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[More_Badass]

Perhaps it's nostalgia or the appearance compared to other art styles, but pixel art tends to get a bad rap. It's cheap. It's ugly. It's outdated, retro, over-used, etc. etc., I'm sure you've seen all manner of comments regarding pixel art or perhaps even posted some yourself.

I tend to disagree. My retro was PSX era; I never played a game with pixel art till only about a decade ago. Honestly, it's one of my favorite art styles for some of my favorite games, a versatile aesthetic that can callback to gaming eras of the past or impress with modern elements like physics and lighting and smooth animations.

So let's appreciate pixel art and the games that use it. Here are some, both currently available and in development

The Last Night

Rain World

Do Not Cross

Sarcia

Death's Gambit

Slain

Megasphere

Crawl

Stranded

Dungeon of the Endless

Witchmarsh

Noct

Drift Stage

Deadbolt

Hyper Light Drifter

Wizard of Legend

Children of Morta

 

[RoninChaos]

Nice OP. I love pixel art. Especially from the 16 bit era.

 

[Amagon]

Hey, totally forgot about Slain. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Fantastic samples. Also cool to see how many of these games I helped Kickstart. I can't wait for more devs to explore 16 bit as fully as they have 8.

 

[LUFTRAUSER]

Candyman from Lethal League.
I like the game's simplistic artstyle.

 

[Iacobellis]

I absolutely love pixel art. And thank you for bringing Drift Stage to my attention.

Oh, the memories of Ridge Racer and Daytona USA are just hitting me right now...

 

[MMarston]

I really REALLY want to post images of the final level of Hotline Miami 2 in this thread but I don't wanna spoil it.



Seriously...So good.

 

[More_Badass]

Oh, in case you didn't know, Deadbolt is the next game from the devs of Risk of Rain

 

[dreamfall]

Such a beautiful collection OP!

 

[More_Badass]

I absolutely love pixel art. And thank you for bringing Drift Stage to my attention.

Oh, the memories of Ridge Racer and Daytona USA are just hitting me right now...

Too bad you missed the Kickstarter. Here's a link to the alpha demo:
http://supersystems.itch.io/driftstagealpha

 

[More_Badass]

Such a beautiful collection OP!

Fantastic samples. Also cool to see how many of these games I helped Kickstart. I can't wait for more devs to explore 16 bit as fully as they have 8.

Thanks! It's actually kind of funny, I took a look at the games I've kickstarted and like 75% of them are pixel art.

 

[aku:jiki]

The Last Night breaks my heart because I had just gotten started on learning Unity and my ultimate goal was to eventually make pretty much that exact game when I first heard about it. It was kind of a bummer because while I'm learning to do decent pixel art, I cannot possibly compete with that...

Anyway, Dungeon of the Endless was going to be my contribution so I'm happy to see it in the OP! I really wasn't expecting that game to look as good as it does, since their other games are all polygon-based.

 

[2+2=5]

"pixel art tends to get a bad rap"

There's good pixel art and there's lazy low res graphics that has nothing to do with "pixel art", pixel art is getting bad rap primarly because people call "pixel art" everything that's 2d without any distinction(and because people wants 3d AAA games on current gen consoles )

 

[More_Badass]

"pixel art tends to get a bad rap"

There's good pixel art and there's lazy low res graphics that has nothing to do with "pixel art", pixel art is getting bad rap primarly because people call "pixel art" everything that's 2d without any distinction(and because people wants 3d AAA games on current gen consoles )

I've seen people dismiss stuff like Rain World and Slain because it's pixel art.
"Fatigued of 16bit inspired "indie" games"
"every facking indie game comes with those graphics. I like the 16 bit era, but we are in 2014..."
etc

 

[aku:jiki]

I've seen people dismiss stuff like Rain World and Slain because it's pixel art.
"Fatigued of 16bit inspired "indie" games"
"every facking indie game comes with those graphics. I like the 16 bit era, but we are in 2014..."
etc

The latest trendy phrase is "man, I can't wait for indies to reach the PS1/N64 era"!

 

[ElTorro]

I love it.

It makes me consider to pixelartify some iconic paintings, print them on linen canvases, and put them on the wall.

Need to learn how pixelartification is done.

 

[aku:jiki]

Oh, in case you didn't know, Deadbolt is the next game from the devs of Risk of Rain

This made me excited and I rushed to play the beta... Man, it's kinda terrible, isn't it? Doesn't have the immediacy and simplicity that RoR did at all, it's much more fidgety and obnoxious with the knife-throwing and whatnot. Overall gameplay design seems to be like a stealth game with no stealth too? I know it's a beta but this does not look good to me.

 

[More_Badass]

This made me excited and I rushed to play the beta... Man, it's kinda terrible, isn't it? Doesn't have the immediacy and simplicity that RoR did at all, it's much more fidgety and obnoxious with the knife-throwing and whatnot. Overall gameplay design seems to be like a stealth game with no stealth too? I know it's a beta but this does not look good to me.

Hmm, the reaction by most other people who played it in the Indie thread and on TIGSource had been pretty positive.

It's definitely a different game from RoR; the dev's plan for the final game is that you work your way up the chain of command of supernatural gangs and who you decide to take out weakens the final gang boss in different ways. Fewer reinforcements, etc.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

I love this stuff, but this thread will get so many haters in here. Namely the argument I read all over gaf, that these all look the same. So Wrong.

 

[Skilletor]

Almost everything in the OP appeals more to me visually than any AAA game on the horizon.

 

[silver.tongue]

Holy shit noct looks amazing... Has the dev ever said anything about a console release?

 

[More_Badass]

Holy shit noct looks amazing... Has the dev ever said anything about a console release?

