>indie pixel art>always feels off, even when it's goodWhy the fuck
>>724009149That's why indie games are slowly transitioning to 3D. Onirism's a good example of a modern indie game. No one really cares about pixelshit anymore.
>>724009149really depends. Belle Boomerang looks good.
>>724009149>hi-res assets in a pixel art game that's a nope from me. all or nothing.
>>724009149>>724009453>always feels offOther than the slightly tumblr style they look good to me?
>>724009149the background and character art are different stylesthis would be fine except the background art is also more complex than the character art, making characters feel bland and incongruous
>>724009149What matters is art style. Not it being 'le pixels.' The problem with so many of these games is they try to copy the "quirky" art style of Earthbound/Undertale. And it comes off as unoriginal. Or they try to copy Chrono Trigger/Final Fantasy. And it lacks the talented artists those games had.>>724009453That looks like someone trying to copy Kirby's Adventure. But not realizing what made Kirby's Adventure good is clean UI and less stuff on the screen. So many indie games just think "more is better. Fill every spot on the screen with something."
>>724009149Looks great. You've been conditioned by older pixel art games that a limited color looks best, when in fact this is far better.
>>724009149in this case it's because the color palette isn't very good
Niggers here will bitch about literally everything only because they miss being 12
>>724009149>gui is a different res than the enviroment/spritesgross
Hint: it's the resolution. Retrogames were never widescreen aside from few arcade games whose gimmick was ''oooo wide screen''. It's why UT feels genuine as a game with a 4:3 aspect ratio, if a pixelshit game is not 4:3, it will feel off.
>>724010090>>724010427I said it looks good, but it doesn't come together as a cohesive whole for some reason which makes it feel off, it kind of scatters your eyes all over the place and feels like an obvious gameCompare it to pic related that feels cohesive, effortless, and natural
>>724009216No one cares about onaholism either.
mixels
>>724009149Maybe because not everything is the same pixel fidelity in a game. All the parts can look good, but it's like having an N64 game model with a PS2 game model with a 360 game model with a PS4 environment with PS5 4K UI, if that makes sense (using a 3D comparison).
>>724010590Oh, that's probably the mismatch between UI and game as well as the unusual aspect ratio as the other anons say. How would the game look if you cropped it to 4 by 3 and threw a CRT filter on tip? Can any anon with the game do it?
>>724010315For me the background and sprites look close. It's the UI on the screen that clashes with the pixels. It's like someone put the UI of Scribblenauts on top of a GBA game.
>>724010590what game
>>724010427Diablo 2 has better colors and contrast than any game that has come out since.
>>724010663160 concurrent players says otherwise, but I'll just leave that there.
>>724010919Actually, LCD filter + GBA resolution may work better considering the style is similar to Minish Cap or Mother 3.
>>724010427>You've been conditioned by older pixel art games that a limited color looks bestIt does. Too many colors on-screen is distracting.
>>724009149The problem with this stems from its design choices rather than limitations. The work itself is good and the people who made it competent... but because it's an art choice rather than a limitation it doesn't quite get across the uncanny valley. It's trying to be something that it's not; It's a pretender.If this had been done more along the lines of something like some of the Rayman games, you wouldn't notice it feeling off. It would pay homage to its predecessors to some extent without pretending to be something it isn't.Just my $0.02
Was Eastward's expansion any good when I didn't like the normal game
>pixel art graphics>hd png for the hudThey had to ruin it somehow.Either commit to fully pixel art or don't make the game.
>>724009149The art design was the least of Eastward's issues. I actually feel like it had the makings of an indie classic if the story hadn't gone so far off the rails by the end of the New Dam City chapter of the story.They really could have used a second draft. Or a third.
>>724009149this one feels off because of the super modern ui elements, they should have made them in the game's style too
>>724010559>UT feels genuine as a gameIt definitely does not, I say this as someone who prefers 4:3
>>724009149mismatched pixel sizesdrives me crazy
>>724011505It still looks fucking unnatural, lol.
>>724011138Lmao that’s pathetic. It’s been shilled here for years. It looks bad.
>>724011016alundrathe english release is kinda fucked though, they gave enemies 10x the HP for no discernible reason
>>724011016Alundra
>>724011476Agreed. The charm and atmosphere the game had was really enchanting. But the story went so sideways that it was hard for me to stay invested in the last third of the game.
>>724011476The problem was that it wanted to be too many things.It's a zelda like... except each chapter is contained and you can't go back to where you were.It's story driven... except the story's kind of a fucking mess.Whole thing puts me in the same mind as Iconoclasts: Good base, good art, total mess of actual gameplay direction.
>>724009149Because they don't actually set themselves the limits that produced old times pixel graphics for games.It's basically just a fully featured canvas that only makes repeated assets stand out more as laziness instead of something that was necessary
>>724010427Contrast is good.
>>724009149because their art direction sucks ass. you could give a retard the best tools to work with but it won't mean shit if xhe doesn't have talent
2d games should be hand drawn frame by frame on real animation cels like Cuphead.
looks off because of the ui and shadows not being sprites/game isnt rendering at the right resolution so the pixels dont line up in a grid like retro games
>>724009216Onirism has nice art. But most indies decide to use UE5 and then circumvent it's entire shading model just to try to recreate the look of PS1/N64 games while requiring 4,000x the hardware power.
Because it's just pixel art and not tile art.
>>724009216>No one really cares about pixelshit anymore.they do, it's just not worth the effort, Owl boy was a good looking pixel game but took so long and got delayed it didn't even matter.literally no one today can pull Metal Slug tier pixel art, and minimalistic pixelshit like Celeste can sell well without a lot of effort.
>>724009149it's the post processing, indie devs have a boner for adding ill-fitting shaders and lighting effects where they don't belong because it's easythose smooth cloud shadows overlaying lightly dithered dirt/sand is a particularly retarded design choice
>>724009149because you're gay
>>724012868Looks tile-based to me.
>>724009149>Eastward>One of the best pixel art ever>The gameplay and story is complete garbageHaving a 10/10 element wasted like this makes me more mad than if it was just your generic 6/10 pixel art.
>>724009149A good example of why it feels off in your picture is the old man having a red tumblr nose and the UI not being pixelated
>>724014241It would still feel off if you addressed both of those
>>724009149>mixing pixels of different sizes>mixing pixels with vector art>putting smooth color gradients on top of filters (most commonly from lighting)This shit is the main cause for why most indie pixel games end up looking disgusting. Even if you don't "notice" it consciously, the way the brain internalizes an art style and filters it out is disrupted by this glaring break in consistency and makes it impossible to ever fully immerse yourself. That's why a game with ugly bad art that's consistent, like Undertale, ends up looking and feeling better to play than a game with theoretically "better" art like OP
Hyke was good.
>>724013842your pic looks kino though, what is it
>>724014486>That's why a game with ugly bad art that's consistent, like Undertale, ends up looking and feeling better to playsee >>724011615
Any indies that look better when you give them the CRT treatment?
>>724009149literally piss stained color palette
>>724010090>the slightly tumblr styleThat's what they're talking about. In new pixelart, artists' modern sensibilities shine through their color choices, palette budgeting, their shapes, their shading.
Should indie games try to have a pixel look? The only reason old games had that look was due to technical limitations.More high quality 2D graphics used to get accused of being looking like Flash games, but now that Flash is dead does that make those kind of graphics more viable for indie devs?
>>724011812The problem is that they had a great hook wasted on a shit protag, and no dive or motivations for their characters until 3/4ths in they decided they just "remembered" what they have to do.
>>724009149it's trying to emulate an era most indie devs today never experienced
>>724014486>mixing pixels of different sizes>mixing pixels with vector art>putting smooth color gradients on top of filters (most commonly from lighting)I'm pretty sure Undertale itself does at least two of these
>>724014573legend of dungeonit plays decently but if you think this looks good, i recommend getting scanned for brain tumors
>>724014775Left still looks better than right. You really need contrast for things to pop out.
>>724015392Also don't forget pixel rotation to break the illusion even further
>>724011581They did, this is the fucking gay ass farming DLC OP posted to be a disingenuous flag.
>>724013842Post-processing and a mismatching UI is probably the biggest culprit of why some games look lacking.
>>724009149Coz it looks shit on modern displays.The scanlines + blending on a CRT give low res 2D graphics an illusion of depth.
