Asset Tooling and the iiSU DB

Many users have requested a centralized location to organize iiSU icons and track community progress. To achieve this, we have been developing the iiSU Database over the last two months, a convenient, searchable asset store for iiSU-specific assets. This database will include various collections, console icons, box arts, and other icons, all assigned to actual game data, making it scraper-capable. This will be available in the coming weeks for free use by any visitor, with uploads requiring an iisu.network account.

The goal of this database is not to compete with or replace any existing databases which provide a much broader collection of data, it's rather to be specifically optimized for our platform and community. We are still deciding on the specifics of what to store in order for it to best support our app and its intended features, but the main goal is to be tailored specifically to unique elements being made under the iiSU identity.

The one type of asset that has lead to some confusion lays in game box arts. The team has released templates for box art creation, including many existing borders as well as the ability to create new ones. Thanks to this effort, thousands of beautifully designed box arts have been created with our styling already applied and usable across frontends. We intend on storing all of these for in the database, though the actual iiSU frontend will instead be ingesting the raw square box art that's behind these stylings.

The benefits of client-side styling are numerous, allowing for better consistency, easier asset creation, and themeability. This means that our focus will be on working with borderless square box arts of 1024x1024 sizes or below, which leads us to tooling.

Considering the repetitive nature of icon creation, we are working on web-based tools to create customize icons for box arts, collections, console icons, and more! These be available soon, and will hopefully drastically reduce the complexities found in production through apps such as Photoshop.

For database integration, such tooling is viable to run alongside the upload of standard 1024x1024 box art. This process allows a single upload to create both a styled and un-styled asset in the database, simultaneously. This capability allows the focus to shift toward optimizing the square box art for use with the borders, ensuring that logos are not clipped as may happen with the game's standard accompanying art.

I apologize for any lack of communication in these regards, and I really appreciate seeing the community come together to pursue the passion we have for design in the retro games space!