Exporting Sprites & Sheets for GameMaker

GameMaker is a popular 2D engine, and AI-generated pixel art drops into it nicely — as long as you import strips the way GameMaker expects and switch off the smoothing that blurs pixel art. Here's the reliable workflow.

Export from Voidless

Export as a PNG with transparency. For animations, export a horizontal sprite strip (all frames in one row) — GameMaker can auto-slice these on import.

Import a single sprite

Create a new Sprite asset and import your PNG. That's it for a static image — but set the origin (below) so it positions correctly in a room.

Import an animated strip

GameMaker auto-slices strips by filename. Name your file with a _stripN suffix — e.g. player_walk_strip8.png for 8 frames — and when you import it, GameMaker splits it into 8 frames automatically. No manual slicing needed. (You can also re-slice later via Edit Image → Convert to Frames.)

Keep pixels crisp

GameMaker smooths textures by default, which blurs pixel art. Turn it off:

• Game Options → (platform) → Graphics: keep "Interpolate colours between pixels" unchecked.
• Keep Texture groups on their default point-sampling; don't enable linear filtering for pixel art.

This is the equivalent of "Point/Nearest" filtering in other engines.

Set the origin

In the Sprite editor, set the Origin (e.g. Middle Centre for a character, or bottom-centre for a grounded object). The origin is the sprite's pivot — getting it right makes movement, flipping and collisions behave.

Collision mask

Set the Collision Mask mode (Automatic is fine to start) so the sprite collides based on its actual pixels rather than a loose box.

Animate it

GameMaker plays a sprite's frames automatically. Control it in code with image_speed (playback rate) and image_index (current frame), and set the sprite's FPS in the editor for the intended speed.

Tile sets for levels

Create a Tile Set asset from a tile sprite, set the tile width/height to match your art (e.g. 16×16), then paint with it on a Tile Layer in a room.

Quick checklist

• Interpolation OFF for crisp pixels ✅
• Strip named _stripN so frames auto-slice ✅
• Origin set correctly ✅
• Tile Set tile size matches your art ✅