>>7240105902D games on Saturn/PS1 look absolutely stunning on an RGB CRT and Alundra is right up there.
>>724009149Western indie games always get marred with dogshit character design even when trying to copy then nips. That's how you can tell.
>>724016354Nah see >>724010590Looks way better on the same display
>>724013842I like pixel games with post processing though. It's interesting aestethically when done right. I especially like the addition of real time dynamic lights to pixel/low fidelity 3D graphics. Feels like one of those old promotional renders you'd see in magazines for early 3D games, but this time it's not a static image.
>>724015720its like ps1 graphics or something, that kind of nostalgia is making a comeback in this generation. its not your time anymore unc, you're cookedpost a game you think looks good (that isn't universally thought to be so)
>>724009149aimless values
>>724015378ah, the anime problem, the weebs who got into the anime industry are all shut in losers who never see other people and thus cant animate for shit
>>724010590Landstalker is better.
>>724018069>>724009149Modern artists HATE contrasts.Even in movies and shit. ALL of them, like an hivemind.
>>724009149tl;dr problem with something like this is lack of composition, there's no clear focus on what is the important thing you should be looking at. everything just look like a blended blur
>>724009216>admitting 3D graphics are trannygood to see Anon can tell the truth sometimes
>>724009149here? lack of contrast, no dark or popping colors, everything has a hazey look,
>>724011459a bit too much but certainly its the contrast and vibrancy
>>724009149The pixels don't look sharp at all.It just looks floaty and some areas like a bilinear blur is applied. Also the colors look washed. Nothing pops out. It's just a mess
>NYOOOOO YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT LOOK EXACTLY LIKE A RETRO GAME EVEN IF THAT WAS NEVER THE GOALWhy are boomers like this?
>>724018564see >>724011505More contrast but still not a huge improvement
>>724015892Rotations are perfectly normal, though they were typically pre-made assets with fixed angles until around late SNES-ish with better cartridge chips
>>724018668Agreed, but it does look better even if slightly.
Pixelshit is just an excuse not to put in decent graphics. I will not pay for any regardless how good the game is.
>>724018657The retro games were made by real trained artists who understood art, it just so happens that those stopped working in games around that time so any reference to good visuals in games has to come from an old game It's not the oldness itself that makes them good, the shit we've been getting since won't magically become better with time
>>724018668because of the other mentioned issues,different pixel sizes and vector usage, they are noticeable and make for the "off" feeling
>>724018710The pixels themselves never rotated, they physically couldn't
>>724011767>>724011769I remember this game being hard as nails when I was a child, but it really had that atmosphere nailed down the dream sequences were so cool.
>>724018891>,different pixel sizesTHIS now that you mention it.
>>724009453Too incoherent.
>>724011767What the fuck was up with games in this gen having harder english releases?
>>724011476The story was great though. What the fuck are you on about?
Has anyone played Chained Echos? It looks interesting but the Steam reviews are a bit mixed, some either really love it or hate it for being too easy on mobs too hard on bosses or the story is too slow. How is it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClrZiz_IMmY
>>724018856The slopification of pixel art in indie games has rewired our brains to think pixel art = low effort / the poor man's choice. But in reality, pixel art requires intensive care and good attention detail to pull off
>>724018949If you have double resolution sprites (smallest unit is 2x2 pixels instead of 1x1), you can rotate them easily without weird distortions. Helps if the console had 480i or 480p support
HOWEVER
>>724019459Why does every pixel art indie game look exactly the same?
>>724020024They all refer back to the same handful of online pixel art tutorials, and treat them as step-by-step guides Pixel art used to be about taking your in-house artists' style and converting it into pixels
>>724020000Beautiful art. Definitely japanese made.
>>724020125
>>724009149>always feels off, even when it's goodPixel art for the sake of pixel art.Art for the sake of art, AKA gimmicky art, tends to be bad. Art needs a purpose and a reason.Devs in the 80s and 90s didn't do pixel art because they wanted, but because they needed.They also had limitations and the display medium as well as the knowhow was adequated for it. Modern pixel art has no limitations and the displays are too crispy and high resolution. It's a completely different experience.Not only that, but the more effort (more colors, more animation sprites, more detail) the artist put in the pixel art, the less it looks like traditional pixel art.
>>724009149Becuase pixel art isn't an "art style" it was a technical limitation back then. All indieshit looks exactly the same these days making it soulless, where as back then it varied greatly since it was just the technology at the time.
>>724018867>Why aren't the INDIE devs PROFESSIONALS?
>>724009149the only thing that looks off here is that the icons and text are not also pixel art.
>>724020385Are they charging money for their games?
>>724009149Indie games are made and played by people who like being overstimulated. The fact that they're incoherent and look awkward comes with the territory.
>>724015720I like the depth effect the lighting and perspective give. I agree the entire thing looks like a mess otherwise.
>>724020385see >>724020191That's an indie dev
>>724019380
>>724020449>Heh, if I go after specific definitions of words like some kind of asshole genie then that'll get him.>>724020520ok
>>724009149This looks flat. Nothing looks distinct, it's like it's just a jumble of pixels even though you know there's a real picture before you.
>>724010590>same copy pasted tree 10 times>copypasted stairs all over the placethis looks like absolute shit
>>724009149Indies don't know how to do shadows or lighting without lazy airbrushing.If you're going to use pixels, use it for everything.
>>724019380japs made it harder because in America you could rent it and beat it in a week. to prevent you beating it in a week they'd just make it more difficult.
>>724020449beer money, if they know what's good for them
>>724011767>the english release is kinda fucked though, they gave enemies 10x the HP for no discernible reasonThere was a discernible reason. Is it even worth playing it then?
>>724021239>sprite reuse is le badwait till you find out the mario clouds are just recolored bushes to save space
>>724020024The game the other anon posted if painfully generic but you have to be legitimately blind if you are saying this seriously
>>724020191Which games are which?
>>724020125>Definitely japanese madeDumbass weeb. It was made by a norwegian.
>>724012617Most of that is the fault of modern engines being optimized for modern rendering. Usually you have to do some jank work arounds to fake old rendering, which ironically ends up making your game less performant for worse graphics.
>>724021771Image search is built right into the website you dumb lazy faggot
>>724021886You need to learn to recognize obvious bait better.
>>724009149need more like this.
>>724022235Is there a real game that actually looks like this? They all seem to be mock ups.
>>724009149i really gotta finish this game but its so easy that it's boring
>>724022497>Is there a real game that actually looks like this?absolutely not.
>>724020449yes, for a fourth of the price of a AAA game at best
>>724022879So their art budgets should also be a fourth then, no?
I always thought it was trying to use spriting techniques that worked well at 240p in a 1080p canvas. They need so many pixels to make up the graphics in the scale that you saw in the 90s that it ends up losing the visual style of those games.Plus the palette in such games is far, far higher than what was possible on 16-bit consoles. The color range that is usable tends to take away from the authenticity of the look. You get some amazing looking gradients but you also know it's cheating the look.
>>724023009How much money do you think on average an indie dev makes? Games like FNAF or undertale are extreme outliers.
>>724009149sterileappears as soft and inoffensive as possible (not in content, but in style)or just derivative and uninteresting
>>724023370wtf does that have to do with anything
>>724021995That was mean anon :(
>>724023821>what the fuck does profit have to do with budget?Stop trolling.
the UI isn't doing it any favors.
>>724020449Anon, you're trying to counter the word "amateur". If you make money doing said thing you're a "professional", if you don't you're an "amateur". You can be "Independent" doing either
>>724014775it's been so long that people have forgotten what non-shit CRT displays actually looked like. you only got the ugly trash in the middle from the bottom of the barrel consumer TV's.
>>724009149it's because this is fucking mixel garbage. it doesn't align to a pixel grid which ruins all the good art.
>>724009149I'm not artist but the shading looks like it was all made in mind for a different light source.
CONTRAST.The reason is CONTRAST.You gotta make the colors pop off each other. If you blur or cross your eyes you still have to be able to tell what's going on, or it's NOT worthy pixel art.
>>724020125>>724020000LOL falseflagging. Those noses are dead giveaway.
