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I like pixel art, for many of the reasons mentioned in the article. In fact, for 2d games it is my favorite style. With that said, I think the example art the

I like pixel art, for many of the reasons mentioned in the article. In fact, for 2d games it is my favorite style. With that said, I think the example art the article provides for their game is not very good. Specifically I think there's far too much dithering going on, making it look like it was originally drawn in 32-bit color but then had the number of colors reduced by the pixel editing software (as opposed to the beauty of manually placed pixels). This is especially glaring in the UI elements, and is not the only fault in my opinion. I realize different people have different preferences, and I realize that pixel art is experiencing a surge in unpopularity, but I can't help but think they'd have better luck if their pixel art was better...

TD-Linux 10y ago
I agree. The title splash they gave is 584x360, which is well above what most people are used to as pixel art, and closer to the 640x480 of VGA PC games - where many had moved away from fully hand drawn pixel art. That aesthetic might still work on a large PC screen, but the other problem is that resolution is even higher than the iPhone's original resolution, evoking more of a feeling of "old non-hidpi app".
squeaky-clean 10y ago
I agree, when I first saw the splash image, I assumed that was the one being replaced! Because it doesn't look like pixel art, it looks like a high quality image was pixelated. By replicating reality so closely, you really easily see all the drawbacks of pixel art. Namely low resolution, and limited colors. Because it's not taking advantage of the medium of pixel art, but instead shoehorning realism into it. They complain about the shape of someone's arms in Street Fighter? Who cares about realism, these characters can shoot fireballs from their hands. Look at Link in Link’s Awakening! His head must weigh 3x more than his body. If you find a screenshot with his sword, it's even weirder. The sword is simultaneously smaller than his head, and yet larger than the entire rest of his body. And have you ever seen a tree or wall that looks like that? But it looks freaking fantastic at that resolution. I don't care if the author's art was entirely hand-made, it looks like a high quality image was pixelated by a computer. The art in King of Fighters' may have been done entirely by hand, but if the end results looks indistinguishable from a 3d render at low resolution with terrible aliasing, who cares what means was used to get the crappy look? The author restating things about "embracing the medium", but I don't believe they did.
- Springtime 10y ago
  > The art in King of Fighters' may have been done entirely by hand, but if the end results looks indistinguishable from a 3d render at low resolution The irony is the particular King of Fighters they reference had character models/animations that were originally produced as 3D renders [1] and then used as the basis for the artists to draw over/fine tune in order to save time during production (since the previous games took so long to finish the animations). So in the context of the article it's an interesting though overlooked detail that could have been a decent bridge into the point about transitioning to 3D. > They complain about the shape of someone's arms in Street Fighter? Who cares about realism, these characters can shoot fireballs from their hands Animations and design are still important even when what's being representing isn't based in reality. It's the same reason CG was for a long time critiqued, and continues to be, for instances where there are 'floaty' characters or the animation/physics seem 'off'. 2D can often take more artistic liberties and isn't so stringently expected to be 'realistic' compared to CG. And while that comparison in the article was a bit out of place, considering the real difference is animator talent and visual style, it showed how mature the 2D animation scene was at the time, and it has to be said the animations of Street Fighter III Third Strike are among the best 2D animations in any commercial game. [1] http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_dot/creation/ http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_...
- hurbledr 10y ago
  >They complain about the shape of someone's arms in Street Fighter? Who cares about realism, these characters can shoot fireballs from their hands. Well, the whole point is to make them shoot fireballs out of their hands in a convincing fashion. So having the non-fantastic elements of the animation be convincing is especially important. Hayoa Miyazaki's writings in this book https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Point-1979-1996-Hayao-Miyazaki/dp/1421561042 https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Point-1979-1996-Hayao-Miyaza... explain the need for realism in animation far better than I can.
abritinthebay 10y ago
Agree completely. Interestingly the author actually ends up supporting that point too. All the examples they use of Pixel art are in support of an aesthetic that, while it was forced upon them at the time, is of a certain forced low-resolution style. Their game however is pixel art for... well no obvious reason other than they like pixel art. There is no reason in the aesthetic of the game to be pixel art. It doesn't look like it's supposed to be pixel art. So generally I'm not surprised they're moving away from pixel art - they had no reason to use it in the first place! If you're not going for a low resolution aesthetic then why on earth would you use pixel art which is exactly for that style?
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  Or if you're going for that oldschool vibe. Shovel Knight's artwork would be great in any other game, but without the oldschool mechanics to match, it loses something.
Retra 10y ago
One of the major charms of pixel art is that it is so poor at being "HD" that it doesn't get to express HD content. For instance, you can't look at Link's face and tell what emotion he's feeling. This is good thing! This makes it easy for the player to imprint their own emotions on the character. He feels what you feel because the only feelings there are your own. But when you dig in with this excruciatingly detailed expressive pixel art style, you lose that charm. You're expressing what HD images already can express, and it feels like you've just made a pixelated HD image.

