How does one design a stage for a game?

[Furwerkstudio]

I keep trying to make a game, only to run into the frustration of finding my character is ether a tall giant or a tiny doll next to a door. So I have to ask, is there anything advice for making backgrounds/stages for a point and click game?

[Babar]

The answer to your problem seems to be right there in your question: Either make your character first, or set the size of your character, and then while making your background image for your game, have the character (or a rectangle of the same size) there for reference to always make sure that everything is in the correct size.

[Olleh19]

This is the true answer. If you like games, look up the sprites of them. Look at the resolution of classic point & click games. Usually 320 - 240px or 320 - 200px.... (AGS standard settings).

Open your photoshop (or whatever software you use).

Insert that information into the picture size settings. Now do this. Take a Sprite from a game that you love, Lucasarts sprites are available everywhere, or Sierre spritesheets. Download from the World Wide Web!

Now copy that sprite into your drawing, LOCK it, and create a new layer and start drawing! And you have a much better change of getting the proportions correct. Great tip, huh?!

I realised it recently, kinda stupid that one never thought about it, actually. Instead of drawing something then throw it into the game and realise, shit i've drawn too big again! Which happened in my first "game" on here!

That's the way to avoid drawing too big, or too thin details in your bakgrounds. Good Luck!

[Reiter]

Another idea is to extend the margin of the picture so that you have some extra space, and then put a sprite for your character down. Then, you can simply move it about the picture to check the scale.

You could do the same by making the character a separate layer that you can move and disable and so forth.

Another idea is to make sure your character sprites are even, memorable numbers. Such as 50 pixels high and 25 wide, like the sample sprite in the Sierra plug-in. Then, you know roughly how big everything relating to the character needs to be.

[Danvzare]

The answer to your problem seems to be right there in your question: Either make your character first, or set the size of your character, and then while making your background image for your game, have the character (or a rectangle of the same size) there for reference to always make sure that everything is in the correct size.

This, exactly this.
Also, you can scale characters on AGS. So if you make your backgrounds with proper perspectives, you could simply almost always have your character scaled to the right size.

[Blondbraid]

Now copy that sprite into your drawing, LOCK it, and create a new layer and start drawing! And you have a much better change of getting the proportions correct. Great tip, huh?!

Basically what I've done with my games, though you don't even need to take a sprite from an existing game, just draw a rough sketch of a human/game character and resize it until it look right for the background you're drawing,
then cut out the character sketch and use that as a size basis for future character sprites, plus as Danvzare, use the scaling function in the AGS engine if you make a background with a perspective going on.

Let us know how it goes! 

[deadsuperhero]

I keep trying to make a game, only to run into the frustration of finding my character is ether a tall giant or a tiny doll next to a door. So I have to ask, is there anything advice for making backgrounds/stages for a point and click game?

It's definitely challenging! I've had to spend a lot of time figuring out this process myself. It's worth considering what style you're going for exactly - some games really work well with oversized proportions, such as Leisure Suit Larry. It's a matter of taste when it comes to designing your game.

My best advice is this: draw a couple of character sprites first. Then, when drawing your backgrounds, put a sprite or two in a layer and constantly turn that layer on or off. You're probably going to adjust the initial sprite proportions several times while trying to nail that "look", whatever it is. That's okay! Keep in mind, you're probably going to be redoing a lot of your work at some point.




Think of it as a dummy that you're using for visual reference. I can't really give you advice for how to draw good sprites, or how to draw good backgrounds, but I find that having a sprite handy for visual reference goes a long way towards figuring out colors and form. A perspective tool (ie, something to generate a vanishing point grid) is also really good. I use 1PointHelper for Aseprite, and it's a godsend.



Once you get the basics down for a background: INVERT THE PROCESS. Draw character sprites on top of your background to make sure that they fit in with the environment.


(The guy sitting, in this case, is the sprite that I painted in)