Creating Assets

PCX Images

Use GrafX2 the DOS pixel art editor (Windows/Linux/Mac):

  1. Draw with 256 colors (any resolution supported)

  2. Save as PCX format (RLE-compressed)

    • Common sizes: 320×200 (full screen), 32×32 (sprites), 16×16 (tiles)

VOC Sound Effects

Use Audacity (Windows/Linux/Mac):

  1. Import audio (WAV, MP3, etc.)

  2. Tracks → Mix → Mix Stereo Down to Mono

  3. Tracks → Resample → 11025 Hz (or 22050 Hz)

  4. File → Export → Export Audio

    • Format: “Other uncompressed files”

    • Header: “VOC (Creative Labs)”

    • Encoding: “Unsigned 8-bit PCM”

HSC Music

Use one of the following:

  1. Adlib Tracker II - More modern approach (Windows/Linux)

  2. HSC-tracker - The original HSC tracker (only DOS)

XML Configuration Files

Create game configuration files with any text editor (this is just an example):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<game version="1.0">
  <levels>
    <level id="1" name="Forest" difficulty="easy">
      <music>FOREST.HSC</music>
      <background>FOREST.PCX</background>
    </level>
  </levels>
  <sprites>
    <sprite id="player" file="PLAYER.PCX" width="32" height="32" />
  </sprites>
</game>

Features:

  • DOM-style tree navigation

  • Fast attribute lookup (O(1) hash map)

  • Supports files up to ~64KB

  • Automatic text storage optimization

  • See DOCS/MINIXML.md for complete API reference

TMX tilemaps

Use Tiled a full-featured level editor (Windows/Linux/Mac). See the restrictions at the tilemap documentation.