The other reason I've been busy is Layell got me into
Fire Emblem: Awakening. And we also just bought
Fates this morning. u__u;
EDIT: On February 19, we published release version 1.0 to help celebrate 1 million+ views on the project. Below, you can download release version 1.1, a ZIP archive containing 89 sets of sprites for a total of 360 images in PNG format with transparent backgrounds.
***DOWNLOAD XY SPRITES RELEASE v1.1 (500KB)***
Here's a preview of what all of the non-shiny front sprites (Kalos) look like:
This release includes:
- 70 sets of Kalos sprites (all except Diggersby and Gourgeist)
- Alternative sprites for Pyroar, the Florges family, Meowstic, Aegislash, and Pumpkaboo
- 40 percent of XY Mega Evolutions
- 1/6 of ORAS Mega Evolutions
This release does NOT include (read below for why):
- Alternative sprites for Vivillon, Furfrou, and Xerneas
- The remaining Mega Evolutions and Primal Evolutions
- Cosplay Pikachu sprites
- Animations
These sprites are free to use, with three conditions:
1. Please credit us (the Smogon XY Sprite Project).
But don't credit spriters individually (what?)!
Say that Layell and I made a sprite together. He put together the original sprite, and I did QC (quality control). On the spreadsheet in the first post, both of us would be credited for the sprite, but our names would be in different boxes.
If you were to use our sprite, who should you credit? Layell, because he made the original sprite? What if the final product looked very different from the first draft, and in reality, he did only 30 percent of the work while I did 70 percent? Or me, because I edited the original? But I didn't make the sprite from scratch. Should you credit both of us? But that gets complicated for sprites that have four or more names attached to them, as the list of credits would be very long, and it's unlikely that all of those contributors did the same amount of work and deserve equal credit.
For this reason, we ask that you credit the Smogon XY Sprite Project as an entity, rather than attributing individual artists according to the spreadsheet (which, at this moment, is out of date anyway).
Also, it's "
Smogon XY Sprite Project" and not "Smogon Sprite Project" or any other, weird variations.
2. For non-commercial purposes only.
In other words, please don't sell anything you make that contains our work. As we don't profit from making or publishing these sprites, neither should you. These sprites also depict characters that, from an intellectual property standpoint, don't belong to any of us (so it would be kind of like selling bootlegged DVDs).
3. Please don't redistribute the archive.
Doing so gives the false impression that you made these sprites and doesn't acknowledge their original source. If you'd like to point other artists or fans to this release, please link to
this post rather than hosting the archive on your personal blog or website.
What's next?
What about the other sprites? Will there be any future releases? The answer is maybe.
As you might've noticed, the main problem that this project has suffered from is a lack of contributors. The XY Sprite Project is large in scope, but small in scale; by that, what I mean is we have few volunteers trying to get a lot of work done, which is why it's taken so absurdly long just to get this far. In that time, the general trend has been for volunteers to leave the project and stop working on sprites for various reasons, which can include real-life responsibilities and lack of interest.
To the other contributors of this project, I extend my utmost love and thanks. This release wouldn't have happened without your participation and support!
