next »

[Royal Den Studios]

Hello all! I would like to start by saying I feel cheated by other games with pixel art graphics and great art. Before anyone asks why ill explain, ill be taking Hyper Light drifter and Moon Hunters as the focal point as the style closely matches that of my own game. Although these games seem cute and bright with there pixel art there's more than meets the eye. Sadly these two use some type of lighting. Moon Hunters, being made in unity, uses 3D lighting while hyper light drifter, made in Game Maker, uses gradients and fake 2D lighting to give off the allusion of lighting. I'd like to ask your opinion on whether or not this is a good idea. I personally am not to fond of using gradients for the reason that editing sprites would be a waste of time. 3D lighting is not an option as I am using Game Maker. If anyone has any tips and tricks I would be glad to hear them as well as any Art Design directions for games in general. I apologize in advance for the length of the post also if I posted in the wrong area.

[SpaceGoat]

A perfectly fine idea to use gradients and other visual tricks to get an effect. Who knows, a new style might emerge from experimentation. I have been admiring these games as well, that push the idea of what pixel art can be. I will try to see if I can implement some filters and gradients in my own project to try and get a feel not unlike satellite rain.

[xchen]

I'd suggest switching to Unity. Way more robust and tons of tutorials coming out all the time.

[ProgramGamer]

I'm pretty sure you posted in the right place, so don't worry about that too much. Also don't worry about the length of your post, as I read text walls all the time. I would recommend breaking up your paragraph into focused points though, it helps organize your ideas and squeeze every ounce of conciseness out of your post.

First thing first, don't feel obligated to obey the laws of pixel art in any way, shape, or form, especially because you're making a game and it makes it feel and look better. Even old game machines would "cheat" limitations with palette cycling and pseudo 3D, so don't feel cheated by modern graphical bells and whistles. What really matters is having a unique style and being consistent at producing assets in that particular style, whether or not you're doing pixel art.

That being said, if you lack the technical know-how to reproduce these effects in Game Maker, there are many ways in which you can emulate light and gradients without implementing a lighting engine and whatnot. Think about what role light plays in the style of your game, and design your assets around that. I know it sounds a bit vague, but I can't really give you a concrete example right now because I don't know much about your project. My point is there are many shortcuts and workarounds you can use to make your game look good without having the latest bloom engine integrated into your game.

I hope this helps and don't hesitate if you have further questions!Cheers!