5 ms·

I think his problem is that he is stuck in the uncanny valley of 90s 16 bit pixel art, half way between the classic 8 bit style and modern photorealistic style.

I think his problem is that he is stuck in the uncanny valley of 90s 16 bit pixel art, half way between the classic 8 bit style and modern photorealistic style. If you release a game in current_year with 320x200 resolution or lower and 16 colors I think it's obvious you were aiming for that aesthetic. If you go 640x480 256 or more colors then people can mistake that for an attempt at photorealism that just was badly implemented.

creshal 10y ago
Indeed. There's nothing wrong with good pixel art, but literally no artist knows how to do it, even when they claim they're pixel artists. The Diablo vs. FFTA example in the article demonstrates it well: Despite Diablo coming out earlier, while 2D art was very much a well-cultivated thing, the artists just didn't know how to get it right (too low contrasts, too much dithering, …). FFTA, meanwhile, just looks beautiful.
- kodt 10y ago
  I agree that the artwork in FFTA holds up better today. However I think that had Diablo gone with a brighter color palette, and used pixel art closer in style to FFTA instead of 3D models converted to sprites, it would not have been nearly as successful as it was, nor would it have captured the mood it was going for. I also agree with his criticism of Goldeneye vs Grim Fandango. However, which of those games was more successful? Sometimes good art doesn't sell as well as flashy effects that may look antiquated in 5-10 years.
- jkaunisv1 10y ago
  So there exists good pixel art, but there does not exist any artist who can create good pixel art? FFTA was immaculately conceived I guess?
  - creshal 10y ago
    Well, almost no artist.
- Narishma 10y ago
  I don't think Diablo used pixel art. It looks like they just modeled things in 3d and rendered them to 2d sprites.
  - kodt 10y ago
    Correct, but I think his argument, and the argument in the article was that they should have used pixel art. Given the technology at the time.
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  OTOH, going from 3d to pixel isn't necessarily a bad idea: you just have to do the conversion by hand. This is how id made the artwork for doom: they took clay models, and turned them into pixel art.
OskarS 10y ago
I think this critique is just plain wrong on its face. A huge number of both game reviewers and players recognize good pixel art as great, and don't assign it a "pixel tax". Look at Hyper Light Drifter. Every one who's seen that game agrees that it looks amazing, among the best looking games of the year (a year which includes technical powerhouses like Doom, Uncharted 4 and Overwatch). In previous years, games like Fez, Superbrothers and Hotline Miami have gotten similar accolades. Even a game which is adheres to super-strict arbitrary pixel art restrictions like Shovel Knight was highly praised. If people didn't particularly appreciate the art on the author's game, I'm going to say that it has very little to do with the fact that it used pixel art. The "pixel tax" is fictional.
- emodendroket 10y ago
  > In previous years, games like Fez, Superbrothers and Hotline Miami have gotten similar accolades. Even a game which is adheres to super-strict arbitrary pixel art restrictions like Shovel Knight was highly praised. Don't see how you're disagreeing with the parent comment with these examples.
  - nostromo 10y ago
    OskarS is agreeing with the parent comment. "I think this critique is just plain wrong on its face" is a critique of the article.
    - OskarS 10y ago
      Yes, indeed, i was agreeing with the parent. I should have perhaps made that clearer.
- korethr 10y ago
  No, I'd say the pixel tax is a real thing. There is an attitude among many gamers and game producers that if a game doesn't have the latest and greatest definition of resolution, 3d graphics, high poly count, or latest-graphics-tech-buzzwords-du-jour, it isn't good, or at least, not as good as it could have been [1]. And I'm not making that up either. I used to hold that attitude myself. I recall back in middle school and high school thinking that as soon as I could afford the latest-and-greatest Pentium IIs and a 3d-accelerated graphics card instead of the old 486 I was suck with, then, and only then, would I finally be able to play modern games and experience True Fun. Until then, I would just have to bide my time and continue to try to be content with the now-irrelevant glories of yesteryear, like Doom 2, and Privateer. Some years later, I realized that I'd logged as many hours in UT99 as I had in emulated playthoughs of Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger, not because the graphics of UT99 were amazeballs (which they were for their time), but because like Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger, UT99 was actually _fun to play_. But when I attempted convey that idea -- that perhaps graphics were not the sole driver of fun factor -- to a game dev who had moments before been bitching about the hacks his team had to do make 3d performant on the Playstation 2, he responded that nope, a game _has_ to be 3d, or it isn't any good. Is that a silly attitude? Sure. But it still exists. And to dismiss the possibility of such an attitude I think misses the author's point that it is more important to focus on making the best game art one can in the medium to hand, than to focus on an art style that arose from past limitations over everything else. 1. http://andreaspapathanasis.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-tech-arms-race-in-aaa-and-why-im.html http://andreaspapathanasis.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-tech-arm...

