The future of pixel art in games is looking crisp! Not too long ago, pixel art was considered an outdated art style. A relic of old hardware that we discarded. A wave of brilliant looking indie games has made one thing clear though - the details of pixel art are reaching levels the earliest developers could only dream of.What are the tricks behind pixel art, and why do so many artists choose to dive into its intricacies?
If you’ve ever built a house in Minecraft, you’ve already taken the first step towards becoming a pixel artist. It’s a simple matter of placing blocks next to each other until they make a cohesive picture. Like with any art form, it takes time to master. Our team’s artist
Simon S. Andersen spent the better part of a decade pixeling the world of
Owlboy, and didn’t even scratch the surface of the medium.
What can/can’t be defined as pixel art is often a topic of confusion. The easiest way to describe it is “Getting as much out of as little as possible". The challenge is to use the limitations posed by tiny squares to imply more than they seem to allow.
Pixel art becomes very interpretive in that sense. Colors at different placements can make a pixel appear half its size, or make an entire square block look spherical. When animating, we can trick the mind with sub-pixeling and subtle in-between colors, implying movement between two perfect squares. An arrangement of pixels can appear smooth and full of emotion, even though the artist is restricted to a square grid.
For some developers, pixel art is an easy starting point. To others, pixel art is a medium of many facets that can be improved upon.
In the early days, these tools weren’t a matter of choice. Developers were working on a limited pixel budget. A great example of this are
the old Sierra adventure games - riddled with shapes so abstract, players had to fill in the gaps with their own imagination.
Titles like
Wolfenstein 3D were pushing boundaries in different ways, merging the new horizon of 3D space with pixel sprites, giving them unique directions depending on where you viewed the flat images from to give the impression they had 3 dimensions.
Monkey Island,
Warcraft,
Heroes Of Might & Magic - pixel art was everywhere as it was a key ingredient to the hardware.
With time, the restrictions were lifted. With millions of colors to choose from, higher resolutions and the option to use hand-illustrated art or 3D models, there was less of a need to trick the eye. To let the player imagine more than they could see.
However, technology paved the way for new generations of graphics, built on the craft that came before. When limitations are removed, an artist can get really creative and find clever new ways to make their artwork shine.
Still, there are newer titles that harken back to the limitations of older hardware, keeping in line with specific color palettes or low resolutions. In a sense, these titles are trying to capture the graphical feel of the era they’re echoing, to create a game that never was.
Looking to new skies, there are titles that break with the restrictions of old, to try and discover new directions for pixel art. Be it higher resolutions, unrestricted color-palettes or taking advantage of new technology merged with old techniques. We’re in an exciting time where artists are starting to use the horsepower of their generation, finding unique ways to depict their worlds.
While working on our games,
we wrote about how pixel art has entered a new era thanks to the improved understanding of the medium. A new generation of artists is joining the field with some incredibly powerful tools at their disposal, bending the rules in entirely new ways.
What will the pixel art of tomorrow look like? That’s up to the artists' imagination at this point. To keep the medium moving forward, we need to keep experimenting and improving. As we venture into new territory, we’ll be exploring the modern relevance of pixel art, both to ourselves and our audience.
This week, GOG is hosting a slew of pixel art titles on discount, including our own game Owlboy - be sure to check them out. 