SpriteCook Generate Sprites

Use this skill for still-image generation. Pair it with spritecook-workflow-essentials for credits, manifests, safe downloads, and shared defaults.

Requires: SpriteCook MCP server connected to your editor. Set up with npx spritecook-mcp setup or see spritecook.ai.

For a complete UI screen or cohesive UI system, stop and use spritecook-build-ui-kits instead. The UI-kit workflow creates one coherent concept before extracting reusable controls and states. Keep generategameart(mode="ui") for one isolated icon, badge, button, control, divider, frame, or decoration.

Tool

generategameart

Generate game art assets from a text prompt. Supports both pixel art and detailed/HD styles. Returns a job immediately by default; follow the returned poll.tool and poll.arguments until the assets are ready. Pass wait_seconds only when an explicit bounded wait is useful.

Referenced assets must belong to the user's account. styleassetids can be combined with either referenceassetid or editassetid. Do not combine referenceassetid and editassetid.

If the user provides local image file paths for these references, use spritecook-upload-assets first and pass the returned asset IDs into the appropriate reference field.

Reference Roles

• Use styleassetids for style guide images: ambient style, palette, proportions, rendering, and art-direction context. This is the normal choice when generating a new related asset that should match an existing collection, such as giving three existing buildings as style guides before asking for a new building type. SpriteCook already treats these images as style references; mention them in the prompt only when the user wants a specific trait called out.
• Use referenceassetid when one specific asset is the source or context for the prompt, such as make a building in a similar style to this one, give me just the door sprite, or use this character as the visual reference.
• Use editassetid when the user wants a direct modification of one existing asset, such as make this roof red, remove the sign, or change the helmet color.

listgenerationmodels

List available still-image generation models, pixel-art support, reference-image limits, supported quality options, and SpriteCook credit costs per image. Call this when choosing a model or when the user asks what models/costs are currently available.

listcharacterworkflows

List guided pixel-art character perspectives, default animation ids, source-view/prep requirements, frame counts, and credit estimates.

Perspectives and preset animations:

generate_character

Generate a base pixel-art character with SpriteCook's recommended character settings: 64x64, transparent background, 1K square, tight smart crop, and the perspective-specific character prompt rewrite. Returns a job immediately by default; when complete, the first generated asset is the character_id.

generatecharacteranimations

Generate preset and/or custom animations for a base character asset. Returns a character-animation run immediately by default; follow the returned polling contract until canonical assets entries are ready.

Custom animations use the custom prompt as the final animation prompt and skip preset prompt enhancement. sourceview defaults to frontidle; if another source view needs prep, SpriteCook uses the matching workflow prep dependency for that perspective.

Example custom animation:

{
  "label": "Spin Attack",
  "prompt": "Spin in place with a quick sword slash, looping cleanly.",
  "source_view": "right_walk",
  "output_frames": 8
}

checkcharacteranimation_run

Check a guided character animation run by id. Returns run status, item statuses, canonical generated assets, prep state, failures, and credits.

Async Result Contract

• Follow the returned poll.tool with its exact poll.arguments; use checkjobstatus for jobs and checkcharacteranimation_run for character-animation runs.
• Treat operationid as the generic operation identifier while retaining jobid or run_id for the matching poll tool.
• On success, use each asset's assetid and spriteurl. Use spritesheet_url only when an animation also provides a spritesheet.
• If a successful response contains warning.code="assetoutputunavailable", execute the supplied warning.recovery tool call instead of searching arbitrary nested URL fields.

Working Style

• Be specific about subject, pose, camera/view angle, and key materials.
• Call listgenerationmodels when current model names, pixel-art support, quality options, or credit costs matter.
• When the user asks to use a saved preset, use listpresets and getpresetsettings first, then map the returned prompt, style, model, size, color, and reference guidance into generategame_art.
• Use listcharacterworkflows, generatecharacter, and generatecharacter_animations when the user wants a directly usable animated character set.
• Route menus, HUDs, inventories, dialogs, settings screens, overlays, and other complete UI compositions to spritecook-build-ui-kits.
• Default to pixel art unless the user asks for HD, detailed, smooth, realistic, or high-res output.
• When the user wants the same character or item in multiple outputs, generate one canonical still asset first and reuse that asset ID.
• Use styleassetids for follow-up generations that should keep the same visual style, especially when a preset returns settings.reference.styleAssetIds.
• Use referenceassetid when the prompt depends on one specific visual/context reference asset.
• Use editassetid when directly modifying one existing SpriteCook asset.
• Do not generate multiple independent still variations when the real goal is one consistent character plus later animations.
• Prefer smartcropmode="tightest" unless the user explicitly asks for "powerof2".

Consistency Rules

• For a motion set like idle, walk, attack, or hurt: generate the base character once, then animate that exact asset_id separately for each motion.
• For asset variations that should stay recognizably the same design, prefer editassetid for direct modification or styleassetids for style guidance over a brand-new unreferenced generation.
• Only skip a reference when the user explicitly wants different designs to explore.

Pixel Art vs Detailed Art

Pixel art (pixel: true, default):

• Crisp hard edges, no anti-aliasing, visible pixel grid
• Automatic pixel-perfect post-processing for clean grid alignment
• Best for retro games, indie games, and 8-bit/16-bit projects

Detailed/HD art (pixel: false):

• Smooth gradients, fine detail, anti-aliased edges
• Higher fidelity output without pixel grid constraints
• Best for HD 2D games, concept art, and marketing assets

Choose based on the game's art direction. When the user does not specify, default to pixel art.