Character sheet made by Silent BobA Video Game Sprite
In here I will give a brief description on what a video game sprite is, and show a few examples. This is not a tutorial. It will only give you examples of a few types of game sprites.
1. A RPG Sprite
This will be the most common type of sprite needed. Look below at a full sprite sheet which has 8 different characters on it.
Character sheet made by Silent Bob
First thing to take notice is something that you cannot see off
hand. You'll need a paint program to tell you the color limit is set to 256
colors. That means at the most there is never more than 256 colors used in
making them. The second thing to notice is it takes 12 images to make a full
character here's a example of one sprite in action.
The size of the images makes all the difference. They have to be a certain size.
Read Silent Bob's tutorial it will provide you in depth information on making
these types of characters.
That about covers the RPG sprites. Lets move on to something a little more simpler.
2a. Race Car sprites
These are relatively easy when compared to a RPG sprite. Again look below at a common Car sprite.
sprites are public domain
Now these are allot different than the RPG sprites. However they share one common thing as with all sprites. They use only 256 colors. I do not have a TF car sprite on hand so these will have to do. These sprites can be use in a number of different race car games. One example would be a common race to the finish, the level for it could be an ongoing straight line with obstructions, S swerves, and forks in the road. A level like the old Spy Hunter game, or the level could be full screen and it be a somewhat demolition while you make your way through a figure 8. Just by looking at them you can see endless possibilities in these sprites. Oh and they dont just stop at 2 images for the sprite. there could be up to 32 images. For stuff like a weapon power-up, or more damage images, or slight (and/or full) transformations. These types of sprites are also useful for Combat and Iron Tank type of shooting games. These top down view sprites are limitless. And size does not matter. As long as they are no too big.
2b. - Race car sprites isometric and side view.
I dont have any of these types of sprites on hand. But I will try to let give you an idea of them.
Isometric - I cant really explain them so here's a list of a couple of games that has these types of car sprites.
1. R.C. Pro AM
2.Ironman 4x4 Off-Road
Both games can be found for a SNES emulator somewhere.
Side view - Duh a Side view of the car. Not really used for game play but can be used for loading screens, cursors for the title and option screens. They are very limited to use.
And that covers the race car sprites.
3 - Space shooter sprites.
My favorite. Again look below.
If you save the image and make it bigger you'll notice that there's a after burst of flames. Nothing major. Most of what the car sprites are about will apply here as well. Just use your imagination on what you'd like to see. Call on past scrolling shooter games you played. Also remember all the side view scrollers you've played cause a space shooter can be either a top down view or a side scrolling view. Here's something to remember. It would look real nice to have a Jet transform into a robot in a side view shooter. Again size of these types of sprites don't matter. Just cant get too big.
That's is for the space shooter sprites.
4- Platform game sprites.
Just look!
I found this animated image at some website. The url escapes me at the moment. Just watch the animation, notice the walking, jumping, the attack, the transformation, and finally the walk after the transformation. Just by looking at that I was able to tell that this was perfect to use as a sprite for a platform game. If your unsure of what a platform game is let me direct you to Super Mario Bros, and Sonic. It's only a left side but all the images can me mirrored to do the right side. Nuff said about these. I think that animation speaks for it's self.
Well that's all folks! Brief and simple.