Reiner's Free 2D Sprite Tilesets
Free Isometric Character Sprites and Graphics for Use in Video Games
Nov 15, 2008
Reiner Prokein first started making game graphics in the Autumn of 1999, when he discovered RPG Maker 95. Frustrated by the lack of quality freeware graphics available for his games, he began painting his own. But this was a long difficult process. As Reiner says on his website: "Phew, hard stuff if you really want to draw all the things by hand or pixel it in a paint program."
Reiner streamlined his game art creation process by using the 3D polygon modeling software Truespace. By creating an animated 3D model, Reiner found he could render 2D stills of the model that could then be used in RPG Maker.
After discovering the game creation platform Multimedia Fusion by ClickTeam, Reiner started developing his sprite sheets for Multimedia Fusion games. Over the years, the number and scope of Reiner's tilesets and sprite sheets continued to grow, and now, as in 1999, Reiner continues to make his game art assets available to video game makers absolutely free of charge.
Reiner's 2D Sprites Sheets
Reiner's 2D sprites are categorized under eight distinct headings:
- Humans
- Monsters
- Animals
- Buildings
- Environment
- Animated
- Vehicles
- Game Menu
Each character sprite and object sprite is supplied with a series of single frame animation poses in eight isometric directions. When combined, these single frames provide seamless streaming animation for basic game moves such as “attack”, “been hit”, “walk”, “run” and “death”.
The “Environment” tiles include terrain features that can be seamlessly tiled together to create isometric game maps. These include hills, roads, plains, grass and rivers. When populated with structures from the “Buildings” heading, this allows the game developer to create detail-rich land- and town-scapes.
The “Animated” section contains many objects and effects useful in game creation. These include quest items such as treasure and weapons, magic spell effects, animated water and fire effects and additional cityscape scenery.
The “Game Menu” graphics are devoted to game graphical user interfaces. The video game graphics in this section include buttons in various states, score fields and in-game menus.
Game Maker Sprites and RPG Maker Sprites
Reiner's sprite sheets are ideal for independent game developers in Adobe Flash or hobbyists looking for quality free Game Maker sprites or RPG Maker sprites. The graphic files are supplied in two formats: 24 Bit truecolor .bmp files and ClickTeam's Multimedia Fusion proprietary .cca format.
The .bmp files lend themselves to importation and manipulation in Flash, Game Maker and RPG Maker. The flat background color of each sprite makes applying transparency to each graphic simple. Game makers using Multimedia Fusion will find the .cca files completely game-ready.
Reiner Prokein's Tileset License
Reiner Prokein's generosity has a single caveat, included in his tileset license: that any commercial venture that makes use of his tilesets includes a credit to Reiner “Tiles” Prokein. Other than this simple courtesy, the license for using Reiner's sprites is remarkably flexible. Graphics and meshes from Reiner's sprite sheets can be modified, recolored, resized and distributed within a game or application completely free of charge.
Reiner's Video Game Sprites Website
Reiner Prokein has since moved on from 2D isometric sprites to creating game art for 3D engines. However, his years of developing sprite sheets makes the many 2D tilesets still available on his website the perfect solution for isometric game creators without the time or skills to make game graphics themselves.
To learn more, visit Reiner Prokein's website. Please note that Reiner's website is best viewed in Firefox.
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