3 ms·

Quite tangential, but it is sort of funny that we’re still doing this nostalgic pixel art thing. I mean, no complaints at all, good pixel art looks nice. But th

Quite tangential, but it is sort of funny that we’re still doing this nostalgic pixel art thing. I mean, no complaints at all, good pixel art looks nice. But the snes came out a long time ago. I wonder if we will ever get a nostalgic style that emulates all those flash games. Reasonably high resolution components, but only 10 or so pieces per character. Geometric shapes with gradients.

klaussilveira 2y ago
Obligatory Xiao Xiao reference: https://www.newgrounds.com/series/xiao-xiao https://www.newgrounds.com/series/xiao-xiao
dmonitor 2y ago
Pixel art is nostalgic for many, but a big reason why it's used in indie games is because it's very easy to animate and look passable.
- CoryAlexMartin 2y ago
  Yeah a big reason I started doing pixel art back in 2009 was because it enabled me to do lots of trial and error by changing pixels until I got it to look good. It's much harder to do that with more traditional art, because there are way more options. That's not at all to say that pixel art doesn't require skill, but the skill floor is definitely lower.
Sharlin 2y ago
Pixel art was certainly out of fashion for a while, but it came back in the 2010s because a) nostalgia, b) a counter-reaction to soul-destroying AAA game business, and c) the rise of indie games thanks to Steam.
ta_1138 2y ago
I thought it was nostalgia, but I see teenagers that love pixel art games, even though the art style is twice as old as they are. The style aged way better than, say, the PS1 era, where most games just don't hold up, and most of the ones that do happened to still use pixel art. When it comes to old pixel art games though (as opposed to the new ones), it's a matter of accuracy. There's plenty of articles and videos showing how different it is to try to use a naive emulator on a modern, upscaled OLED vs how the very same game looks in a surviving old Trinitron with a SCART cable. If you are looking at, say, old Atari 2600 games, there's no reason to try to pretend to be a Trinitron. But for SNES? Sonic in the Genesis? Reproducing the screen with square, perfect pixels often looks worse. Still, flash games are getting emulated, and so do Quake-era FPSes. Sometimes we rediscover older gameplay, or more readable art. Other times it's only nostalgia. But pixel art in itself? It's just effective. Modern games just throw away some of the limitations that didn't make the games better: Go look at Sea of Stars. We couldn't have made that game work in a SNES: Too much memory, too wide a palette, more animation we could ever fit in that hardware. And yet, it's a descendent of the old RPGs stylystically, and it looks absolutely fantastic by any standard.
imtringued 2y ago
I have zero nostalgia for pixel art. It is its own thing. If you can't recognize that, you must be blind.

klaussilveira 2y ago

Obligatory Xiao Xiao reference: https://www.newgrounds.com/series/xiao-xiao https://www.newgrounds.com/series/xiao-xiao

dmonitor 2y ago

Pixel art is nostalgic for many, but a big reason why it's used in indie games is because it's very easy to animate and look passable.

CoryAlexMartin 2y ago
Yeah a big reason I started doing pixel art back in 2009 was because it enabled me to do lots of trial and error by changing pixels until I got it to look good. It's much harder to do that with more traditional art, because there are way more options. That's not at all to say that pixel art doesn't require skill, but the skill floor is definitely lower.

Sharlin 2y ago

Pixel art was certainly out of fashion for a while, but it came back in the 2010s because a) nostalgia, b) a counter-reaction to soul-destroying AAA game business, and c) the rise of indie games thanks to Steam.

ta_1138 2y ago

I thought it was nostalgia, but I see teenagers that love pixel art games, even though the art style is twice as old as they are. The style aged way better than, say, the PS1 era, where most games just don't hold up, and most of the ones that do happened to still use pixel art. When it comes to old pixel art games though (as opposed to the new ones), it's a matter of accuracy. There's plenty of articles and videos showing how different it is to try to use a naive emulator on a modern, upscaled OLED vs how the very same game looks in a surviving old Trinitron with a SCART cable. If you are looking at, say, old Atari 2600 games, there's no reason to try to pretend to be a Trinitron. But for SNES? Sonic in the Genesis? Reproducing the screen with square, perfect pixels often looks worse. Still, flash games are getting emulated, and so do Quake-era FPSes. Sometimes we rediscover older gameplay, or more readable art. Other times it's only nostalgia. But pixel art in itself? It's just effective. Modern games just throw away some of the limitations that didn't make the games better: Go look at Sea of Stars. We couldn't have made that game work in a SNES: Too much memory, too wide a palette, more animation we could ever fit in that hardware. And yet, it's a descendent of the old RPGs stylystically, and it looks absolutely fantastic by any standard.

imtringued 2y ago

I have zero nostalgia for pixel art. It is its own thing. If you can't recognize that, you must be blind.