How to Draw Simple Tilesets - So You Don't Have An Excuse Anymore

While most drawing tools in editing programs will be useless for tilesets, having layers and more than three undos will be extremely useful.

One thing you will NEVER be able to do with MS Paint is alpha transparency - you know those gradients present in, say, the Desert tileset?  Can't make those.

OK. Few things (really a couple):
1. You can make transparency with MS Paint, but not the mist-like effects Minmay (you mind MM? I love abbreviations) spoke of, but normal transparency - just use that magenta/pink/whatever for transparency.

2. This is a problem with me - my tileset ain't showing up. I'll post a pic of it soon... the name is Tileset11.png.

Seriously, guys there's like 10 posts of mspaint ranting.

I didn't cover fudging transparency with magenta, because I don't want people to do it!  This tutorial assumes you have an image editor that can do transparency and you know how to use it.  It only covers what KS requires of tilesets - it doesn't cover how to meet those requirements with, say, MS Paint or Paint.NET or Photoshop or whatever you have.  Because, frankly, that would just be silly!  It's about tilesets, and nothing else.

This tutorial is about how to draw a tileset and what KS requires of the image.  It is not about how to "do" transparency.  If you don't know how to add transparency to an image (and you're using a program that can do so in the first place), your problem is one with your program, not with KS, and frankly doesn't really belong in the Knytt Stories Level Editing Support subforum.

Lets break this whole thing down before we shush everyone.

Basic pixel art
Ms paint: Easy enough, but you only get three undos, so making mistakes is incredibly annoying.
Any other program: Easy

Transparency
Ms paint: Can't do it, but you can use magenta if you want to. Semi-transparency and blurring is impossible.
Any other program: Can do it.

Brush sizes
Ms paint: A few presets.
Any other program: Allows you to scale brushes freely.

Selection tool
Ms paint: Annoying and limited.
Any other program: Useful.

Color selector
Ms paint: Good enough once you learn it, but you have to delete one of your preset colors to use it.
Any other program: Simple and easy to use.

Zooming
Ms paint: Has a few presets.
Any other program: Allows you to zoom freely.

Layers
Ms paint: Nope.
Most other programs: Yes.

Grids
Ms paint: Nope.
Most other programs: Yes.

Final verdict
Anyone still using paint is just being stubborn. Its useable, but not nearly as good as, well, anything.
If you want to use it, then go ahead, but I highly recommend that you get something else, like Paint.net or GIMP.

Now lets not get any further off topic.

Grids
Ms paint: Nope.
Most other programs: Yes.

Actually, it does have a grid, and it works fairly well, but the rest of the post is still 100% correct.

I've moved the images since it turns out Vulo is gone for good.

If you look down at this tileset by me (shameless advertising), this is how I like to lay out the general shape of my tiles. Ground is two 3x3 squares on the left. This leaves room for the 4x4+1 background tiles on top. Then you have a huge space on the right for anything you want, with nearly no size limitations.

I do recommend you make your first few tiles like this, it saves alot of room and makes the tileset easy to use.

EDIT: Oh, and MS Paint does have a grid, but unless you want to blind yourself with dotted gray lines and where one square=one pixel then I say no.

Hey! Have anyone seen the new ms paint for the new windows OS? Apparently it will be more advanced.

Hey! Have anyone seen the new ms paint for the new windows OS? Apparently it will be more advanced.

Although it is completelly offtopic, yes, I've already used it. Its better than the normal MS Paint, but doesn't beat say... Paint.net or gimp or any other known draw tool.

shawnachu: I have not covered, and will not cover, tile layout.  It is a matter of personal preference.  If you're making a tileset for other people to use, then you should worry about tile layout - but who makes KS tilesets specifically for public use?

but who makes KS tilesets specifically for public use?

I do.

Lots of people did back when we had a tilesets board...

Lots of people did back when we had a tilesets board...

which is now th development showcase

post those tilesets! 

You know, I wonder why the object 11 of bank 11 doesn't work.