No CRT filter
modern pixel "art" is pretty dogshit. It always looks so offensively ugly. I can't even play stardew because the character models are so bad. I think its because back in the day pixel artists were making stuff for CRTs, so they had limitations they had to work within that brings out the best in some people. I am really glad to see there's more low poly 3d games coming out. it just looks so much better to me. pic semi related, modded morrowind. low poly with high rez textures I guess? idk what to call it but its really appealing to me
>>724009149Pixel art is an inherently shit art style. It'll always feel off.
>>724026286You can reshade basically any indie game
It insists open itself.
>>724009149Retro pixel art had to be good. It was a constraint of the hardware.Modern indieslop pixel art doesn't have those same constraints, so they're missing any experience those developers had in making good-looking and readable pixel art.
>>724009149>>724011459>even indies have anti soul gas nowlmao
>>724009149>ragebait with calarts beanmouthed faggotry on release dayI have never refunded a game as fast as this one
>>724018069>the blue shadows are higher value than the midtones on the building and tree
>>724025182every single example is also a shitty picture taken with a camera or a dogshit emulator filternot a single one of these images is honest in nature
>>724010427Nah. OP's image is full of clashing assets and a lack of unified design in general. Granted it's a strawman and there are a ton of games with great pixel art.
>>724027839post some. i'm not arguing I just want to see them
>>724009149you're playing a sprite based game on an LCD and not a CRT so those pixels aren't blending
>>724027903I would love to but I only post on /v/ while I'm taking a shit and I'm almost done. Please understand.
>>724019459the story is actively infuriatingthe game itself is entertaining until you get the mechs
>>724009149based on this pic alone, id say its 3 things that cause the issue. and any of these 3 can be off putting.(1) too much reliance on square based mapping on a higher detailed resolution. looks awkward.(2) too much reliance on placing as many terrain objects as possible to make it look busier. this almost always looks bad, even worse in high res pixel art, and/or square based mapping. need to focus on outlines, and small clumps with a bit of distance between the clumps.(3) overly drastic false ambient occlusion. its best used on indoor objects for the illusion of indoor lighting. outdoors looks weird.
>>724011138>160 concurrent players says otherwise,>160 LMAO, Concord had a higher concurrent player count. Jesus christ dude.
>>724009149Because art styles are ever so slightly different. The big tree in the middle has significantly more shadow fidelity than the rest of the scene. The small stone figure.planter on the side of the road is clearly rasterized 3D with a 2D top. And the cliff walls are way too defined, not to mention that the grass on top of the cliff and grass on the ground level use completely conflicting design philosophies.That's why it feels off. Every one of these styles is fine when contained, but when mixed they feel off.This happens a lot in smaller indie projects where there's no real director but it's instead more of a design by committee type thing, they tend to take on multiple artists each one with their own style and then they assign them to work on different parts of the same asset group. So instead of having one work on an environment, one on character design, one on enemy design, etc... They instead divide the projects in to stages and then first have everyone work on environment, then have everyone work on characters, then have everyone work on enemies, and you get a bunch of inconsistencies that are difficult to articulate as a player.
>>724014630the single red pixel blending to be his whole ass eye blows me away every time I see it. So happy I got a new CRT after I gave up the last one I had because lifting it when moving house was a massive pain in the dick.
>>724014630Is that accurate to how it works though?
>>724009149>always feels off, even when it's goodThat's because:>the art is inconsistent, characters have less detail than the surroundings, or surroundings have less detail than the characters>UI / HUD doesn't match the art>theme & sprites are inconsistent or don't match the rest of itEtc
>>724009149Wtf indie pixel games use anti soul gas now?
>>724027768a computer CRT even at 480p has crisp pixels
>>724031017>game made to look like shit still looks like shit even on a CRTgood to know
>>724030891eh disparity in background detail to character detail isn't that big of an issue, just look at basically all the old KoF game stages compared to the characters.
>>724026554Most indie pixelslop and retro ps1 nostalgia slop becomes soulful with these filters
>>724026375>low poly with high rez textures I guess?That's exactly what it is and I absolutely love it too, it's extremely visually distinct but still has a ton of detail to it.
>>724019440Loved the start of it. Felt like it started to cave in on itself by the time you were on a train of talking monkeys recreating Hollywood. There was a few too many things that were unexplained or that started to contradict itself in terms of the lore.
>>724009216>Onirism's a good example of a modern indie gamethat game with 3 active players is a "good example"?
>>724011812Iconoclasts also had a similar issue where it was heavily character and dialogue driven but decided to have a silent protagonist for some reason.But at least in Iconoclast's case the villains were still able to steal the show.
>>724009149>make decent~good pixel art>throw high quality non-pixelated UI elements on top of itThat's the big one, the other, to me, is the huge color variances even on the same object in the background, but then you have the active character elements that don't have half as much shading effort.
>>724031017what's deltarune's "native" res? that's clearly 2 lines per pixel
>>724034732>implying player count determines qualityare you a CoD player by any chance?
>>724009149Gee, why do these games developed by like 1 or 2 people on no budget look worse than older games developed by entire teams of professional designers?It's a mystery.
>>724010590less memory, also very much forced to work within the constraints of a grid more often than notthis is generally why you will feel like modern shit feels "off". There's a logic that your brain will appreciate from the limited graphics of the SNES/PS1 era vs the liberally adjusted rules of the pixel art you see today
>>724011379>too many colors
>>724035419640x480.
>>724037461weird. so most sprites use double size pixels, huh.
>>724009216>That's why indie games are slowly transitioning to 3D.Not exactly. Part of the reason why pixel art is rarely seen in the indie space nowadays is because it always fed off the nostalgia of the people who grew up with it, and all of them are well into their 30's and have either had their fill of pixel art games or moved on. Zoomers don't have the same soft spot for pixel art so less games are developed using the art style.The other part was that pixel art used to be the defacto cheap and easy art style to learn. Software has gotten better and it is unironically now easier to learn 3D modeling in blender then pixel art.
>>724009149>always feels off, even when it's goodThere's like 30 different artstyles in that image. It's weird.The artist is likely copying art he liked, with no style of his own.
>>724009149it feels off because they have no limitations. mario isn't 3 colors because they didn't want to use more. he's 3 colors because an NES sprite is 3 colors. you feel the incompleteness in a pixel art game made for a ps5
>>724021463i enjoyed it, but had to use save states for some parts. theres some tricky jumps because of weird perspective that require an annoying amount of retreading to reattempt in addition to the inflated hpthere is a weapon thats the best in the game that you can only get if you die a bunch thogood soundtrack too
>>724009149Nothing in this pic stands out except for the roof and only because it's red in a sea of green.
>>724009149>pixel art style>flash game uiyeah
>>724010590God I love Alundra
>>724028083Understanded and kek'd
>>724009149Terrible sense of scaling
>>724009149This is fine
>>724009149It's the complete lack of an identity. I just feel like I've seen every sprite in that image a million times over.That and more games should use less UI if you want atmosphere.
>>724009149If Flash games can have sovl so can this
i like how The Eternal Castle handles its pixel art.
>>724009149Simulated soul, often comes with safe-quirky tumblr design.I'd argue that stuff like Spark goes so far off into the unsafe depths of quirkyness that it taps into the autism needed to actually be soulful, at least to the people not driven away.>>724009216And then you get stuff like Penny's Big Breakaway, the Balan of indies.
I actually don't care that much how "good" these games look as long as there is a clear goal with game's style and it doesn't look like absolute utter dogshit like Lisa
>>724009149No limitations on the density of the pixels or the color palette, amateur artists.
>>724030798its fairly accurate, most CRT lines are slightly offset/diagonal to make the scan process simpler and for handling interlacing for 480i so that along with bleed from the phosphors let you make gradients
>>724015720Nta but the lack of a diarrhea of particles in the first pic makes it look like a masterpiece next to the second pic. I've grown to appreciate bad looking shit that plays well though, better than good looking shitplays.
>>724014537Hello, the one other anon that's played Hyke.
>>724040293This looks neat. I might try it.
>>724009149For this one it's the perfectly sideways character sprites. Notice how every other living thing seems like it's looking diagonal when facing left or right? The two people in the center aren't, that's why it looks so off.
>>724010090now watch the game in motion
>>724040924ive PLAYED Belle Boomerang. it looks fine in motion.
>>724040293Yeah, it's me. Hello again fellow Hyke enjoyer.
