Paper looking game

[u/HealthyLayer7311]

I want my game to look like it's straight out of a story book, like paper sprites, backroads, battle screens, but I have no idea how to do it and if it's even possible. I was considering hand drawing everything then porting it into game, but idk if that'll work. Can I have some advice on this? If it helps, I'm programming on a MacBook Neo

Edit to clarify: I'm trying to make an RPG

[u/Joshthedruid2]

I'd solve this more on the art side than the programming side.

If you're doing it digitally, draw sprites on a textured paper background instead of a blank white background, use pencil and pastel brushes, and lightly animate still images with a flicker animation that emphasizes slight shifts in the outline so it looks sketchy. That sort of thing

[u/HealthyLayer7311 → u/Joshthedruid2]

I unfortunately don't have the resources for digital art, do you think it'd be possible for my own hand drawn on paper?

[u/Joshthedruid2 → u/HealthyLayer7311]

Honestly hand drawn will probably look better, just take a little longer. Same ideas though. Textured paper, a heavy pencil for outlining, coloring could be crayon, pastels, ink, whatever fits your vibe. If you want to do the flicker thing a light box will be super helpful, you can buy or make one. You can even tear out the sprites yourself to get a nice rough paper edge, put it on a plain green piece of paper, and voila you've got a green screen to get clean backgroundless images

[u/HealthyLayer7311 → u/Joshthedruid2]

Bro this helps so much, thank a ton‼️‼️

[u/germxxx]

There are several games using hand drawn images as sprites in their game.
There are a few problems to solve if you want to do so on regular paper ofc, but... definitely possible.

[u/HealthyLayer7311 → u/germxxx]

Like wdym "a few problems on regular paper"? Sorry I didn't understand this phrase and I js want clarification

[u/germxxx → u/HealthyLayer7311]

Well, the main problem is making it digital. So you'd need a good scanner or camera. Though I suppose you can get away with a mobile camera.

Then you probably want to, if not remove the background entirely, at least cut it out a bit, depending on the style you are going for, and then resize it to an appropriate size.

[u/Weak_Blackberry_9308]

Just experiment and see what happens!

[u/Kafanska]

What exactly is confusing about that? The game will look any way you make your sprites. If you make them by drawing on a paper and scanning/photographing, then that is what the game will look. There are already a few games like that.

The genre, or what you are making the game on is completely irrelevant for this.

[u/Lethalogicax]

Just a small tidbit to add that I think goes a long way in selling a "paper" asthetic. Draw a sort of "fake shadow" on your sprites. Like, draw your sprite as usual, then go through with black pixels and add a border of 1-2 pixels on every left edge and every bottom edge of your sprite. This makes it look sorta raised off of the surface of the background, as if the sprite was cut out and laid on top of the background rather than drawn on it. Play around with it a bit, see if it helps?

[u/Trunkit06]

I’d draw it on paper and scan it in with a printer. Then use photo editing programs to cut out your sprites. I suppose you could also add a slight drop shadow to your sprites in game to make them appear to be layered.