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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / The Artist's Challenge..

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David Gervais
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 15:33 Edited at: 4th Jun 2006 09:54
Ok, I like the idea of the Code challenge thread, but as an artist who is just learning the ropes in DBPro, I got an idea for a slight twist on the code challenge..

If I (or other artists) feel like seeing what interesting uses can be made from a given set of art, all we need to do is post a piece of artwork here and challenge you programmers to make something of it.



The above simple set of graphics should be enough to fuel a basic breakout type game,.. as for background images and UI layouts, I'll leave that up to the programmers.

So, does this sound like an interesting twist on the 'Code' Challenge thread?

Let me know what yout think, and I'm open to suggestions, but plan on making a wide variety of game art files that can be used for anything from a breakout type game to card games, to dice games and everything in between.

Cheers!

EDIT: Because of the great demand and a good suggestion I have decided to post a bunch of the artwork I did at the front of this thread. You should be aware that this is not ALL the artwork, there is lots more including some textured 3D models and custom artwork. I encourage you to read through this thread and follow it's growing succes. Cheers!

Note: Some of these pics are thumbnails and link to the big pic.


































This little sprite was posted for a 'challenge' with the offer of 'custom artwork' as a prise. Too bad nobody acepted the challenge and therefore nobody won










..Did I mention this is just the tip of the iceberg?...
re faze
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 15:58
@dave g.
you are quite the artist dave g.
have you ever thought about releasing tiles for the people on the 2d thread? i had a small 2d engine worked out before, but i dropped it because i had no media to work with.

Megaton Cat
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 16:04
Well, the only problems I see is the art to code ratio. There has to be enough art to motivate the programmers to code, and people here are just too lazy/busy for that.


The cat era has begun.
BatVink
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 16:27
Maybe make it it a tech-demo style challenge. Rather than code a full game, make an interesting graphical demo. The graphics would probably need to be of a different nature.

Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 16:36
Sounds cool and images are aloud!!! coool

Experienced DB http://www.greatgames3d.com (work in progress site)
Joe Cooning
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 16:52
The Alienware challenge was the same as this. We were given an alien model and told to do something. But in that competition there was some motavation (a.k.a. prizes )

David Gervais
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 16:57 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 16:58
Or,.. I can just use this thread to drop pieces of art into and leave the decision to use them or not up to you programmers.

With that in mind,.. need pieces for a slot machine game?.. (try these 32x32 tiles.)



Cheers!

P.S. I'll be using 255,0,255 as the transparent color in all the artwork I post.
Mnemonix
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 17:29
David Gervais, your quite a good 2d artist. I might just use them to make a fun slot machine game

WE SHALL BECOME ALL POWERFUL! CRUSH THE LESSER RACES! CONQUER THE GALAXY! UNIMAGINABLE POWER! UNLIMITED RICE PUDDING ! ! ! ETC. ! ! ! ETC.! ! !
re faze
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 18:38
wow you made all of these?

BatVink
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 18:55 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 18:56
Yes, these are cool graphics!

If it gives you more freedom, David, DB Pro supports graphics with an alpha channel. My preference, mainly because it's very accessible, is PNG format .

One issue you may find people hitting is that DB only allows one color key for an entire application. The default is 0,0,0, so if coders are also using their own graphics to add to yours, there may be a clash. Using the image above as an example, they would get a pink background with transparent edges to the fruit symbols, or yours would display correctly but the black background on other existing graphics will no longer be transparent.
If you use PNG, you circumnavigate the problem altogether. You simply set transparency on, and it uses the alpha channel.

Hope the DB Pro insight helps you with your graphic requirements in the big bad world of game-making

David Gervais
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 19:25
Ok, for you 3D programmers, Here is a simple object with lots of possibilities..



This color cube could be used for any number of games where the player needs to match up colors to score points,.. think columns, tetris, or a game like colapse. Let your imagination go wild. I'm curious how this simple object will spark the imagination of you programmers.

Cheers!

P.S. I atached the .x file and texture map.

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Tinkergirl
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 19:29
Here's the slot pieces with alpha background for anyone who wants it just now.

Very nice 2d graphics, David G. It's a skill that's in fairly short supply round here.

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Tinkergirl
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 19:36
And the 'blocks' too, in the same format.

People can use 'Set Transparency <objectnum>,1' if they use this with an object.

Nice die, David.

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Me!
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 19:39 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 19:40
maybe if you ran a competion for the best use of one set of graphics and you made the winner some custom gfx (say 10 2d items of their choice), most people can make games but are useless when it comes to art, if you offered them ten bits of art as a prize (for example) then it costs you nothing but time (and you seem to like doing it anyway) and the winner gets some decent art for their pet project, just an idea.