>>724037461you could probably get away with running it at 240p though, right? the high res art would be downscaled, but i can't think of anything gameplay-wise that'd require being in 480p
>>724009149>indie pixel art>always feels off, even when it's goodThe problem is pixel art has become a meme that nobody really understands, or else understands how to translate into to modern technology. Even non-indie developers crap out abominations filled with mixels 99% of the time, or else some sort of souless overproduced nonsense with lots of detail but zero artistic merit.Looking at your picture, I'd say the developer just doesn't understand how to frame a scene. Sometimes what you leave out is as important as what you put in.
>>724019459The protagonist doesn't get the girl, actively gets cucked for being evil in a past life and turns into a seagull in the end.Profound.
>>724009149fixel art with infinite color palette are uncanny valley. Also that UI that just looks like hi rest shitstain on the screen. . There's also a dissonance between ultradetails backgrounds and actual moving characters that can't even be drawn in perspective
>>724011476this is an unreadable mess. Even in the 80's game devs new that you needed to make interactable and path area stand out.
>>724020191looks like derivative trash. I hage the Bof Rip off the most. that's a hack in its purest form.
>>724009149If no one's said it already, I feel it's a lack of cohesion.The text for Day 107 and the time are two different kinds.The HUD text and images also have no connective tissue. However well the designs are individually, together they cause dissonance.
>>724019537I remember seeing an interview from the cuphead devs. They attempted pixel art, but scrapped it, stating something along the lines of every pixel had to be perfect or have purpose.
>>724009149This particular piece has the gaudy over-saturated pallet of the GBA that was necessary because of its poor original screen quality even though it was presumably made for PC monitors.
>not a good artist>struggle>have pixelshit game that looks maybe mediocreOn the off chance anyone plays what I make, /v/ is going to shit on me endlessly, fuck. You guys have high standards. I refused to have any mixels at least
>>724040293Looks comfyQuick qrd of this?
>then>pixel art done by a team that works on pixel art and nothing else>now>pixel art done by one dude called Greg who also does the entire rest of the game
>>724044174Top down action game with some light RPG elements (basic stat increases, skill level-ups that increase skill damage and give it extra traits). Seven playable characters, some with more drastic gameplay changes than others, like turning the game into a twin-stick shooter. Difficulty is on the lower side for the most part, with some spikes in the side missions.Story-wise, it's about a witch who decides to look for her missing mom and engages in copious amounts of violence along the way.
>>724044650>BoatmanIs that the new Kojima game?
>>724044675He'd have a longer name if that was the case. Like Land Boatman.
I wish more games would just adapt their art style into clean, "hand-drawn" 2D sprites. I know it requires more work, but I imagine it isn't too far off from highly-detailed pixel art.
>>724009149Art direction. Environment design, character design, use of colors, scale, they need internal consistency.
pixel vomit was mistake
>>724024118If you're talking profits then you should be condemning indies for having paltry budgets, their ROI is orders of magnitude bigger than AAA
>>724009149Because it's not real pixel art so it feels uncanny and disturbing. Just like trannies are not real women which is why they are uncanny and disturbing.
>>724019792I don't think you know what is a rotating pixel, that's what pokemon black and white did, and it was disgusting.
>>724048227It is real pixel art
>>724045470At that point, you're getting into traditional animation territory, with all the problems it entails.
>>724010590>>724009149It's because indie games don't have a restrictive colour palette, so although they look 'nice', they rarely have any colour cohesion.
>>724009149It looks like a soulless AI slop version of the real deal.
>>724048480also known as a "rixel"
>>724009149It's almost always a problem of inconsistency.
look outside looked amazingalso like 2 chinese games this year with pixel art, back to the dawn and wandering sword
>>724009149>fucked up color palette>HD UI>bloom>copy pasted shit everywhere>not a single empty space to breatheAI will save us from this slop
I don't play much indie games (the last one I played was Jenka's Nightmare) but does Rainworld count as pixel? A lot of pixel games look generic to me like OP and I'd like to see something that looks as good as it.
>>724009216Oh good, you faggots are going to start shilling your bullshit game in other threads now too.
>>724009149>non-pixel UI
>>724049697No it isn't, it's a poor mockery of it.
>>724009149In that picture at least>Retarded non-pixel UI>Washed out color palette with weak as fuck overly-blue shadowing to the point where the only solid black in the whole image is on the UI in the bottom right>Distinctly not-pixelly shadow effects (character/object blob shadows, fainter shadows cast by the cliffs)>shit absolutely everywhere, which both feels cluttered and makes the comparatively plain clifftops look out of placeA lot of effort obviously went into all the assets but it still feels all over the fucking place
>>724052069You're going to have to qualify that with words
>>724053894Pixel art implies limitations in color palette, format, size of file etc...OP is a collage of separate pixel art element, but not pixel artand the palette thing make it more like "low res art" than pixel art
>>724009453this is hideous and the perspective is fucked
>>724054049>Pixel art implies limitations in color palette, format, size of file etc...It does not, the only qualifier is having a majority of the pixels placed by hand
>>724054182so anything drawn on photoshop without vectors is pixelart ?
>>724051567I don't even think it's faggots plural, pretty sure it's just the dev. He's been doing this forever.
>>724014537weird way to spell garbage
>>724048480BW uses regular sprite rotation at low pixel depth, nothing fancy there.
>>724054382Anything drawn pixel by pixel
>>724022235>this is what pokemon could look like if it was made by anyone who isn't completely fucking incompetent nigger level retardedit hurts
any pixel-artist connoisseurs got any 2-bit/monochromatic vidya recommendations?
>>724009149The GUI being of a different resolution is not the problem like some midwits in this thread will imply. The problem is that the GUI as a whole does not mesh with itself, let alone the world graphics.>Minimalistic design for the date/time stuff>Thick, bold lines for what I'm assuming are a backpack/inventory and recipe book? Along with what appears to be a dropshadow-esque thing on the right side of it for some reason.>Artwork with extremely fine linework for the items>The healthbar for some reason uses a maroon outline instead of blackYou can have an HD GUI in a pixel game, and it will be a little off but nothing too damning. But you cannot have an HD GUI that clashes with itself.
>>724010427>You've been conditioned by older pixel art games that a limited color looks bestpixel art was never a style. it was a hardware restriction. this looks just as bad as when people actually rotate pixel assets so that square pixels are diagonally slanted
>>724057123Yeah right retard. I guess that means oil paintings don't have their own style either, it only looks like that because of the viscosity of the oil and nobody in human history has ever taken advantage of that.
>>724056926World of horror
>>724056926Downwell
>>724042082Everything in the overworld would as good as ever at native 240p, but a lot of things related to battles like bullets and enemy word balloons would look blurry.
>>724009149>>724010590It's the color contrast. Bad pixel art has low contrast. All the classics that people love have very high contrast and lots of blacks.
>>724010427This is as retarded as saying>you've been conditioned by older movies that real life prosthetics, puppets, location shoots, practical effects look better when CGI is in fact far better
>>724015720I don't think this is even trying to look like a pixel art game. More like everything is a slightly different sized square or cube, even with rotation. Not the same thing as pixel art.It looks pretty nice. Fairly unique.
>>724056150>line tool never everi'm not gonna make it bros...
>>724009149Because you're playing at 1080p. The SNES ran at 256x224.
>>724009149People have made some good attempts in this thread, but I don't think it's really possible to nail down some specific thing that makes pixel art good and is missing in modern attempts. It's literally an art, not a science. Even if all of the individual pieces are technically correct that doesn't guarantee the whole is going to work out.Even if you ignore the possibility of people's artistic ability just generally being lower now (which I think is true), the older games that looked good generally had more of the things that were actually important. They had worse tech sure, but an old game likely had an experienced and skilled artist or team of artists dedicated to just doing the art, while the typical indie game has 1 or a few inexperienced people responsible for doing the art, writing, programming and everything else altogether. That matters a lot more than the tech involved.
>>724009149There's always too much of it.The old games that used pixel art, had hard limits on how many things they could have on-screen.
>>724009149>pixel art>goodNo.
>>724030798Depends entirely on the display and input. The left is the result of shitty consumer CRT and composite distortion; a high quality CRT with a lossless input like RGB/VGA would liok rhe same as rhe right.
