Do you think pixel art is just an easy way out, or can it be nice?

>>322727856
It can definitely be done well. Even if it's not, sometimes indie devs don't have the resources to make good graphics. If it's just one guy who's good at programming, I'd rather have a fun game with kinda terrible graphics than none at all, y'know? Like, Mega Man 2's graphics aren't great, but it's still fun as hell.

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>>322728121
I'm making an RPG right now and I'm trying to decide between SNES type graphics or something high resolution but simple like this

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>>322727856
I feel it's most important that a game has an art direction. You can have pixel art but no art direction, just as you can have AAA unreal 4 super cinematic graphics but no art direction.

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>easy way out

Shitty pixel art is shit, good pixel art is good, simply as that. It also applies for 3D.

>>322728317
Definitely don't use that.

>>322728317
dear god, do SNES

>>322728397
My friends thought that too, the nice ones said it looked cute which isn't what I'm really looking for. Gonna look at some sprites from Earthbound and Link to the Past.

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Fuck pixel art, I want more hand-drawn/painted games

Don't see why it can't be both. Low detail/res art can still be very appealing while also being much easier to draw and especially animate.

>>322728384
This desu senpai.

>>322728646
>pixel art
>easier to animate
Do people actually believe this?

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>>322728571
There is one coming for you this year

>>322728317
>something high resolution but simple like this

Horrible. I definitely recommend you don't do this. If you must, low poly high res 3-D characters are the way to go. See FF 3 remake

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Of course it can look good. Pixel is just a style and there are both good and bad examples. It all depends on the amount of work you want to put into it

>>322728783
>less shit to redraw
>therefore easier to animate
Makes sense to me, unless you're doing the vanillaware thing.
Or you're talking about pixel art vs 3DAUTOMATEEVERYTHING

>>322728806
Its that game with the weird giant rat?

>>322728902
My best friend can bang out low poly pretty easy, might ask her to do some of it.

>>322728910
vectors and motion tweens =/= redraw everything

>>322728783
Pixel art's low res, so of course it'd be easier to animate than high res, detailed art.

>>322728384
is this supposed to be good or shit

>>322728384
>that rotoscoping
>tfw you stared too long at the head

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>>322728571
so much this, i love those games so much
let's post some games like this that you can get on pc
ori and the blind forest
rayman origins
Tormentum Dark Sorrow
Pillars of Eternity(kinda)
Jotun
anything else guys?

>>322728923
Yes

>>322728910
>less shit to redraw
yes there are less pixels but those pixels all have to be precise vs the broad strokes of drawing

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>>322728317
>>322728525
Like I said, style and art direction man. What you just posted, even if you turned it into a SNES sprite it would still look like shit because the way the character is drawn just looks ugly. Don't just mindlessly copy Earthbound and Zelda. Even those game started with an idea of what it was supposed to look like before they made the sprites for it.

>>322729032
Youre fucking kidding, rigth?
If the answer is no, please, kill yourself.

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>>322727856
but pixel art is the reason why JRPG entering golden age. It simply give children more imagination, adult may see it as cheap in, but if you are children you are see more than pixel

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>>322729092
Thanks, gonna take a look on it.

>>322729098
That's a valid point, I have some drawings of what I want them to look like, I'll have to look up some concept art for those games and see how they transitioned.

>>322729091
Dreams

>>322729019
pixel art can be really detailed, though; look at metal slug

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>>322729032
He's praising 3rd Strike, but using a poor example.
This is from the same game, but done by hand rather than tracing a 3D model.

>>322729231
only on ps4

>>322729284
Most of the detailed stuff in Metal Slug is animated with tweening not frame by frame redrawing though

>>322729474
It appeared on SteamDB if that means anything

>>322729187
Those games started with sketches in their design documents, and they had to adapt those designs to fit into the technical limitations of the time.

We don't have those limitations nowadays, but you might have limitations based on what engine you're using and how much money and manpower you have available. You have to think very carefully about what you want the game to look like and carry that on to what the final game will look like. Maybe make some concept art of what you want characters/locations to conceptually be, then maybe some in-game screen mockups based on what you think is possible and then ask yourself (and others) if that looks good.

Because the dude that you posted up there looks like shit. But if you drew him in a different art style, even keeping the same shitty neon colors, he might end up looking better.

>>322728317
I think it actually looks OK if you can pull it off. Check out rimworld, they did a good job with low detail graphics.

>>322729725
I'll try some of that shit out tonight, maybe just redesign the characters.
I really appreciate all the advice, saving this thread.
>>322729813
Appreciate it, but I think I'm gonna go with pixel art.

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>>322729536
Mario and Luigi then.

>>322729883
That's tweening too, senpai.

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>>322728571
I think Aquaria is a nice middle ground, with the whole "hand drawn paper dolls" style of animation they went with.

It helps that all the monsters and backdrops are utterly gorgeous

Lazy pixel art is the problem, not specifically pixel art.

Pixel art can be just as time consuming and difficult as other stuff if it's not lazy.

Undertale is an example of lazy pixel art. I like the game, but that shit is lazy.

Doesn't matter though because lazy pixel art is forgiven immediately because of constant sympathizer saying "it's the style".

No. It's lazy.

