I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.

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Offline James O.

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Hey guys, I don't post here too often, but I made this really useful pixel art Program. At least I get tons of use out of it. Its called Pix Army Knife.

Its a really simple program specifically designed for game art designers like myself. Its features deal with creating seamless looping tiles, and organizing tilesets.



Its not SUPER functional, but meant to be used along side your main graphics editor to speed up productivity.

I thought you guys would appreciate it, since you can make your own Knytt Stories tilesets with it.

To prove this point, I went made my whole own KS Level using a tileset I made. Its called "Another Strange Dream" and its supposed to be a sequel to "A Strange Dream."



Its got a more gritty Yoshi's-Island-like art style. I tried to capture the feel of the level design I would say is very Nifflas-like in challenge. I also included a secret ending, and one Easter Egg that are both reference to Nifflas games.

To make Tiles for Knytt Stories with Pix Army Knife, just change the pixel parameters from the default 16 to 24.

Oh yeah, you can download my program and KS Level on my personal site here:http://www.crimsontheory.byethost6.com/pix.php

I hope you like my work. I've spent about 2 months on this program and the level together. I've got to go to work right now, but I'll be back tomorrow to see whats up.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2011, 22:30:37 by James O. »

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Offline Miss Paula

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2011, 22:44:51 »
wow, seems cool, although I don't really do a lot of pixel art. X) definitely gonna check out the level. :D
Spoiler: (click to show/hide)
:hs::hs::hs::hs::fish::hs::hs::hs::hs:
:hs:

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Offline egomassive

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2011, 13:52:17 »
Nice level. I especially liked the part with the trees. Found a void at x997y1013, left side.

I don't think I have a use for the editor though. I can see the appeal of being able to quickly check patterns directly in the editor, but I'd probably do most of my editing in Gimp anyway.

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Offline yohji

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2011, 18:16:48 »
You really should create a separate thread for the level at Knytt Stories Level Releases, otherwise I'm afraid some people won't notice this. Usually I don't like this kind of art style in KS, but I couldn't help appreciating the work that went into this. Loved the cave area and the world maps in endings. I feel with a little bit of tinkering with the palette and the music this could be really atmospheric... The only parts I really didn't like were some of the spike screens. Particularly the spikes in the first deep well were irritating to the extreme.

Haven't tried Pix Army Knife yet, but I'm impressed by the screenshots. Hopefully I'll get back to KS level editing one day and will put the editor to good use :)

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Offline James O.

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2011, 21:30:42 »
Nice level. I especially liked the part with the trees. Found a void at x997y1013, left side.

I don't think I have a use for the editor though. I can see the appeal of being able to quickly check patterns directly in the editor, but I'd probably do most of my editing in Gimp anyway.

Oops! I put the "NoClimb" tiles down, but forgot to actually put a solid tile! I should fix that up.

The pixel editing tools were thrown in as an after thought. But the main uses were checking the tile wrapping, and quick color replace features. As well as splitting tiles from a tileset. I design programs that I need for myself, and then figure that I might as well share them. I also do most of my editing in Paint and Photoshop. But the quick copy/paste interface allows me to quickly share data between the 3, without having to fumble around with lots of photoshop's drop down menus.

I'm creating my own game, and I needed these specific features. I also had always wanted to make a KS level. So I thought I'd share both at once as a package.

You really should create a separate thread for the level at Knytt Stories Level Releases, otherwise I'm afraid some people won't notice this. Usually I don't like this kind of art style in KS, but I couldn't help appreciating the work that went into this. Loved the cave area and the world maps in endings. I feel with a little bit of tinkering with the palette and the music this could be really atmospheric... The only parts I really didn't like were some of the spike screens. Particularly the spikes in the first deep well were irritating to the extreme.

Haven't tried Pix Army Knife yet, but I'm impressed by the screenshots. Hopefully I'll get back to KS level editing one day and will put the editor to good use :)

Thanks. I wasn't sure if I should double-post in two forums. But I suppose that is a good idea. They have different purposes.

The spike screens were created to make natural barriers to prevent access without both the double jump and high jump. The key is to jump straight up in front of them, and then turn really sharp at the height of the jump. I tried to make saves close enough that these wouldn't be annoying.

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Semeurim

Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2011, 02:08:54 »
Well!

I took a brief look at your Army Knife. It seems like it could be very useful indeed. I personally prefer just using Paint.NET (along with a strong willingness to go through immense tedium to correct mistakes), but I can certainly see the utility in this utility.

I suppose I should give your level a try; I'll get back to you on that tomorrow, I guess.

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Offline James O.

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2011, 20:15:53 »
Thank you.

I never got used to Paint.net or Gimp. I was never able to establish a good flow with them. I think they try to be a little too ambitious with features. At least for me.

I've always worked best within MS Paint itself, with some slight usage of Photoshop Elements. But I always wanted just a little bit more from Paint. That's where this program came from.

I also wanted to make it fun in the same way Mario Paint and Kid Pix were.

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Semeurim

Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2011, 20:56:11 »
BAHAHA I remember Kid Pix. That was from waaaaay a long time ago. <3

Paint is a bit too simplistic for me (though it got a HUGE facelift in Windows 7; I have to applaud Microsoft for that and the Calculator upgrade). Personal preference, though; to each his own and all that. ;3

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Offline Jerom

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2011, 14:35:45 »
This wrapped tile editor will be so useful to my projects!
Great job James O. & thank you! C)

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Offline Mr Fish

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2011, 10:14:39 »
wow, this is a good game...
i really like the caves... C)

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Offline James O.

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Re: I made a Pixel Art Program"Pix Army Knife", and a KS Level.
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2011, 09:11:27 »
Thanks. I appreciate the comments. It helps me know that I'm doing something right.  :P2

I'm working on a big update to Pix Army Knife. I'm including an integrated Auto-update process so that I can keep everyone's version up to date without having to spread the news all the time. I'm also trying to expand the Palette system to incorporate new knowledge I have about pixel art. Another update will be a more unique HSL color model, instead of the built in Windows stock RGB color picker.