Software and techniques for creating backgrounds and sprites?

[seanBlythe]

Hello there

 

I'm new to HTML5 game development and I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now. I have a very basic 2D where I can move a sprite around on the screen and pickup trolls. I'm happy with my achievements so far but I'm using sprites and backgrounds designed by others. I would very much appreciate it if someone could recommend some software or techniques for designing backgrounds and sprites for 2D games. 

 

My goal is to develop a Alien Breed type game.

[GNUton]

You can use inkscape to create your vector graphics or modify some graphics made by others. You can also sketch on paper and then use beizer curves to create the outlines of your characters and so on.

There should be quite a lot of tutorials on inkskape (free tool). In the end u can convert svg to PNG with transparency.

If you want use pixel art, than u can opt for gimp. (Free software too). Tons of tutorials here too.

To pack your PNGs in order to have animations and more.. you can use this

http://www.gnuton.org/blog/2014/04/free-texture-atlas-tools-in-c-for-windows-and-linux/

For the writings I use bitmap fonts. There are online tools such create bitmap fonts from .ttfs.. You can use this http://kvazars.com/littera/

I think you have all the tools in order to create your game.

Create a nice graphics is far from being easy. But it s fun.

Good luck

[seanBlythe]

wow nice. Thanks for sharing

[CJX3M]

If you want some animations, you can use either Spine (http://es.esotericsoftware.com/) or Spriter (http://brashmonkey.com/) They look like pretty neat tools on which you import vectors and get either json or xml files with your animations and tweens. Several html5 engines already have support for this and makes animatin in 2D quite easy.

 

They might not be free, but they are pretty cheap, $25.00 for the pro version on bout