>>724059429There's an old quote that I think came from the composer Shostakovich which goes something along the lines of:>"Limitations breed creativity"Because when you're stuck with limited tools and options you have to start getting creative to come up with ways to get around them. In the SNES days the hardware was so limited that you had to have a dozen tricks up your sleeve to get anything done. Did you know that most of the game file for the original Crash Bandicoot is actually blank space? The devs did it to force the game's files onto the inner rings of the disc because they realised it would lead to faster load times. Other dev teams were convinced the Crash devs had been given a faster PS1 devkit lmao.But nowadays there are no constraints on people making games. Like yeah I get it, budgets and time are things, but in terms of tech you can do whatever you want relatively easily. Then because there's no constraints that force you to get clever, games wind up having no sovlful solutions to problems players didn't even know existed and we just end up with yet more mediocre soulless slop on the pile.
>>724042082Deltarune isn't a true 240p game, it would look like shit at 240p.
>>724044441>>then>>pixel art done by a team that works on pixel art and nothing else>>now>>pixel art done by one dude called Pixel who also does the entire rest of the game
>>724014630>>724009149Inconsistency of the sprites resolutions will always look bad, that's why they won't look good on crt or crt filters
>>724015720>X of YSounds like a Play Store game.
>>724060940Cave Story is the Seinfeld of indie games. If it released now, it'd be a niche product instead of a blockbuster.
>>724061232Sure, but that's only because it wouldn't be discovered under the heaps and heaps of its own imitators. It's still a prime, high quality example of that type of game, it's not like it has become outdated or been completely surpassed or anything.
>>724009149I fail to see the issue here. Maybe not enough shading. Eastward had many problems, its art style wasn't one of them.For the love of God, don't buy the game.
>>724009149>pixel art except all the icons and ui are modern looking
Video games would be so much better if online stores had fucking standards.>Every game has to pay $2000 to apply to be on the store>Three goobers in QA play the game for a day>After a day they get together to discuss it then give it a thumbs up or downThe goobers are paid for by the $2000, plus that much money up front would filter out devs who aren't serious about what they're doing. Online stores are so fucking bad holy shit.
>>724061232it would still do fine if it was released today because it's a quality gamesure it wouldn't be as famous as it was, but still fairly successful
>>724061795>>Three goobers in QA play the game for a day>>After a day they get together to discuss it then give it a thumbs up or downso getting your game on the store relies on a bunch of troons approving itgreat idea
>>724062378>MeHey guys I think online stores should have higher standards>YouTRANNIES TRANNIES TRANNIES TRANNIES TRANNIES TRANNIES TRANNIES TRANNIES
>>724062484you are retarded, I am a realistit's obvious they would hire trannies for the job
>>724009149If I could poof one artstyle out of gaming I'd consider picking pixel art Anything painterly is on thin ice
>>724063151Just remembered 3D anime exists nvm you're safe pixelfags
As long as it doesn't have better then ps1 graphics and is turn based all pixel games are good. Anything beyond that is not a video game simple as.
>>724056562To be fair, the game couldn't be anywhere near his detailed on an actual gameboy, and if they released a game that looks like this on a much more powerful console like a DS, people would be bitching about how Pokemon is still behind the times as always.I think the Pokemon's Sprites was always pretty good for the respective hand-held generations, shit hit the fan once they were forced to make 3D Models.
>>724061795Although I agree with you that higher standards would result in a healthier industry, like >>724062378 said having 3 people control what is or isn't able to be published is not the right way to do it. There'd be too much personal bias and chances for malicious actors.
I think sometimes something simplistic is just fine, trying to make a simple arcade game.
It's incredible the insane hatred /v/ has for pixel art even though people here whine all day about zoomers and how they can't play anything that isn't on 4K
>>724067597Anon there's a middle ground come the fuck on
>>7240509912.0 release SOON
>>724062484You exhibit way too much trust in authority, probably because you think they would agree with you. Chances are they wouldn't.
>>724043213if this is true im dropping it
>>724031187thats not how it should look on a crt at all retard.
Pixel art used to be made by teams of high-tier artists of which were professionals. A team would be split into various parts, like two people doing structures, two doing G/UI, three doing environment, three doing characters etc. Now it's one guy doing it all, and often, doing all of that + making the rest of the game. It's a recipe for said art to not be good. They aren't specifically trained to be an artist first. It was a necessity and limitation invites and breeds genius. Such limitations are long-gone, ergo so too is said invitation.
>>724010919Sprites are too big for a proper 640x480.The problem with a lot of these indie games is that they design around retarded resolutions. Pixel art is fantastic at low resolutions because that's where you can mask or hide a lot of issues. Single pixel changes still matter, things like sub pixel animation can do a lot and the mind can fill in the gaps. What indie devs should be doing is design the game around a small internal resolution and then scale up to modern resolutions. Instead, you end up with retards designing around 720 or 1080 screens space and now they have to increase their workload because they have a ton of space to fill now with their backgrounds, and their sprites have to get bigger to be more readable.Sonic Mania did it right by having an internal resolution of 424x240 and theb designing their game around that screens space.
>>724056150What exactly does that mean. Elaborate.
The CRT filter debate seems completely overblown and only boiling down to taste. It's also always the same footage that is shown here.
>>724009149Looks too bright/washed out. Pixel art always seems to look better with a darker and more saturated color palette
>>724009149>>always feels off, even when it's goodit's the non pixel art ui
>>724009149Works in my brain.
>>724009149Way too many colors and mediocre handle on a pleasant color scheme. Usually falls apart where they aren't directly aping something else (usually Minish Cap for some reason, nowadays also Stardew Valley which is a double whammy personally because I don't particularly like Stardew Valley's artstyle), leading to an inconsistent feel. In this one also the UI is abhorrent and looks like it belongs to a completely different game.All that said it is usually not completely unserviceable, but it just doesn't measure up to the greats.
>>724014630Anything if you play with a magnifying glass. Otherwise no.
>>724030798Theoretically. CRT displays varied wildly and the devs were most definitely not doing ninjutsu to create art that looked best when smeared on any old CRT. Besides that, if you view the graphics from 5 feet away, even crisp pixels blur well enough in your vision for it not to matter. But in specific instances it clearly does look better on a CRT.It is telling this effect was "discovered" only during the twitter era. Literally no dev ever discusses it during the 90's.
>>724020000I do not understand why they had to do the "let's ape Minish Cap" character design pipeline. The backgrounds look quite fine.
>>724072880>It is telling this effect was "discovered" only during the twitter era. Literally no dev ever discusses it during the 90's.Wrong
>>724011615Now post one of the later areas from Hotland or The core.
>>724009149>>always feels off, even when it's goodyou probably have some form of mental illness or just weren't raised correctlyNot much you can do about it, maybe try therapy?
> game has a pixel art style> the UI is NOT pixel art> the different icons in the UI are even in completely different artstyle and non of them are pixel art
>>724065414Malicious actors? How?>Heh, I snuck your dogshit game that won't sell a single copy through QA, now you're going to make billions just like NotchObviously games from big publishers would get an automatic waiver.Look dude I just want to be able to buy games from Steam with confidence again. I literally cannot buy games anymore because everything is a clone of a clone of a clone of a game I've already played, or some low effort slop.
>>724009149I thought all video games were pixel art what type of art is there for video games?
>>724075189>Malicious actors? How?Assuming you're serious, you're putting 3 people in charge of whether a game gets published or not. A good faith actor would make that decision based on the quality of the game. A malicious actor would make that decision based on other factors. E.G, "Oh this game doesn't have DEI so I'm not letting it get published">Obviously games from big publishers would get an automatic waiver.Who decides who gets a waiver or not? Is Team Cherry a big publisher? What about Data Design Interactive, who published dozens or hundreds of games like Ninja Breadman which are all shovelware but made it on actual consoles like the PS2 and Wii, do they get a free waiver for their slop?What I'm saying is there's not an easy solution. I agree things should be better but if there was an easy answer then it would have been done already.
>>724009453This looks like shit
>>724076348Vector baby
>>724077817God you're so fucking asinine. People in the working world never do the things you're paranoid about them doing. You'd know this if you'd ever had a job.
