conveyorbelt

This tool is being developed for 🐟 Fishbowl, you can follow along on Twitter.

⚠️ Warning: The tool doesn't work when the number of frames in an animation changes.

⚠️ Warning: The tool isn't able to update the bounding box (collision map) of sprites that have a non-default bounding box. If you run the tool in --verbose it'll warn you about the sprites whose bounding box wasn't changed.

Installation

You'll need to have NPM and Node to be able to install and run this tool. Once you have those installed run:

npm install -g @prtksxna/conveyorbelt

For local development clone the repository and then install it globally:

npm install -g .

CLI Help

% conveyorbelt run --help
Usage: conveyorbelt run [options]

Options:
  -sd, --sprites-dir <string>    Directory of GMS sprites (default: "sprites/")
  -ad, --art-dir <string>        Directory of Aseprite art (default: "art/")
  -ap, --aseprite-path <string>  Path to Aseprite executable (default: "~/Library/Application\\ Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Aseprite/Aseprite.app/Contents/MacOS/aseprite")
  -p, --prefix <string>          String prefix for GMS sprites (default: "s")
  -v, --verbose                  Whether or not to use the verbose renderer (default: false)
  -ne, --no-export               Whether or not to export all Aseprite files on first run
  -h, --help                     display help for command

Configuration

• SPRITES_DIR defaults to sprites/: GameMaker sprites
• ART_DIR defaults to art/: Aseprite sprites
• PREFIX defaults to s: The prefix that'll be used to find the sprite in GameMaker. For example if the aseprite is called Player.aseprite the sprite this script will try to update would be sPlayer.
• ASEPRITE_PATH defaults to TODO. You will need to change this based on your platform and how you installed Aseprite. Possible paths
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Aseprite\Aseprite.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Aseprite\Aseprite.exe
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aseprite\Aseprite.exe (Steam)
  • /Applications/Aseprite.app/Contents/MacOS/aseprite
  • ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Steam/steamapps/common/Aseprite/Aseprite.app/Contents/MacOS/aseprite (Steam)

Convention

• Aseprite file names need to match the sprite names in GameMaker (except the PREFIX, see Configuration above)
• If the sprite doesn't have any particular export layers or animations then a single PNG should be exported. For eg UIBubble.aseprite should make sUIBubble.png
• Files can have only particular layers exported by prefixing the layer name with -x or -xt (if you want the PNG to be trimmed). For eg LightMonsoon.aseprite with the layers -xBedroomMorning and -xtBedroomNight will result in the following PNG - sLightMonsoonBedroomMorning and sLightMonsoonBedroomNight.
• Animations will have the frame number appended to the file name after a -. So RainParticle.aseprite would create sRainParticle-001.png, sRainParticle-002.png and so on.
• Files that have multiple animation tags will have the tag added at the end.

Example Aseprite files and how they'll be exported

• Single sprite UIBubble.aseprite -> UIBubble.png -> sUIBubble
• Single animation AirConFan.aseprite -> AirConFan001.png, AirConFan002.png... -> sAirConFan
• Multiple animations (tags) Alo.aseprite with tags (WalkFront, WalkBack)
  • AloWalkFront001.png, AloWalkFront002.png... -> sAloWalkFront
  • AloWalkBack001.png, AloWalkBack002.png... -> sAloWalkBack
• Multiple layers (some prefix to mark only those for export): LightBedroom.aseprite with layers xWindowMorning and xLampNight:
  • LightBedroomWindowMorning.png -> sLightBedroomWindowMorning
  • LightBedroomLampNight.png -> sLightBedroomLampNight
• Multiple layers + one animation for each Window.aseprite with layers -xtOutside and -xCurtains:
  • WindowOutside001.png, WindowOutside002.png... -> sWindowOutside
  • WindowCurtains001.png, WindowCurtains002.png... -> sWindowCurtains
• Multiple layers + multiple tagged animation for each: MomVideoCall.aseprite with layers -xBackground and -xPortrait.
  • -xBackground has animation with tags Night and Day
    • MomVideoCallBackgroundNight001.png, MomVideoCallBackgroundNight002.png... -> sMomVideoCallBackgroundNight
    • MomVideoCallBackgroundDay001.png, MomVideoCallBackgroundDay002.png... -> sMomVideoCallBackgroundDay
  • -xPortrait has animation with tags Happy and Sad:
    • MomVideoCallPortraitHappy001.png, MomVideoCallPortraitHappy002.png... -> sMomVideoCallPortraitHappy
    • MomVideoCallPortraitSad001.png, MomVideoCallPortraitSad002.png... -> sMomVideoCallPortraitSad