New Tile Match Theme

[Skies]

I have made a new theme for tile match and miq01 (the games author) suggested I posted about it here.

Before installing the theme I suggest you copy the default theme onto your computer rather than having to download the original game again when you wish to revert back to the animals. I have tried renaming it and leaving it on the card but it didn't work for me.

The default theme is located in this location

tilematch\data\theme\default

Once you have copied it to your pc delete the one on your card and install the new one (in the same place) from here.

http://www.enemyskies.free-online.co.uk/gp...tch/default.rar (1.88mb)

(Of course you could always just copy it in and select yes to all when it asks to replace)

The folder has some of the same sound effects, a couple of new ones and a new menu. The music is a few tracks I made years ago. And of course the tile set is new too.

If you would rather you could just install the new graphics, just copy over tiles-board.png and tiles-remaining.png

Anyway, let me know if you like them as I made tons of tile sets for another game several years ago and they can be converted quite easily. And if tile match themes prove popular miq01 might just release a version where you can change the themes from the game menu

Jave fun and let me know if you like it or hate it.

 

[miq01]

Very nice tile set! Oh, and nice weird music as well. Did you make that music?

 

[Skies]

Yep, the music is mine too, made around 2001. Finally found a use for it.

 

[chaos engineer]

Congrats, nice one, I really like the sound track too

 

[Skies]

I just made another in about 20 mins. It looked really nice in paint shop but in game it's really hard too see the colours properly. Something to do with the red from the background coming through.

Oh well. Here's a quick step by step guide to make your own tilesets. It really is easy. I use paint shop pro so these instructions may not be applicable if you do not use it.

1. Open up the following file from the default folder.
"tiles-board.png"

2. The top row of tiles are what you see on screen and the rows below them are mini version that are shown when the tiles are matched in order to animate it vanishing.

Draw or paste in a 30x30 design. Whatever you want in whatever colour it doesn't matter for now.

3. Now use the box select tool to highlight the 30x30 shape and copy (ctrl+C)

4. Now paste into selection (ctrl+E) and use the shrink tool (it's the one that looks like a square clock) and shrink it down to fit the 2nd row.

5. Ctrl+E another one in for the row below and so on until you have 1 big tiles and 4 below. You could always leave the ones below blank. It shouldn't matter it will just display nothing.

6. If you want to use a different picture for each tile then follow the above for each tile. Remember 30X30 and shrink the ones below.

7. If you want to use the same shape but use different colours then use the box tool again and draw a big rectangle from the top corner 30 pixels across right down to the bottom of the picture and copy. (ctrl+C)

8. Before pasting press shift+L. This is the colorising tool. By altering the 2 sets of numbers you can change the colour of the entire selection.

Here is a cheat sheet of a few colours.
red 255-255
green 080-160
blue 150-160
purple 200-200
yellow 040-190
pink 230-255
orange 020-200

Colour the selection. Then ctrl+E to paste in a new set of tiles and colourise it with a different colour. It's that simple.

Just remember to save it as a .png.

9. Next open up the file "tiles-remaining.png". The top row shows a miniature version of the tile. And the bottom row is the same tile after you have completed the required number of matches.

You could just shrink the original tiles to fit and colourise them if needed. Alternatively you could just use plain squares of that colour and stick OK in the middle of the bottom row like I did with my theme. Or colourise them in grey (000-000).

It's that easy!

Oh and by the way. The small tiles you see on the main menu jumping are taken from the tiles-remaining.png top row.

 

[Skies]

After playing I realised that the colour black is made transparent. So I replaced the black in my 2nd tile set and it looks much better. Although it is a bit harder to use. Maybe that's a good thing.

Also found it is easier to put the themes in a new folder in your game directory and then by using the GP2X file explorer to copy the files across and replace customising is done in about a minute and is reversible just as quick.

I will make a few more and release an updated pack with all the themes inside.

 

[telengard]

Hmm, I didn't realize support had been added for themes. Boy am I outta the loop. I made some 8 bit sound effects almost a year ago for the game.
Gonna have to go grab the latest version to try them out.

~telengard

 

[bluey]

I believe there isn't support for themes, but you can change the files to change the theme.
The developer stated to Skies that theme support could be added if there was interest. I think it would be nice!

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

Question: If I get bored sometime, would it be okay if I was to add to your current themes?
If so, are there any restrictions I should adhere to? i.e. the audio, do the SFX and music have to be specific lengths, or do the SFX just play to the end of the sample and the music just repeats?

Edit: Actually I think I will just test it to see the results

 

[bacteria]

Cheers, will update to this.

 

[Skies]

Question: If I get bored sometime, would it be okay if I was to add to your current themes?
If so, are there any restrictions I should adhere to? i.e. the audio, do the SFX and music have to be specific lengths, or do the SFX just play to the end of the sample and the music just repeats?

Edit: Actually I think I will just test it to see the results

If that was aimed for me then I have made a few more themes and will probably put them on tomorrow. (just need to play them one more time to make sure they are ok). What I do is put a tile match themes folder inside my games folder and then use the file explorer to copy the graphics across then play). I have put a basic tutorial in there for the graphics and added that if anyone wants to make a theme I will put it inside the theme pack in a folder with their name and the themes title.

That way, if miq does release a version with a theme selector he can just stick them in.

As for the sfx and music. Exactly as you said.

 

[Skies]

Version one of the the tile match theme is now finished. Well enough for me to unleash it anyway.

I haven't included music in the theme pack. In order to drive the file size down. Without music it's only 100kb or something.

Here is the link

http://www.enemyskies.free-online.co.uk/gp...matchthemes.zip

Here are examples of the 5 tiles in the pack. (includes the one in the 1st post)

(note that black is made transparent in game)

Also included is a tutorial guide with templates. And anyone creating new sets are welcome to send me them so I can add them to this pack (with their name and readme).

Let me know what you think, if there is anything you think can be improved on let me know too. Even if it is something silly like one of the blocks is 1 pixel out or something.

 

[Goemon4]

very nice packs! cant wait to try them (one idea, mabey add a handheld pack with things like the 2x,32,ds,psp, zodiac etc, like guyfawkes' memory scheme(i belive he made that)) idk just an idea....

(btw why not upload this on the archive?)

 

[Skies]

I did upload the first one I did. I'll upload these too. At some point.

I'll have a look at the handheld one.

 

[Goemon4]

yeah i noticed that lastnight (and k, thanks!)