Sprites
Sprite Creation
All the sprites used in "Cold Case" are rendered via Blender. Blender is an Open-Source 3D-modeling software allowing the creation of 3D-Models and rendering them.
Blender
For the sprite creation process of "Cold Case" the team uses a Blender-File which acts like a kind of photo studio and is used to create the png-Files, which become sprites in the game. In this studio there are set lighting conditions, cameras and assisting bounding boxes to ensure a unified and clean production of sprites. Sprites are rendered in with the parallel-projection- and transparent-world-settings.
Principles of Design
Unambiguity: Sprites need to have differing shapes and colors to guarantee unambiguity to the player in every given situation.
Visibility & Occlusion: Sprites need to have a certain shape and color so that they are visible in every state of the game, do overlap sprites behind them and aren't occluded by other sprites.
Unity & Style: To ensure the appeal and feel of the game, sprites need to be modeled with a certain degree of detail and may only be colored in the same color-palette.