Windows: 32 bit extension/graphical shell for a 16bit patch to an 8bit OS originally coded for a 4bit CPU, written by a 2bit company that can't stand 1bit of competition, now available in 64bits.
David Gervais
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 20:15 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 20:26
First, I have little experience with alpha chanel transparency. So I'll stick with what I know. (I might take the time to learn the ins and outs of alpha later, but right now I'm too lazy (but having fun.)



Here is a little something for the 'falling blocks' type games.

Enjoy, and Cheers!

FYI, when I save as .png (with alpha chanel) I get no option to choose the transparent color for the alpha chanel. Is the alpha chanel different than a 'transparent' gif for example? (Note, I dislike using 0,0,0 or 255,255,255 as transparent, because those two colors are often found in artwork known as black and white. that's why I prefer 255,0,255 for the transparent color. Just because DBPro sets 0,0,0 as default does not mean they are/were right to do this.

Edit: And the programmer is free to edit/modify the artwork to their hearts content, I'm just doing it the way I know how.
Segan
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 20:26 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 20:27
My two cents... If I may?

While this looks like a GREAT idea, I think it would be hard for this challenge to compete with another coding challenge that is in this board already. That is because there is only a limited amount of people who are entering challenges, and most are already involved in the coding challenge above. So...

1: You could try a challenge based on art alone (ex: make the best pictiure of Blah blah blah.) That way you're appealing yourself to a completely different audience.

2: You could, as Me! said, offer a prize to winners.

And just as an end note, one of the reasons that Ric's challenges are so successful is that there is no huge downloads. Usually, it's just copy-->paste-->compile and run (which takes less than 10 seconds). If art is needed, then the process become longer. Either download for a few minutes, extract, and then run, or download all media into a folder-->copy code-->paste-->save into folder-->run, which also takes some time. People don't usually want to spend that long on a WIP that would normally only involve them for less than a minute, so there would probably be a lot of people who would lose intrest.
David Gervais
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 20:34
Q: Is it possible to rename the thread to "Free Artwork for your coding pleasure." I saw no option to rename a thread even though I am the author of this thread.

And it was not and is not my intention to compete with the 'most excellent' coding challenge thread, I just want to deposit some free artwork and encourage people to see what they can design around them.

As for "Prizes" I kind of feel that my 'Free Artwork" is a prize in and of itself. I'm not above the idea of doing 'custom' graphics, but I expect that is a huge can of worms that will see me flooded with requests.

nuf said, Cheers!
Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 20:49 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 21:07
Quote: "First, I have little experience with alpha chanel transparency. "


As an artist you really should experiment with alpha channels. They give you abilities that are amazing... especially when you're a programmer too. You can create 2D sprites with windows that you can see through (and any characters inside)... mouse icons that look like sniper sites... ice cubes... water effects. Many more that I can't think of right now.

The attached image is a .png of your blocks with a few blocks in the middle at a transparency at 60% opacity and the right side has a few at 33% opacity.

I use Paint Shop Pro... to create that. I took the blocks that I wanted different transparencies and made them different layers. Turned down the opacity on the layer and bam... their semi-transparent.




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David Gervais
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 21:32
Looks like alpha chanel is worth investigating, thanks for the info. And now back to the regular scheduled postings...



Anyone need tiles for wordgames? here you go, enjoy!

Cheers!
Agent Dink
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 22:00
Dude if I just had your 2d skill, I'd be set for life as a 2d/3d artist for a big game dev / graphical arts company... I mean... I could put out graphics like that, but it would take an insurmountable amount of time and patience It seems to come so naturally for you...lucky

Anyhow, how are you at making textures?

www.badpicsofmatt.tk
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David Gervais
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 22:11 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 22:13
What kind of textures? If it's just 2d textures, I get a passing grade, if you mean to texture map irregular shaped models, I suck.

Do you have a sample of what needs texturing?

Cheers!

P.S. I am a professional Artist working in the gaming industry,.. current project is Space Empires 5 from http://www.malfador.com I started way back on Steel panthers then did work for Lucasarts. I eventually burnt out, now I do artwork on my terms, and 80 hour work weeks are not in my 'acceptable terms' so I don't work for any of the 'Big companies' any more.
Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 23:50
I love the graphics on Space Empires 5! Everything looks so cool!


RiiDii
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Re Alpha Channel info:
Think of each of the primary colors as a channel. You have Red Green, and Blue. The Alpha Channel is a 4th channel that tells how much of the background to let bleed through the foreground color. So, when setting a color, let's say yellow, you normally only set the three channels; R, G, B to 255, 255, 0.