The game got picked up by Devolver so I think a console release is more than likely. I'll check online

 

[aku:jiki]

Hmm, the reaction by most other people who played it in the Indie thread and on TIGSource had been pretty positive.

It's definitely a different game from RoR; the dev's plan for the final game is that you work your way up the chain of command of supernatural gangs and who you decide to take out weakens the final gang boss in different ways. Fewer reinforcements, etc.

I guess it doesn't help that I've always hated that control style, all the way back to Abuse... Here's hoping the full version wins me over. I will definitely be checking it out just based on goodwill from RoR.

Almost everything in the OP appeals more to me visually than any AAA game on the horizon.

No kidding. I want every game in the OP right now. People complaining about how "there's too much pixel art" aren't making the distinction between pixel art and good pixel art. Games that look as distinctive and cool as Crawl are few and far between.

The only ones I don't want are Crawl (I don't do a lot of local multi) and Stranded (already have it and it sucks). Oh yeah, I have DotE too.

 

[GRIMREEFZ]

MAKES ME WANT TO CHARGE MY VITA

 

[mattp]

drift stage is 3d, no?

 

[silver.tongue]

The game got picked up by Devolver so I think a console release is more than likely. I'll check online

That's the best news I've heard all day. Thank you.

 

[Ricky_R]

Oh Lord. I want to play them all.

 

[More_Badass]

drift stage is 3d, no?

The art is a blend of "pixel art and 3D models", from the KS page

 

[Hollow]

So many amazing looking indie games.

I'm still pretty hyped for Hyper Light Drifter.

 

[Peltz]

I played Rain World at PAX East and felt like it was one of the coolest games at the show. Keep an eye out for that one.

It just feels good to play. It feels as good as it looks:

 

[More_Badass]

I played Rain World at PAX East and felt like it was one of the coolest games at the show. Keep an eye out for that one.

It just feels good to play. It feels as good as it looks:

Yeah, I'm a backer and the alpha is amazing. That "oh shit" feeling when a vulture's shadow sweeps across the screen and you scurry for cover as it descends from above is so intense

The procedural animations never get old

 

[Jaeger]

I think the OP should have included actual retro games as examples. Everything posted is newer indie titles that don't follow retro console rules (still beautiful however). Personally, I've been in love with pixel art since I was a wee-lad. I even dabbled in spritework myself for a really long time. Anyway, posting something to contribute proper;

 

[More_Badass]

I think the OP should have included actual retro games as examples. Everything posted is newer indie titles that don't follow retro console rules (still beautiful however). Personally, I've been in love with pixel art since I was a wee-lad. I even dabbled in spritework myself for a really long time. Anyway, posting something to contribute proper

I'm honestly not familar with many older games, main reason why I only posted newer stuff

 

[Jaeger]

I'm honestly not familar with many older games, main reason why I only posted newer stuff

I hear ya. Hopefully we can introduce you to some old school goodness through this thread. I'll post some more shortly.

 

[Phat Michael]

I love pixel art and have just all around my house framed up. Seeing it just brings me back to a happier time.

Imagine if the power of modern consoles were used to create sprites and 2d rpgs with hand drawn pixel art?

 

[JinjoUnchained]

Seems like a good place to ask this: anyone here create sprite art in Pixlr or MS Paint? I've got GIMP at home, but I'd like to mess around during my lunch break with the tools available on my work PC. That is, filling in individual pixels.

 

[One_San]

KOF '99 has one of my favorite stages.

 

[KiraXD]

Cant forget Chasm

 

[Neoriceisgood]

Lol who cares about pixelart? We live in a 3D world now.

/edit

Seems like a good place to ask this: anyone here create sprite art in Pixlr or MS Paint? I've got GIMP at home, but I'd like to mess around during my lunch break with the tools available on my work PC. That is, filling in individual pixels.

I do my work in MS Paint, it usually works fine. I do feel that after win 7/8 the ribbon ms paint version somehow screwed up a few tools, most obnoxiously selecting/dragging seems no longer pixel perfect.

 

[Erevador]

Wow. That's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. How had I not heard about SLAIN yet?

 

[Gipsy Danger]

Fucking Drift Stage, man. Spectacular. Good idea for a thread OP, too many people write off these games because they are ill-informed.

 

[JinjoUnchained]

I do my work in MS Paint, it usually works fine. I do feel that after win 7/8 the ribbon ms paint version somehow screwed up a few tools, most obnoxiously selecting/dragging seems no longer pixel perfect.

Cool, I'm playing around with it now, not all that familiar with MS Paint. Noob question: how do you "fill in" individual squares of the gridlines with a particular color? None of the pencil sizes correspond to a single pixel and the paint can fills up the whole canvas if you click in a square. I'd like to build my sprites pixel by pixel.

 

[Baron Von Beans]

I wish I could contribute something aside from me saying I love the classic games, due to what they achieved through their pixel art. The newer stuff is cool still, but they don' have the same charm. Well animated pixels are hypnotic.

 

[More_Badass]

Wow. That's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. How had I not heard about SLAIN yet?

Game is gorgeous

Coming to PC and every major console

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Garou: Mark of the Wolves is one of my favorites, but all SNK games look great.

 

[More_Badass]

Garou: Mark of the Wolves is one of my favorites, but all SNK games look great.

Damn, SNK only does fighting games? That art is so good

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Game is gorgeous

Coming to PC and every major console

And Vita! Don't forget Vita!

 

[Lord Error]

This thread got me to purchase Stranded. I have to say the game is kind of crap. Won't even run full screen on my mac, and the controls are the worst I've seen of any P&C game (and I've played hundreds). For example, when you click somewhere, there's no correcting the route until your character gets there, and man does s/he move slow.

 

[Glass]

Damn, this is one sexy sexy thread.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Damn, SNK only does fighting games? That art is so good

They also make the Metal Slug series.