Bruce
Nov 22, 20202 min
Updated: Oct 30, 2021
From the Editor menu, select Sprites
OK, so all sprites in MPAGD are 16 x 16 squares.
In the top right of the editor are two colour boxes, on the left is the INK (foreground), on the right the PAPER (background)
IMPORTANT! - these colours (when creating for the Spectrum) are irrelevant and wont affect your game - you set the sprites colour in the code, not here in the editor. On other platforms, like CPC and MSX, you will have different colour options that WILL affect how your sprite displays in your game but we'll cover those another time. You can click on the colour boxes to cycle through the palette - but this will just give you an idea of what the sprite would look like with those colours.
So, for now, lets leave them as they are and lets draw a character.
My game is going to star a flatulent dog... In the main editor just start clicking in the grid to draw your hero (right click will erase a cell)
OK, so, that's one sprite with Stinky Dog facing right, in the editor on the right hand side, at the bottom, is our sprite bank, it should only have 1 sprite in it for now, but I could do with another one where he is facing left.
Press X to add a new sprite, note that the editor refreshes and there's a new space in the Sprite Bank
Then, from the Sprite Bank, click the sprite we created first and Press M to copy it
Now click your new, blank Sprite from the Sprite Bank and Press K to paste in right facing Stinky Dog
Finally press H to flip him horizontally.
Cool, now we have two sprites for Stinky Dog, one for each direction that he is going to move (Left and Right).
Next, were going to take a look at Blocks, these are the tiles that will make up our screens. From the Editor menu select Blocks.