Lemma Soft Forums

Hi there,

Since our current game will be starting on sprites soon, I needed people's help on this matter.

As of right now, our background artist has created 4 out of 20 of the BGs for the game. They are using 1920x1080 resolution, as I have read for BGs the resolution is the biggest concern, with many of the opinion that resolution was more important than dpi. 1920x1080 resolution wasn't a problem for my background artist, and we're using that, plus 300 dpi 'just in case.'

Here's the real question: Is there a size/resolution/dpi that would be best for sprites? (Keep in mind these will be thigh-up shots, if that makes a difference.)

Thanks in advance!

maybe so, but I'd make it on the big size, as you can always resize a cache of it with
Long as the user has a computer that was made in the last 20 years they should be able to run high res image that has been recached as smaller.

Keep in mind it also might be useful to draw the sprite larger than you display it at. For example, you could draw the asset at "double size", and scale/crop it to have a selection of closeups and distance shots.

when you are using pixels for unit, the dpi is irrelevant for computers,
DPI (dots per inch) is important if you're giving the size in inches, centimeter or any other unit OR you want to print the image (for print you'll need higher resolutions and specify the size of the image in something other than pixel)
screen resolution is 72 dpi so I suggest keeping it that way for images that are used inside the game though computers will ignore it and use the pixel size for showing the image.

The sprites this artist does are very large, and the file size is accordingly (obviously). I was just concerned since I've experienced the occassion where an image file is so large and so detailed, that when you try to downscale it, the edges blur (bad pixellation), and loses its sharpness/clarity.

I just didn't know if there was a simple answer to this as "no worries, Ren'py automatically downsizes for you" or "no, you should probably size your sprites at _____ for best optimization with the program" -- things like that.

Still, I appreciate all of your help with this!