>>322728571
what game is this, senpai?

>>322729959

Yo, aquaria is so fucking good, I almost finished it but had to stop playing it long ago.

I should fucking replay it.

>>322728571
>implying pixels aren't hand-drawn

>>322729950
M&L games do use tweening and rotating (not a huge amount though), but that specific animation does now.

>>322730076
Same thing happened to me, but I finally took the time to beat it and 100% it a while back.

You really should do so yourself. I don't know where you stopped, but shit gets bonkers at the end.

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>>322728923
Wait that minecraft rat guy is making a game?

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>>322729878
You're welcome, good luck man.

I say the character design could turn out okay because it kinda looks like the dude from SMTIV final. That's not really a fair comparison though since SMT uses static portraits most of the time, so the concept art is sometimes literally the final in-game graphics.

>>322730046
Rack N Ruin, PC and PS4. Don't get it on PS4 though, apparently the controller controls are all sorts of fucked while PC M+KB is fine.

>>322729883
http://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/sheets/71/73995.png

Look at how many fucking frames his idle animation is, holy shit

>>322727856
both

>>322727856
Sprites are too huge.

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>>322727856

>>322729959
>tentacle inside mouth
>that tear
muh dik

>>322729950
axactly
in order to do quality pixel animation you have to take the time to painstakingly repixel every detail

>>322730514
You got it backwards. She's using song magic to sing something into creation.

>>322730414
what's the context of this?

>>322730340
I used to rip for tSR and I can tell you those are not the actual sprites. Those are arranged as they are seen for ease of re-use but the actual sprites are the individual leaves and lips and different bits. They just seem to have so many frames because 8 sprites mixed with 8 other sprites makes for a lot of different combinations and so forth.

>>322730514

She's singing you daft fucking cunt. The "tentacle" is her breath becoming a swirl of magic music.

Holy shit you're stupid.

>>322730879
I already knew that. It's a super common practice.
Doesn't make the animation any less impressive.

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I don't even get what op means by pixel art being an easy way out. Out of what?

>>322731005
>Doesn't make the animation any less impressive.
Speak for yourself, moving a few static sprites around is infinitely easier than redrawing every frame.

>>322730686
Neofags discussing #blocklivesmatter, it's the newest game to TRIGGER them. The socjus moderation team have already declared it a banned topic on Neofag. No need to worry about controlling the discourse to silence dissenting opinion when no one is allowed to discuss it in the first place.

>>322731108
Out of making actual art.

>>322731146
Look at the sprite sheet. It's more than just individual parts being slid back and forth.
Look at the animation where he wiggles his arms up and down. Each frame for his arms were hand drawn.
His legs shaking back and forth weren't just them using the move tool and shifting it over a pixel, his knees bend, his legs extend. That shit had to be hand drawn.

His mouth opening, his petals swaying, the crazy spin move thing.
They're all made from different parts, but each of those parts had to still be animated separately.

>>322731146
so that's okay for animation but no for sprites?

>>322729959
I actually think that if it were pixel art, Aquaria would have been way better.

>>322731738
Based on that image I agree.

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>>322730414
>>322730686
>>322731159

>>322731738
I disagree immensely. The art had loads of charm and the creepier segments wouldn't have looked nearly as unsettling if they weren't drawn.
>>322731828
I'm on my phone so I just grabbed the first image off Google. There's some really stellar locales in that game, though. Especially the Kelp Forest.

>>322732157
>I disagree immensely.
Enjoy your blurry garbage then.

>>322732297
Still less blurry than shit like >>322728345, which is apparently what passes for "good" pixel art these days

>>322732625
But superbrothers is garbage.

>>322728317
I'm going to be frank: that looks like total ass.

>>322732881
Fuck off Frank, I worked really hard on that. Sometimes I think assholes like you should get banned for ruining things for hardworking people :(

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>>322732047
Time to spend money out of spite.

>>322732047

This is the same forum that begs for video games to be taken as an art form.

When someone makes a game that reflects the current world events, they go ballistic and demand it be censored and banned.

>>322733696
Anon, what the fuck is that?

>>322727856
>easy way out
An entire game's worth of pixel assets is hard as fuck to make if the end goal is quality. With 3D models you don't have to redraw the character everytime you want to come up with a new animation.

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>>322733863

>>322733696
gift me a copy if you're buying multiple [email protected]

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>>322732297
Get a load of THIS blurry garbage.

>>322734298
Yes, anon, there is a distinct difference between those two art styles. Aquaria would have looked much better if it was done in this art style.

>>322728345
What game is that? Looks nice

>>322733863
JOHJ

>>322728345
Never understood why this game was so popular when it was so ugly. Maybe the gameplay or soundtrack were really good? I dunno the art style turned me off enough to never try it

I never thought myself a graphics fag, but Undertale is seriously hard to take seriously when half of the visuals is so poorly drawn. I have nothing against 8-bit graphics, but half the characters like protag is so fucking lazily done it's repulsive.

>>322735332
Is replacing the sprites with something like in >>322727856 actually possible, if someone made an entire replacement spritesheet?

>>322728384
>>322729412
Both of these characters have legs that stretch out of proportion in some frames.

>>322735485
I have no idea how the gamemaker source files work. But in theory, I guess.