>>724009149>mixelsOH NO NO NO
>>724009149I always felt this way about Stardew Valleyit looks like its cobbled together from the tilesets of three different games
>>724077964I can't tell if you're serious or trolling. There are countless examples of exactly things like that happening both in the video games industry and elsewhere. I work in Medical IT and there are racial policies in healthcare to give preferred treatment to people based on skin color or label. I don't understand how you could not have noticed unless you're being deliberately disingenuous or are just in denial.
The only sprite art I prefer is Gameboy (Color), but I've noticed that even indies have this refusal to use dark blacks. Why are they all so fucking queer?
>>724009453It looks like someone tried to make a game out of the trans flag.
>>724078556You don't work in shit except rolling in your own excrement and lying on the internet.
>>724037660This is the reason, the audience aged out.I grew up listening to gen X retards wanking about (S)NES games. They loved pixel art indie games and I was always whatever about it. Then when people started making PS1 style games something activated in my brain, I'm so nostalgic for that era I still want all games to look like PS2. I can't really imagine what style zoomers will reach for because they have no real overriding character to their childhood games.
>>724078725I don't know where it started, but modern/indie pixel homos have this idea of 'never use true-blacks' in your pixel art. ConcernedApe (forgot his real name) specifically says this for Stardew Valley; he never uses true-black in his work, but can use close (e.g. dark purple, dark green etc).
>>724062484He's right. Entryism would turn it into an ideological approval process instead of a quality approval one.
>>724080385>I don't know where it startedI remember seeing these kinds of tutorials for colored outlines. I think retards took it to extremes and thought it meant to never use black anymore.
>>724081120I wish the character design was better. I especially dislike it when indies draw faces as a blank rectangle. Everything else is great.
>>724034751Yeah but that doesn't make up for Iconoclasts feeling like three half baked games in one.
>>724078130Sovl
>>724082756>just use body type 1 for everything, otherwise the troons will get suicidal
>>724009149No it doesn't, but I suppose there's no way to make a thread where people actually reply in /v/eddit by saying that
>>724009149Overdetailed, can barely find what you're supposed to look at.Despite the UI not being consistent with the look of the game by being high res, it blends into the game itself, so it's harder to readIt looks like shit on bigger screensAnd because I played some of it I already know too that it's overanimated and they tried too hard with the idle animationsThis pixel artist belongs on fucking deviantart and nowhere else.
>>724010427>>724037450>>724015114Limits literally look better, they harken back to the origin of the medium and feel genuine, it's why movies only feel real in 24FPS while 60FPS movies look like cheap soap operas, even though 60FPS is technically more advanced and impressive and closer to real life
>>724022235>1124x1132Anon, what are you doing?
>>724018301Yep even in photography. Which is weird. I really despise seeing all these fucking photos even in places like /p/.
>>7240091491. With virtually no limitations on how art can look in-game, pixel art just doesnt look the sameEven if you try your best to replicate the limitstiond of a specific system, you run into 2. Modern pixel art is super inbred. Some 20 years ago some guy came up with an artstyle and now modern pixel artists are trying to replicate replications of that stsyle. Old games had a pretty wide varriety of style when it same to pixel art, modern games? Not so much.As a pixel artist myself, the lack of stylistic variety within the space drives me insane.
>>724009149its because of clashing/inconsistent styles/techniques.
Rate my pixelated protagonist.
>>724019380>>724011767>>724021376In Alundra's case it was because it was it was localized by Working Designs, the original troonslators who barely spoke Japanese, inserted Reddit jokes and also made gameplay "adjustments" fucking up games for no reason. If you see their name on an English version of a game then stay the fuck away.
>>724018301>gamers: give us contrast>devs/artists: noWhat causes this behavior? I'm almost gaslit into believing I'm a minority but anyone I talk to agrees that everything looks washed out now. Why is it only the people who make the art disagree?
>>724084938Would vore
>>724084938Skip or reduce the silver wobbling ballElse it's fantastic and really cool. Basically blue dragon goku
>>724084938pretty good
>>724082409sovl soulless
>>724078119>mixelsGayest word I've ever read
That's because it's made by chinks.
>>724084551i remember when hyper light drifter first came out, i thought "this is the future of pixel art". i still think it's a clever modernization of pixel art, just unabashedly unrestricted colors with color gradients on nearly everything, and it works because the flat shading gives the gradients room to breathe and add their own visual interest. eastward has far better pixel art in a traditional sense but the modern effects added on top look like complete dogshit.
>>724086038It's the buckle on his helmet. And thanks!
>>724083776>Limits literally look better, they harken back to the origin of the medium and feel genuineI think a lot of that depends on a person's perspective though. 24 FPS looks "better" than 60 FPS for films because that's what everyone currently living grew up with and expects an expensive film to look like while 60 FPS is digital video which low-budget stuff is shot on so people associate with cheap. That's why no one's asking for games to be 24FPS, people are used to 60FPS being the quality standard there.Similarly, pixel art can appeal to people who grew up with pixel games, but does it have the same appeal to people who didn't? Higher quality 2D work is like the 60FPS of film, it was used in many cheap flash games so people think it feels cheap. But for players who didn't grow up with that, would non-pixel 2D art still feel cheap?
>>724087045Like it a lot. Hope his character suits his looks. He needs a fierce side.
>>724084938Looks a lot like scaly Sparkster to me. Take that as you will.
>>724084938Is this AI?Looks really good either way. The pilot's hat and scarf are nice design elements to make it stand out from a standard dragon. The rounded nose and lower tooth standing out makes him look more cartoonish/goofy/silly (an upper tooth pointing down and more angular face could make for a good fiercer looking dragon).
>>724009149Sea of Stars looks better than games it's inspired by.
>>724085494Isn't that an issue with modern 3D rendering engines? I think it's an issue with Unreal Engine 5 at least.I'm on your side though, I don't think you're a minority but I don't know how many players would be able to articulate this or point to why modern games look worse without a side-by-side comparison like that.
>>724087653shame the game sucks
>>724009149Old pixel art was a byproduct of the platform's RAM, CPU and GFX limitations. Modern indies don't have those limitations so they do flash-style tweening, overtly complex color palettes that don't stick to 4, 8, etc. colors only and they mix and match resolutions.If you play games on the Pico-8 you'll notice that a lot of these issues go away because the Pico forces limitations on you, but indies still tend to oversimplify graphics to save time. Games in the 80s never looked like they did in the "2014" example in this meme, but indies keep pushing it as "omg so retro".
>>724088012Chuckled at that image, thanks for posting it anon
>>724087785There are a couple of good ones coming. I found three good ones coming next year.
>>724022497It's from the Johto redrawn collab.
>>724087489Rocket Knight Adventures was was a huge influence on me, so that checks out.>>724087548It's not AI, and I take that as a compliment too. I've just been working on this character for years, refining and improving. I've got some plans for villainous dragons, so I'll keep those design notes in my back pocket. Thanks!
>>724080385>>724082409I mean, yeah you shouldn't use TRUE black on your sprites. That should really be more reserved for background artwork. A value closer to back should be for your sprites. You see this a lot in old SNES games. It helps your sprite stand out in dark backgrounds. I agree though that Indie devs take this way too far and just straight up refuse to use any black shades like at all. There's assault on outlines has also been devastating as that image shows.I think the problem with modern pixel artists is that everyone seems to be learning from the same set of tutorials. No one really seems to be experimenting. The people that do only do using modern techniques with shaders and lighting. There doesnt really seem to be an attempt in doing something at the actual pixel level.
>>724090468>I mean, yeah you shouldn't use TRUE black on your spritesWrong, black outlines are a given, and black drop shadows and crack ambient occlusion look great and highlight important parts of the sprite
>>724090817What game is that?
>>724090965Vikings on Trampolines
>>724084938>>724087045Learn sub pixel animation techniques. Your head looks stiff
ITT: Zoomers and alphies who saw GBA Pokemon one time on a Youtube video, and think that every pixel art ever should look exactly like it, or it's whatever slang they're using for "bad" that day.
>>724090817>Wrong>Proceeds to post an image that does exactly what I said you should doLook at the values retard. I just went through the values and true black isn't used once here. The darkest shade here is 110C06.
>>724091773Truly a world of difference equal to what the image in >>724082409 suggests
>>724092905>>724090817>dithering and thousands of individually placed coloured pixelThat game must have been hell for artists to animate characters.
