About this image

Editor's note: The mod-maker interview series continues! Today CopperSun is interviewing Airyn, popular sprite and portrait artist and the main force behind Diverse Stardew Valley. Part 1 focuses on DSV and the new "family packs" coming out soon. Part 2 delves into Airyn as one of the people behind the mod.

Previously, we talked about Diverse Stardew Valley but we didn't talk about you, the person behind the mod. Let's fix that! What's something in DSV that you're personally especially proud of?

I'm really proud of how far my art skills have come from those early days of creating basic T-shirts and cobbling together recoloured pieces of other people's work, to now being able to create new designs from scratch with complex patterns and details. It's taken a lot of practice and feedback to get here, but it's so satisfying to see the difference between where I was and where I currently stand.

If I were to pick a specific thing, then I'd say the concept of Shane's dynamic option: his wardrobe changes between 'messy' and 'neat' styles according to his heart level, whether or not you've seen his six-heart event, and with a random factor to reflect the fact that his journey isn't a static one and that even at the 'end' of his character arc, he still has good days and bad days. It's something that I feel really ties together the two parts of DSV, that your clothing choices reflect your self, and I'd love to do something similar with other characters in the future.

If I have to pick something really specific, I'd pick Leah's Winter Star outfit. She just looks so dapper and cool.

What's an aspect of DSV that you put a lot of work into that you feel people might not notice?

They're minor things, but some of the small immersion overlays have specific conditions for when they apply for better immersion. Shane and Pam have overlays for flushed cheeks that apply half an hour after they've entered the saloon, but only if you haven't seen specific events of theirs, and Leah's paint splatters only show on specific days after 12 o'clock when she's finished painting in her house.

Do you have any mods besides DSV?

I do, yep! I've got some alternate portrait mods, a few small immersion mods, and a dog retexture. My favourite of them is Immersive Locational Artifact Digspots, which changes the 'worms' sprite of the artifact digspot to look like various nature-inspired things depending on the area. (Ed. note: ILAD is super-cute.)

You make a lot of efforts to be compatible with other mods, most recently Lavril, which features a scene with Vincent that needed a custom image to match his DSV portrait. How do these collabs come about and what's it like working on them?

Sometimes compatibility happens by request from DSV players who note that a particular mod adds new portraits or sprites, but often it's because I'm either in contact with other mod authors or I see people's screenshots and reach out to mod authors about arranging compatibility. Personally I really like adding compatibility where I can - it's really nice knowing that Stardew Valley has the sort of modding community where mod authors can work together to create a cohesive experience for players - but I do find it frustrating when people are pushy about compatibility because it's more work than people realise, particularly for mods like DSV that have large amounts of art that needs to be adapted.

You've done alternate portraits for a number of NPCs, like Denver and Theo and Tabby of the Stray Catfe. Are those based on NPCs you liked or were you approached about them?

They were made for NPCs I like, yeah. The majority of them were made in late 2020 when the art for DSV's big 2.0 release was finished but the code wasn't yet done, so I had some free time during which I actually managed to play the game for a while, haha. I had plans to do more of them for other custom NPCs, but then we updated DSV and I was busy again with that and with study.

Do you have any tips for aspiring spriters and portrait artists?

It's a bit of a cliché, but practice, feedback from experienced people, and self-analysis really are the best ways to improve at anything, not just art. Don't be afraid to reach out to people and ask them for advice on where you can improve, then put that advice into practise. There's also art references for just about anything you can think of, so if something looks off and you can't figure out why, try googling it and comparing it with what you've got.

For pixel art in particular, look up tutorials - Pedros Medeiros, one of the artists for Celeste, has a great series of beginner pixel art tutorials and tips for pixel artists. Keep in mind that you're working with a limited canvas and palette and that less is nearly always more: too many details or colour shades and you risk your art appearing blurry or busy. Pixel art is all about optical illusions and tricking the brain into filling in details that are hinted at, so always check what your art looks like when it's zoomed out to the same size that it will be in-game. It might be that what looks odd when zoomed in looks fine when zoomed out.

And finally, for Stardew spriters, using the vanilla game art as a base is a great way to get started. Remember to start small - recolour a character's outfit to begin, then move on to combining parts of different characters' portraits or sprites together to make something new, then once you're okay with those, try replacing existing parts with replacements you draw. Over time, you'll improve your skill to the point where you'll be comfortable drawing things completely from scratch.

Most people probably don't know you've written approximately a dozen recommendation lists for the Stardew Modding Wiki. Is that a resource you particularly recommend?

Absolutely! Massive shoutout to Calcite for establishing the modding wiki, which is a fantastic resource for all sorts of things related to Stardew. It's got tutorials for anyone wanting to create a mod but not sure where to start, it's got information about commonly-used framework mods and definitions for various mod-related acronyms and terminology which may seem like incomprehensible gibberish to newcomers, it's got a bunch of handy resources for mod-makers, and as mentioned, it has recommendation lists with both personal recommendations by various mod authors and mod users and with recommendations revolving around particular themes or ideas (including one I wrote themed around mods that are complementary to DSV's ideology). It's an incredibly useful site for anyone who's interested in Stardew Valley mods.

What's next from Airyn?

Next in the immediate future is DSV's 3.0 release, but after that I'm planning Solstice Winter Star, a mod that changes the Feast of the Winter Star to be more solstice-inspired using Custom Winter Star Gifts by XxHarvzBackxX. It'll be a companion mod to LenneDalben's Pelican Town Potluck for both people who would prefer that Winter Star was less obviously Christmas-by-another-name and people who'd like to try something a little new for the festival (and it may even add an easier way to get the tea set!). Beyond that, I've got a wishlist a mile long of new outfits and features I'd love to add to DSV! I hope that people will enjoy playing with DSV for a long time to come.

Thank you, Airyn!


This concludes part 2 of the interview. Click here for part 1.