With the alpha channel, you would set the forth channel (forth byte in the total color DWord; DWord is four bytes) to some value. I'm not sure which direction it goes myself (someone will probably post it now ), but it is probably something like setting the alpha channel to 0 lets none of the background bleed through, while 255 lets all of the background bleed through (and loses all of the foreground color). Then you have all the values in between.

So, when you see your normal picture image, the alpha channel is set to 0, even on the black areas. But with an alpha channel set, you can have transparency where ever you like and to whatever degree you want. A typical total transparency setting would be something like 0,0,0,255 (again, not sure about the direction of the alpha channel).

Using the alpha channel effectively, you can get very nifty glass or plastic effects too.

BTW: Great Artwork!

If you want to work on some textures and other art for a project, the Open MMORPG project is always looking for contributions. The art isn't restricted to the OMMORPG project unless the artist requests specifically that it is. So most of the current work is available for anyone to use - free and clear. Just click on my signature for the link and check out what we have so far.


Open MMORPG: It's your game!
David Gervais
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 01:21
Ok, I noticed an important omission from the breakout tiles,.. namely the paddle and a few 'special' drops. Here is the new bitmap and a pair of samples of how simply changing the background can make a difference in the visual feel.





Cheers!
David Gervais
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 15:59
Anyone ever make a Hangman type game? Need graphics of a different nature? Here are the frames for a 'Space-age' compliant Hangman. Sure, I know Hangman is supposed to be stick figures, but hey, I can't draw good stick figures lol



Yes I do see things in a different light,.. But this is a good thing trust me.

Cheers!
Megaton Cat
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 16:46
Hey David, if you'll do a texture set I'll wip up a bunch of models, then hopefully this coding challenge will get more interesting with actual 3d models to work with.


The cat era has begun.
x1b
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 16:54
Kudos to you Mega. Despite so many's "anti meganess", you are very generous with your time and modeling skills and never ask anything more in return other than a "thank you".

- Do it, Do it Right, Do it right now..
David Gervais
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 18:30
Megaton, What kind of textures? I've never heard of models being taylored to textures, it's usually the other way around, textures are made to fit the model.

And, calling this thread a 'challenge' was a mistake,.. and I cannot rename the header so I'll just keep saying this is a depository for free graphics by me.

Cheers!
Megaton Cat
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 18:34 Edited at: 25th Dec 2005 18:36
Well, since my current "employer" is reading this thread and thinking I am neglecting his work in order to pursue other huge projects (not true!) you can just make whatever themed textures you like and I'll create some models. (A 10-20 minute job!)




The cat era has begun.
David Gervais
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 18:58
Here is another cube texture. (.x file and texture included in attachment.)



Cheers!

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David Gervais
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 19:28
here is another .x object and texture I never found a use for..



again, attached is the texture and .x file) Enjoy!

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Slayer93
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 19:36
Those are great textures. You think I could use the crate texture for the model I made for the OMMORPG. It needs a different texture. Again great 2d artwork.

NARUTO IS THE NINJA.....not really
David Gervais
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 20:12
Feel free to use anything you find here as you see fit.

Cheers!

P.S. Screenshots or samples of how the artwork is being used would be aprieciated.
re faze
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 20:52 Edited at: 25th Dec 2005 20:53
any tiles for tile based maps? a small town maybe?
[edit]
what are you using to make these? photoshop? paint shop pro?

David Gervais
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 21:47
I use a Paint program called Artgem for 2d, Bryce 5.5 for 3d and Anim8or for modeling, and LithUnwrap to do the texture maps.

I have lots of 2d 32x32 tiles,.. look for the Artist looking for programming help thread, I posted a link in there.

Cheers!
Sven B
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Posted: 25th Dec 2005 22:10
I think you'll be asked alot with these skills..
Olby
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Posted: 26th Dec 2005 00:45
David Gervais you're tha man, I like your 2D art. Keep makin' such a good graphics!

What's crackin' homie?
Undercover Steve
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Posted: 26th Dec 2005 01:21
What have you created in SEV? I truely admire malfador, and anyone who helps them, is a great guy in my book. You truely seem to have a skill with graphics, and by the looks of disk, it might be a good peice for a sci-fi battle? Droids? Anyway, I will try and make a cube game, where you character is a sentinal disk, and you must get above the constantly appearing cubes, and your health is measured by those little breakout style cubes.:-P. Seriously, great work. I hope you dont get put off by any noob asking for your help for just credits, or anything else. Or any noob that tries and say your work is bad, because your skill is above anyone else on this board that is just a member

We have fallen Into an abyss! Dear God captian! There all Bars.
David Gervais
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Posted: 26th Dec 2005 03:53
1) I'm lead artist on SE5, I made all the UI artwork and also did event pics, victory and defeat screens. I made alot of eyecandy and also made a few components. But I am not alone on the art team working with Aaron Hall who is esentially Malfador, since he is the only programmer. There are 3D Modelers, Component artists, Facility artists and one working on race portraits.

