’t download (for free) an update to a pack you’ve purchased? That seems extremely odd to me as users would then also not be able to update whole games they purchased?

Anyways, until I figure out what’s causing this, I’ll email you the new stuff directly since you shared your email address. I am really sorry for the inconvenience and as soon my sale ends I’ll contact itch support and find out if I messed something up or what the best practices are for updates – it may be that updating during a sale is just a bad idea!

Please check your email to find the new Corpo tileset and assets.

That is really, really kind. I hope you stick around! I have a theme in the planning stages (inspired by Starfield and 80s space opera) called “Offworld Colonies”. This theme will be the same “setting” as Retro Cybercity and use the same palette.

It helps my creative process to have light “lore” for all my stuff, meaning something like Nine Realms is a cohesive Norse Mythology inspired setting just like Retro Cybercity is a cohesive 80s-inspired cyberpunk setting. One of reasons I like Cyberpunk 2077 as an influence is because so much of it is inspired by the same movies and books I grew up with.

I’m sorry you’re having issues! I’m not sure why that’s happening but it could be because I’ve changed the structure of the pack. It could also have something to do with the sale. I don’t know much about how itch does this stuff behind the scenes and I may have made a mistake somewhere when setting up the update!

Can you tell me, or show me w/ screencaps maybe, what you’re seeing when you try to download? If it’s happening to you, it might be happening to other people and I don’t want folks who purchased these packs to have to buy them twice, that’s completely unintended!

I promise we’ll figure this out.

Thanks! I agree!

I have a history of being pretty slow and intermittent with updates and new stuff. My ADHD brain makes it hard to finish things I’m doing on spec but I have a TON of stuff no one’s seen yet including a whole third theme that I’ll finally be launching this month – a year after I first teased it. Ugh. Haha.

As you develop your project, feel free to suggest additional content that you may need. I’ve been able to add things to packs based on similar feedback (the pizza parlor stuff in the Vendors tileset came from user request, for example).

This is a preview build, the demo build should be ready in a couple of weeks in time for the Gamejam.

Some of what you can see above, such as the (almost) complete character roster represents content that won’t be available in-game til sometime later. We have big plans for this but for the Gamejam, it’ll be more like a limited demo.

Please check back in a week or two, then again after October 31st for more content! Thanks as always for your interest!

Haha I did ask what you’d want! Unfortunately I don’t see myself doing any themes from the Bathysphere art style much less a playable demo. More likely I’d do a Nine Realms and Retro Cybercity Demo. I have a third theme in the works (for way too long now… I first hinted at it like a year ago) and that will probably launch w/ a playable demo to show off how the assets are used together.

Shouldn’t be a problem re: Commercial Rights – if I created something like this I’d treat it as an extra tool for devs who need it and sell it separately. Or, if there’s no market for that, I could see adding it as an optional DL to some of my existing content.

I’ve played with the idea of “starter kits” that include less overall assets from each category (icons, portraits, sprites, tiles, etc) but with enough bases covered for ppl to buy ONE kit and start making their game w/o having to wait for me to get around to missing asset categories. Additional assets would then become like “booster packs” – don’t mind my TCG lingo, it just seems like a good analogy to what I initially thought I’d do. Right now I have no idea if that would even work (probably too pricey? portraits are expensive for example). That was another way I thought I might be able to incorporate demos built specifically to show users how I do things.

What I should really do is create a discord or Kofi or something so ppl like yourself can suggest ideas and have a say in where my work is going since I often wind up spread thin between a bunch of competing, unfinished new content! Too many ideas, not enough time!

Hi! Thanks for the compliment!

What are you looking for in a game kit or demo? I have thought about it a bit but not gotten very far in making one.

I somehow missed this! Hahaha!

Thank you! I would love to see anything you do and I can even offer feedback and advice if you need it as I work in game dev and I’ve done a whole lot of pixelin’.

What a nice message! Thanks!

Also, yes, you are free to edit the sprites for your project. A lot of people have done things like taken a hairstyle from a character sprite and swapped it with another sprite. There’s probably a whole lot you can do w/ these item sprites just by tweaking things like color.

Embarrassing! Haha. :P You’re absolutely right and I kinda wondered if keeping two different update tracks for a pack like this would come back to bite my butt. Today is that day.

Basically, it happened because I had a sprite-based update history (shared with Nine Realms) and the update history for the packs themselves. This, my friend, is a recipe for confusion and wildly inconsistent naming conventions.

Entirely my bad and sorry for any inconvenience. I’ll use incremental version numbers from here on out! If you notice anything wonky like this again, don’t hesitate to mention it.

I’ll have to try the demo! Thanks for sharing, it looks like a very cool and multi-faceted project with a lot of ambitious ideas!

Cool! Is it going to be on itch as well? I can add it to the collection of projects that use my stuff!

Ah yep. I also enlarge most of my stuff when I use RPGMMZ rather than use the native 16x16 but I can’t remember why, been doing it so long.

The way I put tiles together in the tilesets, it SHOULD be intuitive what’s supposed to go where – but I’m always interested in feedback cuz I don’t want these things to be confusing haha. This is also why I am now including my mockups in the packs. If you haven’t yet, please download v2 of the Streets pack which should include them. They may help you with any tricky tiles or objects and how to place them.

Cheers! Your characters look very charming!

Hi there. I don’t think I’ve seen an email from ya, unless it was under a different name?

Anyways… yes, this tileset doesn’t have autotiles. Autotiles are nice but they take forever to make and I personally prefer not to use them so I don’t make them too often. If enough people wanted them though…

So the way RPG Maker MZ works, you have to set your resolution and pixel size manually. It defaults to 48x48 so you may need to resize the sprites (I can help with this if you need it) but you can also set it to 16x16 in the System Menu for your game project in RPG Maker MZ.

