Of course there are many more programs you can use, but these 4 are the ones I’m familiar with. The program is open-source, meaning you can just compile it yourself, but believe me when I say that it’s a hassle and a half.Īnd there we go, 4 pieces of graphics software you can use to create assets for your Mega Drive projects. The full version (available for Windows, Mac and Linux) costs $14.99 which really isn’t much when you consider what you’re getting. There is a free trial version (which has all features but doesn’t allow you to save) so you can give it a spin. It’s even easy to create animations and generate spritesheets… I could go on and on, Aseprite is just an awesome package all around. It uses palettes by default and it’s very powerful, boasting lots of features that make the life of retro pixel artists easier. I’ve been using Aseprite to create graphics for all my projects, from PC games to mobile to Mega Drive. Last but anything but least, my personal favorite: Aseprite. It’s free, open-source and available for all platforms. Depending on what software you work with, the UI of Grafx2 might take some getting used to but it’s a very good tool for Mega Drive development once you get the hang of it. It offers easy palette management and boasts some cool features, like spreading colors (creating gradients from one color to another, like white to black). It uses palettes by default and is geared towards retro computer graphics. And that begins with its user interface, which might seem scary but is rather appropriate when you consider what you’re gonna use it for. Inspired by programs such as Deluxe Paint on the Amiga, Grafx2 is a blast back into the past. And even if you’re not using it, feel free to give it a try! 3. Plus, I’ve never been able to get a handle on GIMP to be honest… but your mileage may very well vary! If you’re already using GIMP then you can also use it for your Mega Drive art purposes. However, since it’s a full graphics suite that doesn’t exactly focus on old-school pixel art, it’s not the best choice in my opinion. Like its commercial cousin, GIMP supports an indexed color mode and it makes working with palettes easier than it is in Photoshop. The free and open-source alternative to Photoshop fares better when it comes to Mega Drive graphics. So while Photoshop is certainly able to do the job, there are more fitting tools out there.

For example, it’s a bit bothersome to reorder colors in your palette and there are no built-in features like color spreading. And while Photoshop does support an indexed color mode which we need for Mega Drive development, it’s rather lacking in features in that particular area.

We don’t need cutting edge tech and powerful features, we’re working with 30 year old hardware here. Photoshop is very powerful and an industry standard, but that might actually be a disadvantage in our case. Let’s get the big one out of the way first. Only practice makes perfect, but the graphics software you use can make your job easier…or maybe even harder! So in this post I wanted to give you a list of 4 graphics programs that you can use to create graphics for your Mega Drive game. You have to keep these things in mind from the very beginning, before you even place your first pixel. Please note that Color 0 in 256 color mode is actually replaced by transparent 'color' and black indexed 16 can be used instead.Making art is hard, but retro consoles make the job even harder due to technical limitations and restrictions, such as a limited color palette. I also included links to two versions of bitmaps that can be used to import into paint programs or sprite design tools. I exported these colors directly from Commander X16 emulator using a simple Basic program that can be downloaded below. At startup we get pretty good collection of default colors.įirst 16 colors are similar to Commodore 64 colors, the next 16 are all possible clean gray colors followed by spread of other colors of different hues and intensities. Commander X16 uses 256 color palette, each of the component colors (R, G and B) gets 4 bits therefore we can choose from total of 16*16*16 = 4096 combinations.

Aseprite load palette