>>724093410It's a party game with 10 characters and 10 stages tops and it's taking 10+ years so I'd say yeah
>>724091324subpixel makes it look worse
>>724083891>non 1:1Anon what are you doing
>>724081120this hits the spot. the high contrast makes it stand out among a sea of quirky pastel indie pixel games I tried searching about the dev but there's not much https://dead-imagination.itch.io/reinbo
>>724050991Look Outside was made by the same dude who did the original art for Barkley so he's had well over a decade to practice
>>724092905It is a world of difference. Pixel art is all about subtle changes making massive differences.What the hell are you even arguing about? They're doing exactly what I said you should do. Not use TRUE black.
>>724051467anyone?
>>724087045Can he fly?What's his name?Is the a girl version with a pink bowtie instead of the aviator goggles?
>>724096115You're telling me you seriously believe that anyone could easily and meaningfully discern these from true black even when isolated against black, let alone on a busy sprite against a colorful backgroundEven on your image the near-black outlines disappear and meld with the black background and I have a color accurate monitor, and the same happens on my OLED phone
>>724022235Based
>>724096765Yes, I am telling you that and it sounds like you need your eyes checked. All you've done is post things backing up my claims. I'm also assuming you lack reading comprehension. I don't agree that the Aesprite rework looks good, I said it was devastating. Vikings does it right.At this point you're just arguing for your own ego. Continue fuming like the retard that you are.
>>724009453This looks like ass. Either simplify the background or make it less vibrant cause otherwise everything just blends together
>>724085494>>724087656they quite literally don't color-gradethank god for shit like renodx etc...
>>724009149That’s because despite having pixel art more indie games aren’t specifically trying to look “retro” and thus do a lot of things that old school games just COULDN’T. And the games that DO specifically try to look retro tend to have less experienced artists who by extension are less likely to perfectly ape old school limitations while also looking good
>>724087045How are you going to do his flying? I'm interested with this fella
>>724009149>pixel based world>hand drawn UIThis just offends my autism
>>724036745Brother if nobody wants to play your game period then yes, it's a decent measurement of quality.
>>724009149UI is high fidelity (dev couldn't be bothered to get scaling looking good on bigger resolutions) so it clashes.Sorry, scaling is hard and it fucking sucks cock, but taking the easy way out makes it look worse. Clashes so bad here that it makes me think its an asset pack.
>>724011615It’s honestly wild how despite having the same artstyle deltarune looks significantly better and more polished than undertale
>>724057123>Pixelart was never an artstyle>It was le limitations and nothing elseExplain modern pixel games dipshit. Gunvolt and others use it as an artstyle, and if it can be used as an artstyle, then it IS an artstyle.
A lot of the games posted here have the same problem as AAA games. They think more detail = more advanced. This is even worse in pixel games because you're not given enough resolution to add the detail you want.
>>724098303Tony had money to hire actual artists for the whole game rather than portions of it.I still seethe at this fucking thing in Undertale.
>>724099132People get off to this child.
It started out as limitations but people became fond of it so it is an art style now. Something about the blockyness has it's charm and appeal. High or low contrast is up the artist, the main thing about pixel art is that it's low enough resolution art that you can make out the pixels somewhat and that everything remains perfectly squared. In order to do that, you need to scale up by whole numbers which can get tricky when deciding what resolution to make the game at.
>>724096685>>724097842His name is Cobalt. He can flutter and glide, but he can't fly on his own yet. He doesn't have a girl counterpart, but he does have a magician brother (Who can help him fly.)Conceptually, I'm planning a sort of M&L-like. An RPG with a heavy on action commands for attacking and dodging. Also two characters working together/splitting up to attack and solve puzzles..
>>724040293Who keeps giving these pixel games the most out of place UI possible? Is it a port thing?
>>724056926void stranger if you like pushing blocks
>>724094313
>>724100137The backgrounds look good and then the character looks like complete shit
>>724057123what about Symphony of the Night, a game on the PS1, a console fully capable of 3D graphics?
>>724099586Make a girl version and I will play your game
>>724099586Let me just say as someone trying to get into gamedev I absolutely hate how good these look because I'll never be able to make anything that compares. Why do you taunt me so?With that being said though, I did like the larger shot of Cobalt earlier better. At that small size it feels like a lot of the details blend in too much. Like you can't really make out the pilot's hat well compared to the hair, the swinging buckle looks like it might be part of the hair, and the scarf is harder to distinguish from the body bands and looks like it might be a collar. Similarly the magician's hands look like mittens or blobs and holding the magic staff just makes me think of the Spongebob episode where Patrick shoves a fishing net through Squidward's hand.Overall I think you have a very nice design aesthetic though, it reminds me a lot of Spyro and as someone mentioned earlier Rocket Knight Adventures and just that era in general. I'm assuming it's an all ages game? Seems like the kind of thing that could be someone's childhood favorite.
>>724099858The grey in the font makes it hard to read
>>724009149>even when it's goodits never good
>>724101963Don't get discouraged. A lot of it really is just practice and studying sprite styles from games you like. My early stuff was pretty terrible before I learned some fundamentals. Pic related.I usually do try to present my sprites at 2X resolution. I just forgot to upscale the one of him and "Geo" before posting it. I'd repost it, but I'm already humiliating myself with my ugly early sprites on this post.Like I said, it's somewhat Mario inspired. I want to make something that's simple enough for anyone to get through, but also have enough depth to reward getting good at it.
>>724103858I feel like people with artistic talent always underestimate how much talent they have. You might be surprised at how many people can't even do anything as good as the first one there (myself included).Are you trying to solo dev the whole thing yourself? That seems possible if you can do the art side, since the presentation seems to matter the most for indie games to stand out in the crowd.
>>724009149well because it isnt a video game it's a group therapy session that is sold to an audience by uncurable narcissists
>>724009149>background has depth and detail>characters are flat >UI is retarded and doesn't fit in any way or formI like hotdogs, but I also like ice cream, but when I mix ice cream and hotdogs I am revolted by the sight, smell and taste.
>>724009149what is even going on this image, it doesn't make any sense
>>724009453for nes pixel art it looks good, which means it looks like shit
>>724104150Maybe so, but I do think that it's something that can be learned and improved.Solo dev? Mostly. We'll see how it pans out the deeper in I get. I'll probably look into getting a musician to help out with the soundtrack. For now I'm just trying to take it one sprite and one Gamemaker tutorial at a time.
>>724104985Undertale was made in GameMaker and your sprite art already looks way better than that. Good luck with all the other aspects of game dev!Also I genuinely think those 2x sprites look a lot better than the smaller ones, the little details in them are a lot more legible.
>>724099297That's me. I am people.
>>724099132the way this one looks shitty feel authentic somehow and i can't put my finger on why
>>724106424You're just retarded
>>724078725well black on a gameboy didn't look pitch black either.
>>724099132vastly overhated sprite. not the worst thing ever by a long shot.
>>724086323God damn this looks good.
>>724104150I've seen this happen a lotI'm one of those people who struggle with drawing anything coolpic rel is me trying to draw skeletons (with some odd artifacting on the heads that I didn't put there)
>>724108862No it doesn't
>>724108862thanks
>>724108971what don't you like?
>>724109090>>724109251Is this an actual game or just concept art? That style is top notch.
>>724097305Quick anon what are the differences between these fourNo eyedropper tool!
>>724009149>>724058430>>724011459
>>724009216Fuck you
>>724109320concept for now. Finishing up another game before moving onto this one
>>724109251Soft gradient, boring colors, uninspired designs, half-baked staging etc
>>724108964not sure why the image is for ants but here's a better one
>>724109090>>724109251I was having my reservations on the style personally but this looks fantastic in motion
>>724109676I hope it works out. Your animations are great.
>>724009149all the assets look flat here, like they're superimposed on a window looking at the world instead of being part of the world>>724009453vomit
>>724109676this is awesomelike old stickdeath stuff
>>724109790>>724109852thanks, simpler designs make it easier to animate with>>724109713I'll add more contrast
>>724109090>>724109251I'm not him and I think the characters and their animations look fantastic.this:>>724086323looks a bit flat and lifeless because the grass has no volume. we shouldn't be able to see the bottom edge of all those objects and their shadows because they should be occluded by blades of grass. the rock for example would benefit from cutting out sections of the shadow to indicate the presence of grass blades via negative space.the colours are also rather flat. the whole scene is lit by a campfire and moonlight, but everything has been coloured as if by overhead fluorescents instead. the log and the rock call for long dark shadows so they look really odd with their current lighting, as if they're floating above the ground.
