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We're not actually drawing stick figures. We're drawing worlds.
With the advancement of technology, game art has evolved considerably over the last few decades. Every year studios push to offer the most cutting-edge graphics possible. While pixel art was at first used out of necessity—technology was not available to make higher resolution games—the art style has persisted to this day.
Many contemporary games have employed pixel art, and Indie studios are particular fans of the medium. Why is something so basic so popular? Haven’t we advanced pixel art? In reality, pixel art has stuck around because there are some things that it offers that other art styles cannot.
Your Player Versus the World:
For starters pixel art allows the player to judge distance and relative space exceptionally well. The low resolution of pixel art makes it easier for the player to conceptualize the size of their character relative to the rest of the game environment. In a pixel art game, the player should have no problem telling if they will be able to jump across a gap or squeeze through a tight area. This makes pixel art uniquely suited for several genres, including 2D platformers and Metroidvanias.
Artistic Accessibility:
Pixel art is also less taxing on the studio’s resources. Typically, it takes an entire art team to create the photo realistic graphics you would see in Red Dead Redemption or The Last of Us.
Meanwhile, a single developer could create all the art for their game if they were to use pixel art. Using pixel art may also make your game more accessible to players with worse hardware. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a top-notch graphics card, a powerful processor, and 16 GB of RAM. A pixel art game will run on most people’s machines. Accessibility is important!
10 (Style) Points for Gryffindor:
Finally, you may want to use pixel art for stylistic reasons. Pixel art is not old-fashioned. It is just another art style, and some of the most beautiful games I have seen have been made with pixel art. Maybe you want to capture a retro feel in your game, or maybe you just prefer a more abstract art style. If so, then pixel art is the way to go.
It is up to your taste and your vision for your game. Different art styles offer advantages and disadvantages, but none is superior to the rest. Impressionist painters like Van Gogh used lines and dots to create more abstract shapes, while Renaissance painters like Da Vinci painted with incredible detail. Both artists have had their work shown in the Louvre.
Consider how you want your game to play and feel, the resources you have at your disposal, and the vibe of your game, and then choose a style accordingly.
Game on,
PBJ, Jox Digital Educator
info@jox.digital
A Jox Thought: Do you feel that GIFs take away from the content? Or, do you feel that it makes the content more engaging and appealing? Would we be more inclined to answer if we were to see something we recognize from a game versus not?
Asking for a friend.
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