The Dink Network

Creating Enemy Sprites

August 27th, 2003
v1.1
Score : 9.0 exceptional
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SimonK
Peasant He/Him Australia
 
Here it is - my take on creating enemy sprites in a DMOD. There are things I could change, but they are only minor. I've never had an complaints, but then no-one's ever emailed me to say they've used it. And since mimifish's is the only other review... hmmm maybe it was disappeared into the development file black hole.

What would make this file better... a bit more about how I go about making the graphics. An update on the use of magic attacks by enemy sprites.

As for brain 10. I'm not that impressed by it. In the end I used a brain 9 with large attack procedures to achieve the dragon in Pilgrim's Quest. Since then I've done an enemy with two physical attacks as well as a magic attack. This is a large demon in the upcoming DMOD Legend's Tale. Once that DMOD is released I may revisit this file and update things based on the demon sprite.

As for now I think it's a great file that covers the majority of issues people will have to think about when creating enemy sprites.

9 out of 10
July 12th, 2002
v1.1
Score : 8.8 good
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As being one of the beta testers of this excellent detailed tutorial, I would like to say that version 1.0 of this file (most of the people might not have the chance to see it) has been already very good, but SimonK took the extra steps to ask a few other fellow Dinkers to read it before the final release was even better.

Overall, this ia a well-organized and good-looking document. The biggest strength of this file is that you can learn almost all the tricks in DinkC, DinkEdit, and Dink.ini to make your new sprite graphics to work to perfect. The step-by-step descriptions are clear enough for anyone who starts to learn DinkC, also good for advanced authors to review and learn some advanced stuff about making a fancy new sprite alive. The looks of the document is excellent. It is well-organized. SimonK used his newly developed Eyeball Jr. monster as an example to explain everything you need to do for a brain 9 monsters with attack sequence AND dying animation. Besides the description from the Eyeball Jr.'s case, SimonK also touched a few different aspects about brain 10 monsters as well. And a few tips on how to render and create your own 3D sprites. All the information was well said, and I did not find any obvious error in it.

The main weakness of this file is that basically you can almost learn everything in this file from other pre-existed files, although none of the files covered this subject from the most basic stuff up to the seldom used advanced tricks. So although you might not learn any real new things from this tutorial, people who do not have an overall idea about how to make a new sprite work in every detail should download this file. The other thing is about the Title of this file. Although I did suggest him to change it while I was beta-testing it, SimonK may have his own reason not to change it. But to me, "Creating Enemy Sprites" might lead people to think that this file is meant to tell you how to "create new sprites' graphics" instead of "create new sprites in a dmod". I still feel that "Enemy Sprite Scripting" (but information about Dink.ini and DinkEdit are NOT parts of scripting. , and the file does give a few basic tips for creating new graphics) or something else might be better. But that is just a small unimportant bad personal taste. I still hope to see more information about brain 10 monsters since no files ever explain that well and correctly. But version 1.1 has already touched some of the key difference between brain 9 and brain 10 monsters. I'm hoping to see SimonK's new dragon work perfectly as a brain 10 new standard.

In short this is a very nice tutorial file that all dmod authors, even advanced ones, can learn something from it or at least refresh your memory about putting new sprites into action. One interesting side note: Simon claimed this file is "a basic tutorial" but it almost covered all advanced techniques you need to know about new sprites (DinkC and Dink.ini), while redink1's "Advanced Dink.ini Editing" in fact only had the very basic stuff. I guess Time did change.

I hope if anyone who wants to release some tutorial files that organize several different old tutorial files for the same topics should at least follow this file's path. Do it right and make them well-organized and easy to follow. Ask some veteran dmod authors, like redink1, Nexis, Paul, SimonK, and some others to name a few, to read it through before releasing it, even it was meant only for newbies. Newbies might not need advanced techniques at the beginning, but they should be fed even more accurate information since they do not know if the tutorial made a mistake!

This file would deserve a nearly perfect score in its own right, but since it does not have much new information, an 8.8 should be fair enough for this excellent tutorial file.
January 17th, 2006
v1.1
Score : 8.9 good
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wesley
Peasant He/Him United States
 
This is a technical guide on how to create and add an enemy to your Dmod. While it doesn't go into the creation process of the enemies (the scope of that is beyond this document), he does point you in the direction of some software that will help get the job done. Like him, I had used Blender and Photoshop for my graphics on my Dmods.

Overall, the document is well written and presented. It comes in both .doc and .htm versions. I actually prefered the .doc as it was a bit easier on my eyes. The htm version could have benefitted from a clickable contents section at the top of the page, but this is less a complaint as it is an obvervation.

There were a few times where what Simon was saying was a bit confusing, but I would blame that more on the Dink engine than this guide. Overall his concepts were very well written and easy to understand, especially if you have some experince in doing this. I will I'm sure be using this as a reference... er that is if I ever make another mod.
July 5th, 2002
v1.1
Score : 7.1 good
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IceMan
Peasant He/Him
 
Another SimonK development file. This basically shows the steps Simon goes through when making graphics. It is a simple to read tutorial, showing everything those little D-MOD authors need to make. I was hoping to see HOW he made his monsters/enemies, but still, a good tutorial in itself. Well done SimonK