creshal 10y ago

Indeed. There's nothing wrong with good pixel art, but literally no artist knows how to do it, even when they claim they're pixel artists. The Diablo vs. FFTA example in the article demonstrates it well: Despite Diablo coming out earlier, while 2D art was very much a well-cultivated thing, the artists just didn't know how to get it right (too low contrasts, too much dithering, …). FFTA, meanwhile, just looks beautiful.

kodt 10y ago
I agree that the artwork in FFTA holds up better today. However I think that had Diablo gone with a brighter color palette, and used pixel art closer in style to FFTA instead of 3D models converted to sprites, it would not have been nearly as successful as it was, nor would it have captured the mood it was going for. I also agree with his criticism of Goldeneye vs Grim Fandango. However, which of those games was more successful? Sometimes good art doesn't sell as well as flashy effects that may look antiquated in 5-10 years.
jkaunisv1 10y ago
So there exists good pixel art, but there does not exist any artist who can create good pixel art? FFTA was immaculately conceived I guess?
- creshal 10y ago
  Well, almost no artist.
Narishma 10y ago
I don't think Diablo used pixel art. It looks like they just modeled things in 3d and rendered them to 2d sprites.
- kodt 10y ago
  Correct, but I think his argument, and the argument in the article was that they should have used pixel art. Given the technology at the time.
qwertyuiop924 10y ago
OTOH, going from 3d to pixel isn't necessarily a bad idea: you just have to do the conversion by hand. This is how id made the artwork for doom: they took clay models, and turned them into pixel art.

OskarS 10y ago

I think this critique is just plain wrong on its face. A huge number of both game reviewers and players recognize good pixel art as great, and don't assign it a "pixel tax". Look at Hyper Light Drifter. Every one who's seen that game agrees that it looks amazing, among the best looking games of the year (a year which includes technical powerhouses like Doom, Uncharted 4 and Overwatch). In previous years, games like Fez, Superbrothers and Hotline Miami have gotten similar accolades. Even a game which is adheres to super-strict arbitrary pixel art restrictions like Shovel Knight was highly praised. If people didn't particularly appreciate the art on the author's game, I'm going to say that it has very little to do with the fact that it used pixel art. The "pixel tax" is fictional.

emodendroket 10y ago
> In previous years, games like Fez, Superbrothers and Hotline Miami have gotten similar accolades. Even a game which is adheres to super-strict arbitrary pixel art restrictions like Shovel Knight was highly praised. Don't see how you're disagreeing with the parent comment with these examples.
- nostromo 10y ago
  OskarS is agreeing with the parent comment. "I think this critique is just plain wrong on its face" is a critique of the article.
  - OskarS 10y ago
    Yes, indeed, i was agreeing with the parent. I should have perhaps made that clearer.
korethr 10y ago
No, I'd say the pixel tax is a real thing. There is an attitude among many gamers and game producers that if a game doesn't have the latest and greatest definition of resolution, 3d graphics, high poly count, or latest-graphics-tech-buzzwords-du-jour, it isn't good, or at least, not as good as it could have been [1]. And I'm not making that up either. I used to hold that attitude myself. I recall back in middle school and high school thinking that as soon as I could afford the latest-and-greatest Pentium IIs and a 3d-accelerated graphics card instead of the old 486 I was suck with, then, and only then, would I finally be able to play modern games and experience True Fun. Until then, I would just have to bide my time and continue to try to be content with the now-irrelevant glories of yesteryear, like Doom 2, and Privateer. Some years later, I realized that I'd logged as many hours in UT99 as I had in emulated playthoughs of Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger, not because the graphics of UT99 were amazeballs (which they were for their time), but because like Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger, UT99 was actually _fun to play_. But when I attempted convey that idea -- that perhaps graphics were not the sole driver of fun factor -- to a game dev who had moments before been bitching about the hacks his team had to do make 3d performant on the Playstation 2, he responded that nope, a game _has_ to be 3d, or it isn't any good. Is that a silly attitude? Sure. But it still exists. And to dismiss the possibility of such an attitude I think misses the author's point that it is more important to focus on making the best game art one can in the medium to hand, than to focus on an art style that arose from past limitations over everything else. 1. http://andreaspapathanasis.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-tech-arms-race-in-aaa-and-why-im.html http://andreaspapathanasis.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-tech-arm...