Once you’ve got the right size in, you need to create a tileset in RPGMMZ and use the art you bought from me. You don’t need a specific tileset or autotiles for this to work – the tilesets just need to be the right size and they need to be imported correctly. RPGMMZ creates a larger tileset from several tileset layers so the way I format my packs follows suit.

Again, let me know if you’re stuck on this. It can take getting used to.

It’s definitely something to think about. I appreciate your point of view and I’ll announce or something if and when I do offer the templates but in the meantime I’ll think about adding some animations to at least some of the sprites (“heroes”, like you suggested) after the next Nine Realms thing I’m doing (it’s portraits!).

I hear you. You’d basically like a way to, SDV-like, show an item the character is carrying once they’ve picked it up. Some of which, they’d be picking up by swinging a tool at it like cracking a rock or cutting down a tree.

The main thing would be selecting which characters to provide animations like that for. How do you feel about editing sprites – say you had an animation template w/ a blank sprite and you could mix and match whatever body/clothes art and hair/face you liked from my stuff? I have been wondering if it would help my customers to have templates but I’ve also been reluctant to sell templates as I’ve heard some horror stories about what people wind up doing with them haha.

Cool. Can you elaborate on the kinds of animations a project like yours would need? It will help me to have a note about it so that I can focus my efforts when I start adding things. I may even get going sooner instead of later, pushed on by your interest haha.

Thank you! I am hoping to expand more along the lines of what you’re suggesting. It takes time, a lot for me, but I’ll eventually add more animations once I figure out the right approach.

It’s interesting to think about someone using the Nine Realms content for a Stardew Valley game. In the tileset, I have a few prop sprites that represent common medieval Scandinavian crops and a “growth cycle” from tilled earth to the full plant. Some kind of general interaction animation with some additional item/icon sprites might be all someone needs to at least START a Harvest Moon/SDV style game with these assets.

Thanks!

Thanks! I somehow missed this comment!

Right on! I have the other four sets just about ready for release, gonna drop one every two weeks so I can keep some sales going all the while.

I do have a theme called “Offworld Colonies” that is in the early stages. It won’t be ready for some time, though. It will have more space themed stuff. As for robots, that is a good idea. I have given some thought to making a robot pack for this theme and probably will in the future. Retro Cybercity does have robots, it’s just that what you’re seeing for the most part aren’t robots but androids. An example of a robot in the theme would be the serving robots in the “Vendors” tileset.

Keep an eye on my stuff. Because of your interest, I’ll try to do some of these things sooner rather than later if possible.

Lots of fun stuff coming.

It’s a good idea and it’s going on the to-do list.

No idles at present. Not a bad idea to add idle animations to a future update, though. What did you have in mind for the actual animation?

It’s always all four directions with my sprites. I just showcase front sprites to keep the gifs simpler and because front view gives a pretty good idea what a sprite looks like. That said, this isn’t the first time someone’s double-checked that so maybe I should start including screenshots that show off all 4 directions haha. Cheeres right back at ya!

Cool. I’ll watch for that!

Hey! Thank you so much!

For the multiple viewing angles thing, do you mean props in tileset packs? Reason I ask is I’m not currently planning on doing different angles for the portraits. I decided on the “face forward” style after some experimentation and it was consistently the way that gave best results.

But if you mean props and such, do you have specific ones in mind?

As for cybernetic stuff… again, do you mean for the portraits? A few do have visible modifications on their faces. If you mean more generally like tilesets and props, the Vendors pack does have props, tiles, and a few bonus NPCs specifically for “cyberdoc” style needs. I would like to do more with this in the future. Early on, I wasn’t sure how heavy to lean into cyborg stuff but it became a big part of the Gangs pack where more characters are cyborgs and stuff. The portraits for those guys will be interesting!

Lastly, I’m not sure what you mean by “high rider”… do you mean one of the gangs? I’m not sure if I’ll add space content for Retro Cybercity although I’d say that to the extent I’m trying to represent a coherent universe (which my customers are free to ignore), there IS space development in the background. I do have a theme I’m planning that is heavily inspired by 80s space movies, Starfield, etc which will be called Offworld Colonies. That is down the road a ways but might be more what you’re looking for?

The very next big release I’m doing is a new theme as well. Hint: zombies.

Sorry, I missed this comment! I can do that but they will be stationary, animated props and not full spritesheets w/ movement.

I get some of that but it seems you may want packs that are specific to some of these kinds of locations when really the better way for me to go as an artist is to provide assets that can be used for these kinds of environments within larger, more general packs. I believe I’ve done that for half your list: weapon shop, disco, supermarket, at the very least are easy to make if you have the Vendors Pack and Interior Pack (the first tileset I ever released haha).

A school is an interesting idea I hadn’t considered and I can see how there could be more props that help with places like clothing stores or coffee shops as there aren’t necessarily props (yet) that evoke some of that.

So maybe what would help you most is if I added a range of new assets to the Vendors pack or some other pack that reflect more of what you’re talking about: school desks, clothing store racks, coffee shop stuff, etc. These specific ideas are very useful and very easy to add to an existing pack because a lot of it isn’t really enough to make a whole pack around. Got no problem adding some extra stuff, I just don’t prioritize it since I tend to move around my projects a lot and I don’t usually get specific requests.

If you have a list of PROPS as opposed to whole packs in mind, let’s hear it. I can always use some indication of what people would like to see added and like I said, got no problem adding some extra stuff to packs you’ve probably already purchased!

I think I mentioned before that the previously released Street Exterior Pack should have what you need. But maybe I’m not sure what you exactly mean by “outdoor architecture”. If you give me a bit of a description, detailed as possible, I can see about making sure you’re not waiting much longer.