Advertisement

Pixel Game Nitpick or Not

Started by July 16, 2019 03:04 PM
2 comments, last by Kevind313 5 years, 5 months ago

Hey all,

I'm new here and had a random question that I only learned might be a problem recently.  I'm making a 2D pixel art platformer.  I have a character with a gun that shoots in all directions.  So I have one gun that rotates and points in the direction of the mouse or joystick.  The problem is, I just heard people talking about how it's wrong to 'break' or 'go off of' the pixel grid.  Which is when the pixel are rotated instead of making a new sprite and the pixels are no longer at a 90 degree angle.  Is this a nitpick that just makes the game look a little less polished or any eyesore that will drive away players?

 

the example below is not my gun, just the best one to illustrate the problem.

ball1.PNG

ball2.PNG

Hey, My name is Kevin.  Currently I'm a student at SNHU and am finishing up my degree in game programming in hopes to get a job in the game industry.  I live in the North East and know gaming jobs are rare so the idea of moving is something I accept.  I also enjoy creating artwork for games but I know that is one of the more crowded areas of the industry.

I think most if not all modern pixel art games break the grid here ant there, and likely the order of acceptance is like this:

 

Translation - break the grid to move sprites at full or subpixel resolution, not the low pixel art resolution. I;d say this is always welcome.

Rotation - (like your example) Can help with smoother animation, but is more easy to spot. Often used for particles. Sometimes welcome, somtimes not so much, but surely useful.

Scaling - I remember point and click adventure games that scale the character if it walks to distant places. The charater then has higher resolution than the background. And this really looks bad to me. I'd try to avoid it. Even Monkey Islands nearest neighbour scaling looks better.

 

I wonder how other people perceive this...

 

Advertisement

Thanks, I was thinking mostly the same.  Even some of my favorite games made in the last few years likely have it.  They're likely just good at hiding it or having interesting enough gameplay that I'm not looking for it.  I'd also have to agree that the scaling one is the most egregious and best avoided.  

Hey, My name is Kevin.  Currently I'm a student at SNHU and am finishing up my degree in game programming in hopes to get a job in the game industry.  I live in the North East and know gaming jobs are rare so the idea of moving is something I accept.  I also enjoy creating artwork for games but I know that is one of the more crowded areas of the industry.

This topic is closed to new replies.

Advertisement