Post by wheelcatmedia in Metamorphosis Collection comments

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Hi Ben, I have a question about your art process if you’re willing to share. I’d be honored if you gave as much or as little info as you want.

I’m more of an artist who’s been using GBStudio as a way of exploring games. I was sooo inspired by your art! The art in Specimen 134 is incredible, truly the prettiest GBC game I’ve ever seen. I bought the whole collection and love it. Love The Machine too.

I learned the basics, but the disconnect between what I want to create and what loads onto the screen in GBStudio is huge! Did you use Clip Studio Paint for S134? Do you make your backgrounds using a palette with multiples of 8 and load it in directly, or did you use the GB color values and then use different palettes for different tiles to simulate full color? I’m still really struggling to understand how you managed to pull S134 off, haha.

Thanks for your time if you happen to respond to this.

BenJelter35 days ago

I use clip studio paint for 99% of what I do but I should say that sometimes I jump into aseprite because in that program you can edit tiles and have all of the same tiles update at the same time. Usually it's just to do something quickly and jump back.

To be completely honest with you I don't even pay attention to the color limitations. I just pick the color I want and make sure not to use too many colors per tile and allow the program to convert it to the closest gb color. I only adjust it further if it looks awful. I make the art in full color within the restrictions in clip studio and then export it in color if I can get away with it and then have gb studio autocolor it. I have an 8x8 grid enabled when doing this so I can easily count the colors within a tile. If I need to manipulate the palettes somehow I'm forced to hand paint the palettes onto the background which is a tedious process but unfortunately it's often necessary.

BenJelter35 days ago

https://www.gbstudio.dev/docs/assets/backgrounds/

Definitely check out this page especially the stuff about autocoloring backgrounds and using mono backgrounds.

wheelcatmedia35 days ago

Your reply means a lot! I'm so excited to see what I can make. While I was looking for info on your process, I heard that you have another big project in the works--super stoked. You are something special in the gaming world, thanks for making your art.

BenJelter34 days ago

Thanks so much for your support. It's a ton of work to make games and comments like that help me stay motivated.

wheelcatmedia34 days ago

Well, for what it's worth... I didn't even grow up with the gameboy or anything. I'm 24 and The Machine is one of my favorite games ever. I definitely wouldn't be trying to make games without your inspiration.

(It's nearly a miracle I found your games though, haha. Whatever publisher you go with--please consider their ability to do a multiplatform release!)

BenJelter32 days ago

I'm doing my best to get my games onto other platforms but it's not super easy. Hopefully will have news on that front in like a year.

itch.io

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