Contributing art
Javelin's look is super easy to change! After you download and unzip the game you will find a folder called avatars in your Javelin directory. All of the game art assets are here and each of them is a PNG image (32 pixels wide by 32 pixels tall). If you modify any of these images simply starting the game again will already take the changes into account.
The vast majority of the files inside the avatar folder are monster images. These files usually are the name of the monster in question in all lowercase and without spaces. For example: purpleworm.png. When there are many images for the same group of monsters the following helps keep the files together when browsing the folder: spider.png spidersmall.png spiderbig.png.
Besides the monster images there are also other types of images in this folder:
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Locations are places the player can visit on the world map. For example:
locationtown.png. -
Overlay are images that are drawn on top of other images to represent temporary circumstances. For example:
overlayupgrading.png. -
Terrain are images that are used as the game background and for the environment during battles. For example:
terrainforestfloor.png. -
Dungeon images are used when drawing the inside of a dungeon - for example:
dungeonfloor.pnganddungeonwall.png. Images show during battles inside dungeons are considered terrain images instead. Images related to the dungeons in the seven Temples are also organized here.
Artists can and should work on whatever they feel like doing. If you need some ideas, though, many can be found as issues labeled as "art" on the GitHub project page. Note that some of those issues are initially vague - you can ask for more details and direction by writing a comment on any of them (you will need to have or create a free GitHub account for that). Feel free also to create a new issue if you need anything (advice, opinions, ideas, feedback, etc) that isn't covered by any previously existing issue in there!
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When creating an image, most artists will be tempted to use the entire 32x32 canvas. This will result in a very "big" feeling when the image makes it into the game because only the largest Locations and Monsters use the entire canvas. If you're working on a normal-sized feature, make sure to start off by comparing it to another image of roughly the same desired size from the
avatarsfolder. -
The most recent images have been made using the EDG32 color palette. This isn't by any means a requirement but perhaps a starting point for artists. If you're using Aseprite, the palette comes built-in with the program - if you're using something else you can find a reference here.
Javelin right now is a bit of a mess in the visual aspect due to using several sources for art, many with differing styles. It would be great to create an entire new set of images with a single style but that would be a pretty big task. Instead just picking individual files that can be improved or created from scratch is a much simpler task and is enough to bring the game forward step-by-step.
In a broader sense I see two art styles Javelin can aspire to: one is fantastic and colorful like circa-1990 Dungeons and Dragons (more examples here). The other is a grittier, more realistic and serious tone most games seem to be going for nowadays (such as triple-A games like The Witcher and Skyrim). Of course Javelin is not a 3D game but hopefully this comparison makes some sense.
My personal preference is the more colorful and fantastic style because: 1. it is different from most games nowadays and variety is good, 2. it was a cool art style that was pretty much forgotten and deserves to be resurrected and 3. it's more similar to older video-games from which Javelin draws a lot of inspiration from, like Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star.
Having said this much: I'm not an artist and I'm not the one to decide what style is best for the game. Since Javelin is still beginning we don't have to make this decision yet but it is an important thing to keep in mind while producing art since the ultimate goal is to have an unique, unified look-and-feel for the entire game.
As more opinions about long-term artistic goals for the project come up this page should be kept updated.
Check out these amazing fantasy artists for inspiration (some images may contain partial nudity):
Currently, the best way to communicate with the development team is through Discord. If you don't use or like Discord though you can always send in an email or make a post in our subreddit:
- Discord https://discord.gg/Eh6SxsV
- Javelin at reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/javelinrl
- or write a message to javelinrl@gmail.com
Javelin 2.0 is going to be a total rewrite of the user-interface code, providing players with a much more modern interface (like this one) and support using the mouse as well as gamepads while playing. This is a lot of work but has to be done relatively soon. Since this will require rewriting a lot of screen code many of the more visual changes will be delayed until 2.0 to prevent them from having to be rewritten when making the change from the 1.x series to 2.0. Of course, if these features are high priority or easier to do without needing a later rewrite they won't have to wait until 2.0.
Free game art collection (big download using the "download zip" button): https://github.com/saniv/free-game-art
TomeTik tiles library http://pousse.rapiere.free.fr/tome/
When working with monster images, two resources are very helpful: one is using a Google Images search for "D&D monster-name" (for example: D&D orc). The other one is reading the official monster description that can be found on the SRD http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/monsters.htm
See Development options for more information. Below are the suggested settings for artists. The lines can be enabled and disabled by putting and removing a hash character (#) at the start of the line.
The last two can be disabled and altered as needed.
cheat.combat=false
cheat.gold=9000
cheat.world=show
cheat.garrison=clear
cheat.period=noon
#cheat.monster=orc
#cheat.map=forest.Dense