Design Guide

[This Guide only covers submitting on site MYO slots! If you have a Geno from deviantArt or want to submit a Semi-Custom, go here!]

 

Hello and welcome to our Design Guide!

This guide is meant as a quick introduction for any new player on how to read and design a Geno,

and how to submit the finished Design to the site.

Keep in mind that this guide is only an example on how the designing process can be done, and does

not have to be followed to a T!

 

 

Reading a Geno

Let's start by looking at a Geno we got, shall we?

For this tutorial we'll be using this Geno:

 

Maip

RbY/Rrrr/C-T2/nMk/PsPs/nUb/nGd

Dune with Mask, Pinstripe, Underbelly and Gradient

Healthy, Gills

 

To Design this Geno, we'll look at every line, starting with the first.

If your Geno is a MYO-Slot on-site, then it'll tell you all of the information you need on the profile instead.

 

The first line tells us the species. We're looking at a Maip, so let's go ahead and download the Maip Import .psd!

Once you have downloaded the fitting Import, open it in an art program of your choice that can open and save .psd files.

 

Next, the second line is the actual Genotype. It may be intimidating to read at first, but we promise it is easy!

 

 

The first string of letters [RbY] is the name of the base color, the one after [Rrrr] is the rarity tier of said base color.

C-T2 tells us the coat type of the creature. In the case of Maip Coat-Type 2 stands for it being feathered!

 

The strings that comes after those three first strings  are the gene strings that tell us what Genes our creature has.

In this case we have Mask, Pinstripe, Underbelly and Gradient.

 

Note that the string for Pinstripe is written out a little differently.

Instead of having the usual "n" in front, it presents with "Ps" twice.

This means that the Gene is dominant!

A Gene being Dominant does not alter the appearance of it, it only increases the rate of

which it gets successfully passed down in breedings.

 

The third line is referred to as the Phenotype. It has the base color and all Genes written out.

So, do not worry if you can't understand the Geno string! The Phenotype will tell you what your creature will look like.

 

The last line tells us the health status of our creature, and if it has any Mutations.

In this case our Maip is healthy and has the Gills Mutation!

 

 

Designing your Import

 

Enough with the technical stuff, it's time to actually start designing your Geno!

With everything from above in mind, this is what our Import looks like currently:

 

 

Not very impressive just yet, but we'll change that now.

First I start by downloading the base color slider, in this case we're using Dune.

 

Once we added it to the canvas we can start picking the color that we'd like our creature to have.

Note that you may not use the two sliders at the bottom of the main slider, as those are

reserved for creatures with Leucism and Melanism!

 

For creatures with a feather or fur coat like our Maip, we have to pick two colors, one for

the skin areas and one for the feathers/fur.

 

While I'm at it, I also take a look at the Import Extras Guide to see all the available free options that I can use.

In this case I'll go with base nuances to add a little extra pop.

 

 

The next step is to add in the Genes.

For every Gene I take a look at its respective page and carefully read through it to make sure I follow all of the rules.

I'll start with the first Gene, Mask, and find a nice shape and color I want to go with.

Note: I usually make a quick mock-up of all genes first and then clean them up one by one, but for simplicity's sake I'll design them all right away.

 

 

Now I repeat the same process with every other Gene that the Geno has.

Once I'm happy with the colors and shapes I start coloring in the extra areas like eyes, claws, teeth, etc.

This is also where I color the lineart, add Free Markings and other optional things from Import Extras, like an Import Halo.

 

I decide against adding a Custom Background and remove the background from the canvas to make it transparent.

It is recommended to upload your finished Import without a background so you can use backgrounds on site!

Once everything is ready, I save a copy of my Import as a .psd somewhere safe so I can always make changes to it.

Then I export the canvas as is as a .png and save it on my computer.

Always make sure to not change the resolution of the canvas and to not export it as anything other than a .png!

 

 

Sending your Import to Design Approval

 

With your finished Design ready and exported as a .png, it's time to put it into the design approval queue.

 

Note that some Genos are still from before the site was opened and are thus hosted on deviantArt.

For those Genos, head over to the design prompt here and fill that out instead!

The same goes for Semi-Customs.

 

For Genos hosted on site as MYO-Slots, you instead navigate to your MYO-Slot that you want to upload a design for.

Important! MYO-Slots too need a form to be pasted and filled out in the comments tab!

The Form can be found here.

 

 

From there, you'll see the "Settings" tab on the left side.

Navigate to "Submit MYO Design" and click!

You'll be prompted to create a new request by pressing the "Create Request" button.

Once you have opened a request, you will see that it is a draft and has not been submitted into the queue yet.

 

 

You will see five different tabs, "Status", "Comments", "Masterlist Image", "Add-Ons" and "Traits".

 

The "Comments" tab is for you to add the required Design Approval Form, any design notes that are either required or useful to staff to

streamline the design approval process as much as possible.

These may be the swatches used, Free Markings and Import Extras, Family Markings, Gene break-downs and more.

 

The "Masterlist Image" tab is the most important, as here you will upload your Import .png and crop the thumbnail for it!

The thumbnail will be visible on the masterlist and we ask that you try and optimally crop the head area of your creature.

Note that staff members can recrop your thumbnail if we deem it necessary.

In the case of creatures that have Genes that need to be filtered [e.g. Zombie], we will change it to a filtered thumbnail instead.

 

Once you have uploaded your Image, make sure to fill out the credits section too!

The Designer is the person who made the design for you, this includes your username if you made the design. The Artist credit goes to whoever made the Import Lineart.

You can find out who to credit by searching up the species here!

The Background Artist credit is only important if you upload your Import with a background made by yourself or someone else instead of a transparent background!

 

The "Add-Ons" tab is only important if you upload a design with edits already made.

In this case you use this tab to add any items from your inventory that would be needed to pull off the added edits.

This is also necessary to use when you use a Semi-Custom for your design using the Design Approval Prompt instead.

 

The "Traits" tab should not be tampered with and can be saved as is.

 

Navigate to each tab and carefully read the instructions, then hit the "Save" button for each tab when you're done following the instructions.

The red crosses icons for the tabs will turn into green circles if everything has been done correctly and saved.

 

Once you double checked everything and it's all good to go you navigate back to the first tab, the "Status" tab.

From there you submit your draft into the queue and that's it! 

A staff member will look over your design as soon as they can and either approve it or send it back to you in case changes need to be made!

Once approved, your Import is uploaded on site and you can start playing the game with your new creature!