Stitching video game sprites is one of my favorite craft projects, so I thought I would share the process. It's time-consuming, but what craft project worth doing isn't? I find the more time I put into something like this, the more rewarding (and awesome!) the end result.
The first step is deciding what sort of thing you want to do and how difficult you want the project to be. For instance, old 8-bit games used fewer colors and had fewer shades on screen at once than 16-bit games, so they're generally much easier. Size is another consideration. Do you want to go all out and stitch an entire screen or just one or two sprites? And, probably the most important consideration ... what game should your pattern come from?
Once all of this is considered, it's time to hit the web for pictures! I find I have the best luck doing a Google image search for "(insert game title/character name) screenshot/sprite". Always make sure to view the image at full size to make sure it's nice and crisp. Images where the pixels look blurred or fuzzy are just going to cause major headaches for the rest of the project.
Another thing that makes life easier is keeping your images organized. I have a special folder where I keep all of my source images and a folder within that one where I keep my completed patterns. Once you find the image (or images) you want to use as a pattern, save it in that folder for later. For this example project, I'll be using this image:
And that's it for step one! Next time, we'll get into using this image to create a pattern to cross-stitch from. Until then, be creative and happy hunting!
