Mixing Art Styles?

I'm sure everyone here remembers what it was like to start their first game (something I'm currently doing) and how overwhelming everything was. I doubt anyone here is completely self-sufficient when it comes to resources, so at least in some category a game-maker is always at the mercy of what resources are out there and what people are willing to make (for free, if the game is a personal project). There are a lot of frustrations that come with this, one of which I'd like to ask about.

Can anyone tell me what the rules are regarding the mixture of different art styles? I've seen a lot of people say that you don't want to use a mixture of painted and pixel tiles, and I'll take their word for it. But does that apply to an entire game or just to each map? And what about other types of resources, like sprites and battlers? Are there some combinations that can work and others that can't (like, you can use painted tiles with pixel sprites but not painted backgrounds with pixel battlers)?

A lot of the time everything I'm going to want in a game will not all be available in the same style (if available at all). But if I can mix resource types in different styles it will help alleviate some of the problem.

I guess that when the art stile is SLIGHTLY different (rtp and samurai and mack for exemple) it might work out if you put your act together and don't mix them up on the same map (or paying very careful attention on what you are mixing so that nothing feels out of place). After of course, if you're in a rural setting and the next map, bam , it goes all medieval japanese it will look like nonsense unless there is a good reason for this storywise. 

Just try out things judge by yourself and ask some external feedback too if you have a doubt on the viability of such or such mixed art style. 

Boy, if the RTP and Samurai resources don't count as the same style I'm in more trouble than I thought. Maybe I'll need a team of artists after all.

Sometimes - though not always - changing the saturation and/or brightness of the resources helps them to blend together better.  I do this using GIMP because it's free; others use Photoshop or paint.NET (not MS Paint) and I believe that there are other image manipulation programs that one can use.  Another thing to bear in mind is that some Mack objects are at a larger scale than the RTP.  Again the size can be adjusted in your image program.

And the RTP and Samurai do count as the same.  Somewhere on the site there is a thread with the compatibilities listed out.  Here they are.

Pack                                                                                                         Goes with

Samurai                                                                                                    Default Ace RTP

High Fantasy & Mythos Horror                                                                 With each other and nothing else

DS & DS+                                                                                                 With each other and nothing else

Modern tiles, Modern add-on & Arabian                                                   With each other and default Ace RTP

Futuristic                                                                                                   With default Ace RTP.  With Modern except the cars

Eygptian Battlers                                                                                       Fits with anything except High Fantasy and Mythos Horror

Old School Modern                                                                                  Fits with nothing, stand alone

Rural Farm Tiles                                                                                       Fits with nothing, stand alone

Wild West Pack                                                                                        Default Ace RTP

Tyler Warren RPG Battlers                                                                      Unique as battlers, meant to mesh with any of the RTP battle backs

Fantasy Hero Character Pack                                                                   Sprites are ACE RTP, everything else is flexible

Zombie Survival Graphic Pack                                                                Matches Modern Day tiles and should be okay with Ace RTP, but sprites are in its own style

This relates to tiles – battlers are more complex.  It is possible to use at least some of the High Fantasy and Mythos Horror with default tiles.

The high-res battlers in DS should also match across with RTP style.

That list ought to come in handy. Thank you!

What are the main types of sprites? The RTP style, Mack style (which is sort of taller, like XP?)... Is there anything else? Can anyone tell me if I have more to worry about when it comes to sprites than just their size in relation to the tiles (so long as the sprites are uniform)?

That list is missing a few of the newer packs, but it goes a long way. Let's see, new ones.


Scifi Battlebacks - These look like they're meant to match Ace's RTP, but I haven't tested them to make sure. Battle backs go well with lots of tile types.


Tarot Battlers - These are the same style as the Egyptian Myth battlers and all of Thalzon's free ones.


Evil Castle Tiles - Matches Ace's RTP


Halloween Tiles - Mostly it's own style, though if you're careful it can work with some of the stuff meant to match the RTP. I think I've seen some tiles that are similar around the forums.