>>724009149Pixel art in the early 90s was a product of technical limitations. You had legendary artists doing the best with what they had. If they could have made the art higher fidelity, they would have. Pixel art in the 00s and later is primarily for those blinded by nostalgia and a crutch for bad artists (I don't even buy the low budget excuse with all of the stock assets that are available). It's very rare that it's put to good stylistic use.I wish we had 90s aesthetics with modern graphics. More stuff like Dragon Quest XI. As graphics got better, we immediately transitioned into the dudebro era followed by the woke era.
>>724009149Lots of non-pixel art effects going on with the shadows (blurs and opacity effects). Also why the hell is the HUD not pixel art?
Backgrounds are too detailed, unironically. There is too much stuff happening on screen, you cant differentiate the player from the road to follow and the background. Everything blends together and you can't see what is what.Artstyle is important in games.
>>724110412Read the thread, buddy.
>>724009149My biggest pet peeve for indie games is having pixel art for the in-game elements but using vectors or high resolution images for the HUD. Makes it less of a deliberate stylistic choice and more of a "This is the best we could do." You gotta commit to the bit throughout like Shovel Knight, even your splash screens.
>>724009216Fpbp
>>724062178There are literally dozens of competent Japanese indie sidescrollers made by lone individuals that nobody has ever heard of., like Kokoro Clover. Even Kero Blaster's success is quite muted for one of the market segment's most celebrated artists.
>>724110327Ah gotcha, I'll try to redraw all the shadows and such.
>>724110125this is genuinely incredible dude
>>724039280Godamn I love Hyper Light Drifter. Shame about everything else that dev has ever done.
>>724009149I agree with the criticism that the protagonist needs to be the most interesting thing on the screen, and she's not. You could stick her down by the bench with a little boy and nothing about her would make you think that she's going to be important.The videogame industry needs a heavy injection of testosterone, which prefers idealization over relatability as a vehicle to create empathy. Even if she's not heavily sexualized (nothing wrong with that direction, BTW), her outfit needs to be more vibrant than that sack that she's wearing.>Why would a random little girl from some village going out to collect stuff have all those frills and accessories?Because she's the main character. Come up with some kind of excuse if you need one. If you're too dumb to create that excuse, maybe writing fiction isn't the job for you.
>>724020000It's crazy how little i remember about this game>The bug cant cope with not being a spider>Someone gets invaded>You die in the end?
>>724112025I only remember the visuals getting tremendously worse with the big frog coming up. Every time you hit it, it flashed so hard that it burned my retina and gave me eye pain. Dropped the game soon after. What a disaster.
this is a wip
>>724111835Samefag here.Coming up with those excuses is actually one of the most useful things about fiction. It's a safe place to brainstorm about hypotheticals. And then you can put those thought experiments into practice IRL. That's just one more reason why the terminally unimaginative, anti-intellectual, and chronically offended Reddit plebs need to be chased from the entertainment industry.
>>724019459Story is good, but the ending is controversial. I found it a very solid game. Much better than any Trails game that came out in the past decade for instance.
>>724111323thanks
>>724089160names, please?
>>724114398Yo Homie is that my briefcase?
I love you, devs. keep making your games, I'm gonna support them <3
>>724112559looks good so far but probably clean up your brush strokes on the head more. they shouldn't be so plainly visible and unedited like that if you're going for a pixel art style. pixel art means that at some point you have to tighten things down to the level of each individual pixel. simply drawing lines with a 1-pixel brush creates unintentional jagginess and weird, crusty shapes which you have to clean up at some point. that's a pretty large sprite too, so try to keep that in mind
>>724110125I have become a bit biased against "stick pixel men" (just a bit) but this is awesome and I wish I could envision the animation transition in my mind, I feel like even if I could draw it, I couldn't imagine the transformation in my mind.
>>724114398Awesome stuff anon, the colors on those goblins are a big improvement over what you posted earlier.
>>724109251>>724109090Can I have sex with her?
>>724111185>freeware released 20 years ago>slop released nowAnd it's still better than 99.9% of anything popular on steam lol
>>724009149I love Sam!
These nice pixel games are always boring to play for some reason
>>724012617> to recreate the look of PS1/N64 games while requiring 4,000x the hardware power.Soon that won't be the case.https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NfbNNeyiLGM
>>724071256>picSo that was their secret to do good pixelart? impressive.
>>724114671been years since I posted that and you're the first to get the reference >>724115305>>724115467thanks>>724115756eh maybe, I wanted to add a seduction mechanic to certain monsters.
Nintendo handhelds skipped right over amazing pixel art. GBA was the last chance before DS started chasing 3D.
>>724049882But those are different type of trees why would they share the colors?
maybe I'm an idiot but I thought the Alabaster Dawn demo had pretty nice pixel art
>>724107901I don't hate the sprite. Look at the eye.
>>724117968anon your DS Castlemanias?
sometimes I feel like posting my game here to showcase my amazing pixel art but I haven't worked on it for a while
>>724109676God I wish I could pay you to make ballbusting pixel art animations
>>724116619I firmly believe they ruined their entire marketing by releasing the game with such horrid promo art.Of course, Deltarune surprise dropping and sucking in all the discussion didn't help it either.
saars I just came to porno
>>724118974I don't mind that artstyle but the early concept art looks better, I would even watch an anime with pic related style.
>>724043213If this is true I'm going to play it kek
>>724116767i always felt that way about every Nitrome release
>>724019440>The story was great I agree.
>>724009149Not designed for CRT, not designed with limitations in mind, style depends, can be overdesigned or too generic as hell.
Starting to wonder what I missed out by not finishing Chained Echoes and Eastward before they got out of the Gamepass>>724117963question, do you think you can use your own animations as a sort of "armor" (in an animation context) to build upon if you want to add details to your characters?
>>724119864>question, do you think you can use your own animations as a sort of "armor" (in an animation context) to build upon if you want to add details to your characters?you mean like customizing characters? A naked version as a base then adding different clothes and such to it?
>>724110125>>724114398>>724117963>>724109676>>724109852Nice, glad to see more of your stuff Reinbo-dev. How did you get so good at animating anyways? Does low resolution pixel art lend itself to fast animation,
>>724120352>you mean like customizing characters? Not quite, rather if you wanted to have a different art style altogether for a character that performs the same motion.
>>724119864>>724120968>"armor" (in an animation context)do you mean 'armature'?
>>724121253ops yes, funny thing I wrote armature at first and then "corrected" it.
>>724120352Man this animations are so fucking good and fluid, good job anon and good luck in your projects
>>724120352I love it, somehow it reminded me of Carrion.
>>724014486>mixing pixels with vector artthis is the bigger offender>>724044650not him but you sold me, I'm gonna try it
>>724010427ignorant twat, you better be baiting
>>724044650Are you telling the anon to take a Hyke?
>>724123045CARLOS
>>724009149In this case, the smooth flash/mobile game UI clashes with the pixelated graphics.
>>724009149Because original pixel art is super simple. No colors clashing. Just something that stands on its own..Indies just don't do that..they think more is good so cramming so much color palettes on a screen will make it look good. Pic released. Look at this. This was the Gameboy.
>>724020024Because the real talent behind old-school pixel art retired long ago and what's left are Tumblrinas making cheap imitations of the real thing.
>>724009149when the fuck does this game get good? it looks nice but it feels boring as fuck, they should've added levels or some sense of proper progression maybe actual difficulty.it's wasted
>>724112997Yeah, no. I would rather sit through Lloyd and Rean's games all over again than this shit: >>724043213
Lack of contrast, camera too far from the characters and they don't have clear and distinct palettes, so they blend too much with the background.Those are some the things, but there is also the overuse of modern effects which more often than not can look pretty weird.I think it's also a problem because modern pixel art is done with higher resolutions, so what happens is that the sprites have a lot of pixels, so it's easier to lose track of some important art fundamentals.
>>724120968ah yea it's possible to do a different style, same animation method can be done with anything really. >>72412072810 years animating now. Yea the lower resolution makes it easier and quicker to draw stuff.