TD-Linux 10y ago

I agree. The title splash they gave is 584x360, which is well above what most people are used to as pixel art, and closer to the 640x480 of VGA PC games - where many had moved away from fully hand drawn pixel art. That aesthetic might still work on a large PC screen, but the other problem is that resolution is even higher than the iPhone's original resolution, evoking more of a feeling of "old non-hidpi app".

squeaky-clean 10y ago

I agree, when I first saw the splash image, I assumed that was the one being replaced! Because it doesn't look like pixel art, it looks like a high quality image was pixelated. By replicating reality so closely, you really easily see all the drawbacks of pixel art. Namely low resolution, and limited colors. Because it's not taking advantage of the medium of pixel art, but instead shoehorning realism into it. They complain about the shape of someone's arms in Street Fighter? Who cares about realism, these characters can shoot fireballs from their hands. Look at Link in Link’s Awakening! His head must weigh 3x more than his body. If you find a screenshot with his sword, it's even weirder. The sword is simultaneously smaller than his head, and yet larger than the entire rest of his body. And have you ever seen a tree or wall that looks like that? But it looks freaking fantastic at that resolution. I don't care if the author's art was entirely hand-made, it looks like a high quality image was pixelated by a computer. The art in King of Fighters' may have been done entirely by hand, but if the end results looks indistinguishable from a 3d render at low resolution with terrible aliasing, who cares what means was used to get the crappy look? The author restating things about "embracing the medium", but I don't believe they did.

Springtime 10y ago
> The art in King of Fighters' may have been done entirely by hand, but if the end results looks indistinguishable from a 3d render at low resolution The irony is the particular King of Fighters they reference had character models/animations that were originally produced as 3D renders [1] and then used as the basis for the artists to draw over/fine tune in order to save time during production (since the previous games took so long to finish the animations). So in the context of the article it's an interesting though overlooked detail that could have been a decent bridge into the point about transitioning to 3D. > They complain about the shape of someone's arms in Street Fighter? Who cares about realism, these characters can shoot fireballs from their hands Animations and design are still important even when what's being representing isn't based in reality. It's the same reason CG was for a long time critiqued, and continues to be, for instances where there are 'floaty' characters or the animation/physics seem 'off'. 2D can often take more artistic liberties and isn't so stringently expected to be 'realistic' compared to CG. And while that comparison in the article was a bit out of place, considering the real difference is animator talent and visual style, it showed how mature the 2D animation scene was at the time, and it has to be said the animations of Street Fighter III Third Strike are among the best 2D animations in any commercial game. [1] http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_dot/creation/ http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_...
hurbledr 10y ago
>They complain about the shape of someone's arms in Street Fighter? Who cares about realism, these characters can shoot fireballs from their hands. Well, the whole point is to make them shoot fireballs out of their hands in a convincing fashion. So having the non-fantastic elements of the animation be convincing is especially important. Hayoa Miyazaki's writings in this book https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Point-1979-1996-Hayao-Miyazaki/dp/1421561042 https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Point-1979-1996-Hayao-Miyaza... explain the need for realism in animation far better than I can.

abritinthebay 10y ago

Agree completely. Interestingly the author actually ends up supporting that point too. All the examples they use of Pixel art are in support of an aesthetic that, while it was forced upon them at the time, is of a certain forced low-resolution style. Their game however is pixel art for... well no obvious reason other than they like pixel art. There is no reason in the aesthetic of the game to be pixel art. It doesn't look like it's supposed to be pixel art. So generally I'm not surprised they're moving away from pixel art - they had no reason to use it in the first place! If you're not going for a low resolution aesthetic then why on earth would you use pixel art which is exactly for that style?

qwertyuiop924 10y ago
Or if you're going for that oldschool vibe. Shovel Knight's artwork would be great in any other game, but without the oldschool mechanics to match, it loses something.

Retra 10y ago

One of the major charms of pixel art is that it is so poor at being "HD" that it doesn't get to express HD content. For instance, you can't look at Link's face and tell what emotion he's feeling. This is good thing! This makes it easy for the player to imprint their own emotions on the character. He feels what you feel because the only feelings there are your own. But when you dig in with this excruciatingly detailed expressive pixel art style, you lose that charm. You're expressing what HD images already can express, and it feels like you've just made a pixelated HD image.