Dungeon and Volcanoes tile pack - Matches Ace's RTP


Royal Tileset - Matches Ace's RTP


Pixel Myth - It's own style.


Futuristic Heroes - Faces in it's own style, but they go well with just about any tile type.


There are also some tiles available for free that are significant enough to have their own listing. Most of them are made to go with Ace's RTP. The only ones I can think of that don't are Crazy Leen's original retro sets and my own Tiny 16. Both of those are double pixel sized like the Old School Modern sets, but the styles are quite different from each other. I wouldn't recommend blending them.


If you're good at editing and are careful with scale I'd say that some of the things from Pixel Myth, XP's RTP and the DS tiles could be used together. XP and DS have a similar style, coloring, and color count, but the scale is very different. XP and Pixel Myth have a similar scale but coloring, color count, and style is different. Pixel Myth and DS are the least likely to mesh, just about the only thing they have in common is that they're pixel art in a 32x32 tile size.


Major sprite types that I know of:


XP's RTP


Ace's RTP


DS


Mack Sprites


Looseleaf generator- These are the ones made with the generator, they're a lot like the Mack sprites and were made by Mack but the height is different.


Old School Modern - With the second pack I'd say there are enough of these to count as a major style.


There are also a few blended styles like one's Lunarea's been making that blend XP and Ace's styles, and one that Slimm and I have been messing around with that blend XP and DS. There are lots and lots of other minor styles so if you don't like any of those that doesn't mean there aren't other options. Those are just the ones that have more material to work with.

Thanks for the info. By the way, are the DS faces the wrong size to be used with Ace's default system?

Oh , that's funny when watching those at the shop and their description I thought the royal tiles, dungeon volcano and evil castle were meant to fit together alone but not the rtp. Might make me consider to acquire some then.

Oh dear, now I'm all worried that I got it wrong.

I have those packs and I think they do fit with the RTP... Plus the packs doesn't really have much if ur planning to use only those

Maybe I'll grab the evil castle to try it out then. Thanks for the info! 

Hey, maybe it would be good to make a post-it thread clarifying which optional tileset fits what? 

btw, I only looked at them after I got them, didn't use them yet...

Does anyone think the style of the faces in the DS resources clash with Ace's RTP faces? To my untrained eye they look similar.

They do. There's a big difference in the line weight used and the DS faces have colored or bold black outlines while Ace's have a dark brown, it becomes more obvious when it's used together. They look like they might have been drawn by the same artist though.

Speaking of DS, if you have members+, one of the available resources is a conversion of the first 10 sets of sprites to RTP style. That can help with some of the mismatched style problem.

Thanks. Though that helps with the sprites but not the faces. Unfortunately one isn't much use without the other.

...Man, finding resources is a discouraging process.

True, but you can use the sprites as more generic NPC's without faces. At least that is what I've done. Though I have used some of the face sets too, but the three I've used are placeholder art until I eventually get around to finding an artist. At this stage of my game all I want is art that doesn't make my eyes bleed to look at, and I can live with a slight mis-match while it is in the development stages.

This is correct. They're not made in the RTP style, though they use a very similar painted technique. The differences lie in scale, palette, occasional saturation and use of certain stylistic effects (gradients, burn/dodge, etc). You could use them with the RTP, and they would be a lot closer in matching than any pixel-based set. But they're not created with RTP in mind. The only set from the artist that was created for RTP specifically is the Wild West tiles, and they've got a different vibe than the recent tiles we've been releasing.

That said, the differences are small enough to not be a problem for most players. So, you can probably get away with using them with the RTP. :)

So you think it would still work though if someone decided to transition to a dungeon done with all the dungeon tile set from a field map that was all RTP?

Regarding DS faces, try Liberty's post DS Recolours an Edits in RPG Maker DS/DS+ Add-Ons Directory.

It's all in the Member+ lounge