Design and replace character(s) for intro & outro

[jgbourque]

Why this task matters

Your main character should reflect your StoryQuest’s tone and theme. Replacing the default placeholder character with your own sprite gives your game a personal identity and helps make the story feel your own.

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Copyright: a very important thing to keep in mind while creating art for Threadbare
As you will read in the link provided at the end of this paragraph, Endless Access strongly prefers that assets in Threadbare are created by hand, without using generative AI (the goal is to teach fundamental creative skills: these are necessary to design high-quality art). Nonetheless, if you do want (or need) to use AI, you can do so by following the guidelines shown here: CONTRIBUTING: Document how to cite AI-generated images. Please, read carefully.

You can always use the Threadbare Tailor apps to create your own artwork:
Pixel Stitch
PatchWork Shop

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Git Setup

1. Update your local repository. Open Git Bash and navigate to your project folder. Before creating a new branch, switch back to the main branch and pull the latest changes from your team's GitHub repository. This makes sure that the new branch you are about to create will have the latest updates from your team's StoryQuest.

   git switch main
   git pull

2. Create a new Git branch
   Now, create a new branch for your work:

   git switch -c new-branch-name

   In general, choose a branch name that reflects what you're doing, like intro-outro-tilemap or add-custom-path. This keeps your work organized. Click here for a more detailed guide and more information on updating your local repository and creating a branch.

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Steps

1. Find a character's sprite frames in Godot. Most animated game elements — your player character, enemies, NPCs, even some props — have their sprite frames bundled into a resource file (.tres) somewhere in the project. For your main character, that file lives in your StoryQuest's player_components/ folder; for other characters, it's usually in a similarly named components folder near that character's scene files. To explore them, open the FileSystem panel, locate the .tres file, and double-click it. The SpriteFrames panel opens at the bottom of the screen, listing all that character's animations (for your player, that's idle, walk, attack_01, attack_02, and defeated). With the .tres file selected, the Inspector on the right lists each animation's PNG. Click the dropdown on the far right of any row and choose Show in FileSystem to highlight the file in Godot. Then right-click that file and select Show in File Manager to open its location on your computer.
2. Create your character's sprite frames. Open the template PNGs in a pixel art tool like PiskelApp — you can use them as inspiration, trace over them, or modify them to make your own character. Save your new sprite frames somewhere easy to find (e.g., your Downloads folder), naming them to match the original convention: your_quest_idle.png, your_quest_walk.png, and so on. Watch this video for a walkthrough of editing character animations in PiskelApp.
3. Add your new sprite images to your quest folder. From your file explorer, drag your new PNG files into your quest's player_components/ folder in Godot's FileSystem panel. They'll sit alongside your .tres file, and Godot will import them automatically.
4. Replace the Idle animation. Back in the SpriteFrames panel at the bottom of Godot, make sure idle is selected in the animations list. Click the waffle icon ("Add frames from sprite sheet") in the Animation Frames toolbar. Choose your idle PNG. Set the horizontal frames to match how many frames are in your sprite sheet, and vertical frames to 1. Click each frame in the order you want them to play, then click Add Frames. Delete the original placeholder frames using the trash can icon.
5. Replace the Walk animation. With walk selected in the animations list, repeat the same process from step 4 using your walk sprite sheet.
6. Preview each animation's speed. Click the Play ▶️ button beside an animation name to preview the loop. If it's too fast or slow, adjust the FPS field. To fine-tune individual frame timings, edit the Frame Duration field under Animation Frames. Tip: hold CTRL to select multiple frames at once.
7. Turn on autoplay for idle. Make sure the idle animation is set to autoplay when the scene starts, using the autoplay icon next to the trash can.
8. Preview the scene. Open one of your stage scenes (like 0_intro/your_quest_intro.tscn) and click the Play Scene ▶️ button at the top to see your character in action. Because every stage scene already references your .tres file, your changes will appear automatically across all five stages — intro, stealth, combat, sequence puzzle, and outro.

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9. Preview the scene. Click the Play Scene ▶️ button at the top to preview your character appearing in the intro or outro scene.

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Save To Git and GitHub

1. Stage and commit your changes. In Git Bash, here is an example of how this flow will generally look:

   git status
   git add scenes/quests/story_quests/yourStoryQuest/
   git commit -m "Add your message here - explain to your team what you changed"
   git push --set-upstream origin your-branch-name

• Make sure the file path shows your actual story quest name, write your own descriptive commit message, and use your actual branch name.
• You can use git add to add more than one file simply by putting a space between file paths you paste in.
• You only need to use --set-upstream the first time you push a new branch to GitHub.
  Click here for a more detailed guide and more information on saving and pushing your changes to GitHub.

2. Submit a pull request. Go to GitHub, navigate to your fork, and click Compare & pull request. Write a clear title and description indicating what you changed and why, then click Create pull request.
   Click here for a more detailed guide and more information on creating a pull request to your team's forked repo.

Note: Pull requests are better with a peer review! Click here to learn more. If you are working alone, you can merge your own pull request after submitting it.

✅ Done! Your intro and outro scenes now feature a unique main character that reflects your StoryQuest.

Video