Projects are the top-level organizational unit in Retro Asset Studio. Each project has its own style guide, background color, reference images, API configuration, and collection of assets.

Creating a Project¶

1. Click Project > New Project in the menu bar, or use the Create New Project option in the project selector dropdown (center of the title bar).
2. Fill in the required fields:
3. Project Name -- A descriptive name for your game or asset collection.
4. Style Description -- Art direction text that is automatically injected into every AI generation prompt. Example: "16-bit adventure game, earthy tones".
5. Background Color -- A solid hex color used behind all generated images. Choose a distinctive color that is easy to key out later (e.g., #1e1e1e for dark or #808080 for neutral grey).
6. Optionally select an AI provider and enter its API key under API Configuration. This can also be configured later from Project Settings.
7. Click Create Project.

The new project becomes the active project immediately.

Switching Projects¶

Use the project selector dropdown in the center of the title bar. Click the dropdown to see all available projects, then click the project you want to switch to. The currently active project is highlighted. The dropdown also offers Create New Project and Import Project….

Project Settings¶

Navigate to Project Settings from the sidebar to configure the active project. Settings are organized into several cards.

General¶

• Project Name -- Rename the project at any time.
• Style Description -- Update the art direction text. Changes apply to all future generations (existing assets are not affected).

Background Color¶

Set the solid background color used in generated images. This is the color that will surround your sprites and props during generation. For characters and props, this color can later be designated as the transparent color in the Image Editor.

Reference Images¶

Reference images guide the AI toward a consistent visual style. You can upload two types:

• Character Reference -- An image that establishes the character art style. Used by the Character Designer when the "Use project reference image" checkbox is enabled.
• Environment Reference -- An image that establishes the environment art style. Used by the Asset Generator for background generation when the "Use project reference image" checkbox is enabled.

To upload a reference image:

1. Click the upload area or the Change Image button.
2. Select a PNG, JPG, JPEG, or WebP file from your file system.
3. The image is copied into the project's references/ directory.

Reference images are sent to your AI provider together with the prompt whenever the checkbox is enabled. See Privacy & Data.

Resolution Defaults¶

The Resolution Defaults card lets you set the starting resolution for each asset type. These values pre-fill the Resolution dropdown in the Asset Generator and Character Designer, so you do not have to make the same choice every time.

Changing a resolution default only affects future generations. Existing assets are not modified, and you can always override the resolution for a single generation directly in the Asset Generator or Character Designer without changing the project default.

API Configuration¶

Enter the Google AI Studio key and model for this project. Hugging Face and OpenAI are listed but disabled ("Coming soon") in this alpha. See API Configuration and AI Providers.

Backup¶

The Backup card contains an Export Project… button. It does the same thing as File > Export Project…; see Backup: export & import below.

Danger Zone¶

The Delete Project button permanently removes the project, all its assets, and all associated files from disk. This action cannot be undone.

Backup: export & import¶

A project can be packed into a single .rasproj file and restored later, on the same PC or on another one. This is the recommended way to back up your work, move to a new computer, or share a project with a teammate.

What an archive contains¶

A .rasproj file is a zip archive with a manifest.json describing the project and a files/ folder holding every image:

• project settings: name, style description, background color, resolution defaults, provider selection
• characters, saved poses, animation frames, and spritesheet records
• every asset image (original, processed, and alpha versions), thumbnails, and reference images
• files that lived outside the project folder (for example spritesheets you exported elsewhere) are copied in when they can be found; missing ones are reported as warnings

API keys are never included. After importing a project you must enter the provider key again in Project Settings.

Export Project¶

1. Make the project active, then choose File > Export Project… (or click Export Project… in the Backup card of Project Settings).
2. A save dialog opens with a suggested name made from the project name and the current date and time, for example jungle-platformer-20260907-1432.rasproj.
3. Choose a location and click Save.

A notification reports the number of files and the archive size when the export finishes. If some external files could not be found, a second notification lists the warnings; use its copy button to keep the list.

Export All Projects¶

File > Export All Projects… asks for a folder and writes one .rasproj file per project into it. Use this for a full backup of everything in the app.

Import Project¶

1. Choose File > Import Project…, or open the project selector dropdown and click Import Project….
2. Pick a .rasproj file.
3. If no project with the same internal id exists, the project is imported as-is and becomes the active project.
4. If a project with the same id already exists (for example you are restoring a backup of a project you still have), a dialog asks how to proceed:

After a successful import the new project becomes active, a notification lists what was imported (assets, characters, frames, poses), and reminds you that API keys must be re-entered in Project Settings.

Where imported files go¶

Imported projects are unpacked into the normal data folder under %APPDATA%\Retro Asset Studio\data\projects\<project id>\. The archive is extracted into a temporary staging folder first, so a failed or cancelled import never leaves a half-written project behind.

Cleaning Up Unused Files¶

Deleting an asset removes its image files, and deleting a character asset also removes its animation frames and spritesheet records. Older versions of the app did not always do this, and a few files (for example thumbnails that are no longer used) can still accumulate in the project folder.

Project → Clean Up Unused Files… scans the current project and lists what it found: files under the project folder that no asset, frame, pose or reference image points to, frame records whose character was deleted, and spritesheet records whose character was deleted. Nothing is removed until you confirm. Exported spritesheet PNGs outside the data folder are never touched.

Project Data Structure¶

Each project's files are stored in a structured directory inside %APPDATA%\Retro Asset Studio\data\:

projects\<projectId>\ ├── assets\ │ ├── characters\ # Character sprite files and animation frames │ ├── backgrounds\ # Background image files │ ├── props\ # Prop and object files │ └── spritesheets\ # Exported spritesheet files ├── thumbnails\ # Asset thumbnail cache └── references\ # Uploaded reference images

The project records themselves (names, settings, asset metadata) live in app.json in the parent data folder. See Installation: Data Storage.

Closing a Project¶

Go to Project > Close Project in the menu bar. This deselects the current project and returns to the welcome screen. No data is deleted.