convert ascii letter to 8x8 game image
 

I would like to take a whack at making a game.
I have it in my head that there must be a way to convert any of the ascii characters (XFCE) to little stick-like persons then be able to print that converted character wherever.
Is that in fact true? If so can U point me to a tutorial? What I am finding is 16x16 or larger and made with GIMP or other apps which is not where I want to go.
I vaguely remember doing something like this a long time ago.

Well... This is an old trick from the 8bit era...

Nowaday it's far easier to write direct "sprites" or "bitmaps" (with alpha channel), as anyway even the fonts files are displayed this way...

You can, by the way create a bitmap based font, but it's stuck to monochrome display. And frankly, I don't any know tools to do that, as I trust my graphic artists :).

Do you know how to program ? Without knowing anything of your current knowledge level it's hard to point you toward a direction.

Beside, as I'm a game developer, and I'm willing to teach that "art" to motivated people, you can PM me and I could give you some help. For a quick CV, I started programming in 1989, and worked on some "famous" games: Ultim@te Race, NY Race, Far Cry Instinct XBox, Prince of Persia: the two thrones XBox, Chicken Little: Ace in Action + Code Lyoko on Nintendo DS... And various other things on exotics platforms. (Edit: my "skills" are 3D Programming, and general Engine architecture programming, so I have some clues on graphic rendering :) ).

Cheers.

Garry.

Are U saying that I could modify my font with something called "alpha channel"?
I should mention I am doing this in Slackware (of course we are here) 13.37 and anticipating that I'll use shell script to build it initially.
This is an experiment in game development so am trying to stay ultra simple.
My experience is a Masters in Computer Science + >>15 yr with networking and data bases and directing (managing??) others, my programming languages (20+) are the standard stuff (taught college courses for ~5yr) but I stay away from the manufacturing languages like C++/##, MS basic whatever they call it I forget, lisp and a few others.

I may have found my solution. I can create a file of bitmapped (via the program bitmap) characters but need to find a way to display them to the screen. Is there some trick to do this?

Sorry, answer you might take you some time, as I need to write a lot. There's a lot of "hidden" things here. I'll get back with a long answer asap.

I don't wish to impact UR time. If the task can be done fine. Then just point me to needed info. If the task is lengthy and circuitous then if may not be the approach I would want to take.
BTW the 8x8 is not a restriction I was trying to do something small.