2) there is no such thing as a noob, only 'Veterans in training'

3) Credits are great, I think of credits like degrees in a Fame meter. the more the better.

I'm glad you like my work, Cheers!
Slayer93
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Posted: 26th Dec 2005 06:13
I got an idea for a challenge use dbpro to make art. Thats a challenge because dbpro doesn't have alot of draw commands. Now wouldn't that be a challenge .

Quote: "Screenshots or samples of how the artwork is being used would be aprieciated"


Sure but i haven't got around to do it yet.

NARUTO IS THE NINJA.....not really
Check out my Dog Ai Tutorial
Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 26th Dec 2005 09:47
Quote: "I got an idea for a challenge use dbpro to make art. Thats a challenge because dbpro doesn't have alot of draw commands. Now wouldn't that be a challenge ."


Most of the older coders here will tell you... "That's what we used to do before mice and drawing programs."

I took the start of a very old program I made and converted it to Darkbasic... it's not technically art but it was vital for scoring. The full program is art but it was 1,190 lines of "line" commands... I didn't feel like adding color changes for every line (old "line" commands had color at the end).

In the Pro version I did some editing of the coordinates because Pro isn't as accurate as it should be with coordinates. TDK you are SOOOO right about Pros graphic bugs!!

Pro Version:



The classic version didn't need any coordinate changes but it doesn't appear to do angle lines right either. After 30 minutes of converting Pro I didn't want to bother getting it exactly right for Classic.

Classic Version:



Megaton Cat
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Posted: 26th Dec 2005 16:39 Edited at: 26th Dec 2005 16:41
Well, I thought I'd be the first to throw in the first 3d models: Here's a quick & dirty Mario-inspired level. Maybe good for some sort of coin collecting mini-game, or just random running?! Only the sadistic programmer knows!

Download "Happyland" below.

5 textures
.x model and .x lightmap+jpg included





The cat era has begun.

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David Gervais
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Posted: 26th Dec 2005 17:49 Edited at: 26th Dec 2005 18:26
Cool screenie, are you having fun yet?



Here is a new Barrel I made in Anim8or and textured in artgem then mapped with LithUnwrap. Enjoy

Cheers!

P.S. as usual the zip is attached with the texture and .x model.

Edit: for those who are looking for RPG tiles,.. here is a link to where my free tiles are located..

http://pousse.rapiere.free.fr/tome/index.htm

Enjoy!

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David Gervais
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Posted: 27th Dec 2005 19:09
Here is something that might interest people,.. some Mahjong Tiles..



Cheers!
Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 27th Dec 2005 19:31
Woot these are cool i use photoshop tho

Experienced DB http://www.greatgames3d.com (work in progress site)
David Gervais
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Posted: 27th Dec 2005 20:44
Here are some color Square type tiles for games like colapse..



Cheers!
Agent Dink
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Posted: 27th Dec 2005 20:51
Dang... Must... resist... starting...2d... project!

www.badpicsofmatt.tk
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Olby
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Posted: 27th Dec 2005 21:07
i think mods should make this thread sticky,

What's crackin' homie?
David Gervais
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Posted: 27th Dec 2005 22:50
No need to make this thread a sticky, I'll keep it alive, but a name change for the thread would be aprieciated, or should I just move all my posts to the 'Free Media' thread? I didn't notice it earlier when I made this thread. And 'it's not really a 'challenge' thread. but an 'Artist's Depository' but, hey, I guess that as long as I keep feeding free stuff, nobody will complain.

Muahahaha, Cheers!
David Gervais
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Posted: 28th Dec 2005 17:06 Edited at: 28th Dec 2005 17:07
Ok, in keeping with the name of this thread,.. I made this semi-generic Background that would be suitable for any number of games from breakout to space invaders, to asteroids to tetris or whatever. I'm willing to make sprites for any 'content' that you think you'd like to use to showcase this background. I will not modify the background, and I'm only offering to make sprites (non animated or perhaps 2 frame anims at the most)



So? Anyone interested in taking this challenge? Need new sprites? Just post a request.

Cheers!

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