Guidelines

[EJlol]

The reason why I made this page is because the guidelines we currently have are a big mess. The guidelines we currently have are written in different places on the wiki, hard to find, and incomplete. For example, that all artwork should be released as GPL is not written on the wiki. An other thing is that not everyone uses the same style. For example, the NPCs are drawn in 3 different styles. The same goes for item icons. Therefore I propose the following page is used for the Guidelines:

http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/ ... Guidelines

I added all guidelines to 1 page, and added some stuff. This page is more a summary to the normal guidelines. Every subject should link to the guidelines of that subject. (They are not linked yet). For example more detailed guidelines of the tilesets should be linked to the "Tileset development"-page. A other thing that might help to get one style, and what I have not done yet is adding pictures to guidelines as example.

The most important change IMO with what we have now and my proposal is the following guideline:
Pixelart that does not follow these guidelines should NOT be added to the SVN.

If everyone keeps to use different styles, we will NEVER have a "TMW style". I think it's important everyone tries to follow the guidelines. Even when it means it is more work, because in the end it will mean we will have one style.

Please take your time to read the guidelines, feel free to discuss things you do not like about, things I forgot to mention in the guidelines, or something else.

[Jaxad0127]

I'd just like to say that the guidelines have been changed since this thread was started. Please check them again.

[Jaxad0127]

Are there any objections to these guidelines?

[fate]

Hi,

the following is too permissive for my taste:

* You may mirror the creature sprites

This will allow incorrect shading (as with the slimes we have now) and inconsistent handedness (as with the current player sprites). I don't like either of those.

-- fate

[Rotonen]

Me neither, but so far the consensus of our artists has been they want to save the effort.

[EJlol]

I also actually prefer if the lighting is correct.

[Rotonen]

If you work correctly in layers, you can still save some of the spriteset work by intelligently mirroring, though.

[EJlol]

Following octalot suggestion, please vote for the changed guidelines and remove your vote from the "old" guidelines. I know that the guidelines aren't completely finished (there is no dungeon reference tileset) but I want to move on. Im NOT going to change it unless it gets denied (if that happens, please tell me the reason why it got denied). So only approve it if you 100% agree with it. Note that small changes still can be done after the guidelines are accepted.

Just because you are lazy, here is the link:
http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/ ... Guidelines

[Spit23]

I was bored, so I made an example for the NPC guidelines:

[EJlol]

(I just noticed that I forgot to add those examples to the guidelines, maybe I will just add it later as it does not really change the guidelines IMO)

Anyway I updated the guidelines again. A few things changed:
- Changed the license stuff to "GNU General Public License or a compatible license"
- updated the IRC channel
- added a note that unfinished pixelart can be posted on the forums
- added a extra note that tilesets do not use a outline.
- added the wind direction
- Changed the anti alias sentence, so that it is correct english (I hope)
- added a note that there is no size restriction for monsters
- added a note that a npc with a different pose and body shape is preferred
- removed the indoor example tileset
- added a little bit stuff about colours

Please take your time to review the changes and vote again:
http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/ ... Guidelines

Thank you.