Reviving Golden Sun: Prologue
From 3D to 2D.... to 3D?
So just by looking at the battle screens you can see that the sprites for Golden Sun are very detailed and vibrant. The bright color palletes are a holdover that many developers at the time did to accommodate for the original screen of the Gameboy Advance, before the system got a backlight upgrade with the SP model. You can see this in other games as well. This gives Golden Sun that crisp bright look. The sprites are actually downscaled 3d models that have been touched up and converted to separate images to produce the "animation" frames in battle. Similar to the original Donkey Kong Country for Super Nintendo, 3d models were created, posed, then exported as individual sprites. The result gives the sprites a lot more depth and life to them. Combined with the unique camera rotation effects in battle, this method of rendering sprites produces a pseudo-3d look to the combat. This is done for every enemy as well, which means every enemy had a 3d mesh of it at first.
Different Stylized sprites are used for the out of battle designs. Dungeons, Overworld, Towns, etc.
Simpler 3d models are also used outside of battle to make the overworld sprites which are seen when in towns, dungeons, the world map, anytime you are outside of battle. The sprites are more chibi-like with their proportions and are used for NPCs and the Djinni too. This look is reminiscent of Harvest Moon 64, in which the same method is employed. Renders of pre-made 3d models are converted to sprites from different angles.
Creating models using Sprites as reference
Due to the limited cartridge space, there wasn't that much room for animation in battle. The idle movement of the characters and Enemies are only a few frames. They are however simple and careful to give just enough subtle movement to imitate life in the creature. After all it would be very strange to battle static images after the developers went through the trouble of presenting the battles this way. Limitations mean that there are about 10-12 different sprites per enemy on average. Of these frames, 6 to 8 are used for the idle movement. These idles are usually 3 frames that loop. There are three for the front view, and the same number for the back view. 2 frames are generally used for attack animations. And 2 more used for hit/death frames.
Front, Back, Attack, and Damaged frames for the Mushroom type enemy
In motion, this is just enough detail and frames to convey battle movement for the purpose of gameplay. But it does limit reference for the design of the enemies. The POV of the sprites only gives us the front and back views of each enemy design at a 3/4ish view. With other details possibly revealed in the attack or damaged frames. You will notice that the idle animations of the sprites don't have large or erratic movements as looking at some it can be hard to see the "motion" side by side. But when you only have about 3-4 frames, you have to keep the frames consistent and subtle for readability in game. What this means for me though, is that I will have to model each enemy using the in-game battle sprites as reference. This can be easy or a little more challenging depending on what type of enemy it is. Thankfully, because of hardware limits, some enemies are simple pallete swaps of others. Which means a texture swap for me.
Some sprites may be harder to visualize in 3d space than others.
Target Specs for each Asset
I did say this would be like if Golden Sun was released for GameCube, so I would like to approach each model with this in mind. So you won't see any normal map or sculpting retopo here. I'll be going the route of how these models would have been made back then. This means texture resolutions, polycounts, and other details will be made with the standards of the time, or at least closest to that. I've already made a few models just to workshop how I would start to make each model. While the exact specifications of each asset might change, I think I've come up with a general approximation of how each model will be made.
In Battle
Characters
1400-1600 tris
2-3 textures max
256x256 max texture res
Enemies
800-1200 tris
2 textures max
256x256 max texture res
Overworld
Characters
300-500 tris
2 textures max
128x128 max texture res
Items, objects, statics
0-300 tris
128x128 max texture res
The models that will be the most dense will likely be big bosses and the Main Character in-battle models. Outside battle will use the simpler chibi style designs, and from a farther camera view so a much lighter polycount will do for that. Enemies will definitely have the most variance as some of these designs shape-wise, are very generic, often consisting of simple shapes like Vermin or the Mushroom Man enemy. Now because these models were of the N64 plastic solid era, you'll notice that there isn't really texture involved on the surface of the sprites. This would simply be because the resolutions of the sprites are too low to properly convey textures. Using simple materials to separate parts of the mesh is more than enough to add detail to the models when they will be shrunken down to images later. For this reason, silhouette and solid color data are more important for a small screen. The extent of complexity involving the converted models would be the simple dark shading applied where necessary, which could be added manually by pixel from the sprite artists.
Due to converting to a much lower resolution render of each model, texture is disregarded and instead detail is focused on solid material colors and simple shading.
However since I will be making full 3d models i will have to add some texture. I could go the route of keeping the colors solid with minimal texture surface detail, but I feel that it may look too flat. This doesn't mean I will aim for realistic shading with the textures either. I will be going for a stylized look that keeps the 2d fantasy style of the first 2 games. Texture will be used to give depth in detail rather than adding it. The design of the enemies are simple, so the texture should add detail but I will also make sure not to overcomplicate the texture as well since it may clash with the original design. Keep it Simple, will be a phrase I will need to get used to. This would apply to the character models as well once I work out the exact style for the battle versions. Thankfully, Golden Sun Dark Dawn has chibi versions for the overworld characters that I can use as reference. I've actually studied a few of the Dark Dawn models in the past to make my own chibi model before. It wasn't perfect, but it made me learn more about being very conservative with the tri count. As for texture res, I dont see a reason to go above a 256x size texture for higher poly models in battle. The colors and detail on the characters are also simple but add depth just like the enemies. Environments and bone count limits will need to be worked out later, but those are lower priority when it comes to adapting something like a small sprite to 3d.
What's to come
So ive already begun to make a few models and I will post updates regularly as well as cover ins and outs of the process. I maybe should have stated in the beginning but this is a simple concept project. This will not be made into a game. I still lack programming knowledge to code anything even close to how an RPG like Golden Sun works. But if there's one thing I can do, is make some game assets. The idea is to "remake" every visual of Golden Sun into a fully realized console rendition. Turning the beautiful 2d presentation of this game, back into 3d!
- Credit goes to DarkMech for the sprite rips from the Spriters Resource site!
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