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[harkme]

It's easier and takes less time. I can see how you'd feel sick of it. Personally, I've felt very sick of short artistic flash games with a deep message. The market is simply saturated and so decisions that make sense pop up frequently enough to be recognized as a pattern.

[rek]

My guess:
1) Accessibility – it looks easy to do especially if you "aren't good at art".
2) Nostalgia – most game devs either grew up in the 8-bit or 16-bit era, or fans of the second wave fan games/JRPGs inspired by that era.
3) Ease – pixel art lends itself to tile-based games, which makes building levels a lot easier, gives you lines to stay within when drawing sprites, etc.

[Derek]

To the OP, I'd say look through the front page of TIGSource and TIGdb, and you'll see plenty of examples of great-looking games that don't use pixel art.

Also, here are some examples of nice-looking, detailed pixel art in indie games (and this doesn't include any of the fantastic doujin games that have great pixel art):

[vinheim3]

I think the problem is that it's been such a fad in previous years that so many indies have spent a lot of time practicing and perfecting it. So it's not something we can shoo away, but rather than sticking to the traditional "lofi" art, I think pixel artists should take their pixel art skills in different directions. Pixel art is a style of art, but it's not 1 style, there's different styles and we should see more variety in pixel art, maybe even a game that alternates between different pixel art styles often.

That being said, pixel artists or not,

3) Ease – pixel art lends itself to tile-based games, which makes building levels a lot easier, gives you lines to stay within when drawing sprites, etc.

I think it's much quicker to print off the size of your tiles, draw on them, then scan them back on. This especially helps with Isometric games, which I think people have a hard time pixel-art-ing for. Hand-drawn or painted graphics are something we need to see more of.

[Delicious]

Pixel art is dying, I say let the indie developers help keep us artists alive! 

[1982]

Hand-drawn or painted graphics are something we need to see more of.

Disagree.

Where you can see hand-drawn or painted graphics? Everywhere since beginning of human. Everywhere, all the time. At least let the games look like GAMES. That being pixel art, vector graphics, 3D,... To hell with the hand drawn crap.

[rek]

Hand-drawn or painted graphics are something we need to see more of.

Disagree.

Where you can see hand-drawn or painted graphics? Everywhere since beginning of human. Everywhere, all the time. At least let the games look like GAMES. That being pixel art, vector graphics, 3D,... To hell with the hand drawn crap.

That's unnecessarily harsh and, frankly, false. The modern visual world is dominated by computer graphics – fonts, vector logos, 3d graphics and effects, precise Pantone values, etc. The only place you're going to see lots of hand-painted signs are discount stores.

You've also excluded the possibility of non-hand or computer-rendered artwork in games. Photography and video (not photorealistic 3d models)? And what about sculpture (à la Clay Fighter)? You don't need to see pixels for a game to look like a game.

Then there's the matter of pixel art/lofi/vector art meant to look like loose hand drawings or paint brush strokes.

[ink.inc]

if it looks good who cares

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I haven't been on TIG in a while so I don't know if this has been adressed yet, but if it hasn't im happy to bring it up - because I know im not the only one thinking it. The problem is simple: too many games are using pixel art.

old topic is old (there have been like 3 other threads on this topic)

i think terry even once said that he partially chose vvvvvv's graphics style to spite me after he saw me say that indie gams have a retro-fetishism

[vinheim3]

Hand-drawn or painted graphics are something we need to see more of.

Disagree.

Where you can see hand-drawn or painted graphics? Everywhere since beginning of human. Everywhere, all the time. At least let the games look like GAMES. That being pixel art, vector graphics, 3D,... To hell with the hand drawn crap.

Ok I agree that hand-drawn/painted stuff is everywhere, and it has been for thousands of years, but computers haven't been around that long, and now that they're here, why can't some people combine them? Like paint an image, maybe touch it up a bit in Photoshop and apply it to game. It's like that one guy that combined 3D and 2D by creating a 3D model that can run and producing that running motion as an animated 2D image. It wasn't pixel art and it looked fresh too.

Also, I'd understand that there's hate with hand-drawn crap, but maybe it's because of badly-drawn games like "And Yet It Moves"? The way I see it, hand-drawn things are better for scenery/environments like in Bastion, and especially for what I've got envisioned for an Isometric project. Moving hand-drawn stuff looks harder to pull off, but it could be done.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think both can be done well and poorly, that's kind of obvious. aquaria was a very pretty hand-drawn 2d game, jamestown was a very pretty pixel art 2d game

[DavidCaruso]

Another reason pixel art is cool is that it gives the artist finer control and detailing over what the viewer will see at a micro level, and also because it's probably far easier to "fix" flaws in pixel art quickly than in painting or hand-drawn art (idk about vector but I doubt the best vector art out there looks nearly as good as the best pixel art, or if it did it would be largely impractical to create) even if you're foremost a programmer and not a great artist. The micro level of pixel art is also yet another reason to provide a decent TV filter or at worst huge black borders/resolution settings instead of just autoLegoing it up from 320x240 to HD 1080p thereby making sure the viewer can see every single huge pixel clearly and distinctly as its own colored rectangular entity instead of as a small part of a larger object, but that isn't supported as well in stuff like GM so I can understand not wanting to do that.

[gimymblert]

Unless a technique is limited in color and graphical element, almost any rendering is possible with. In theory it is possible to emulate any technique with vector art (and in the best technical art school you HAVE to do it in your first year, like SUPINFOCOM). But a technique is generally chosen because it ease some aesthetics effect or create new thought process.

So yeah vector art can look as good as any other technique, 3D is a kind of vector and you can emulate anything with it.

A portrait of Bar Refaeli, 2009
Based on a Garnier Fructis Photo
Technique: Adobe Illustrator, Vector Only

http://illustgarten.com/vector-art.html

Not as impracticable as it seems, but not easy and accessible either.

[jotapeh]

if it looks good who cares

[moi]

who cares

[Ego_Shiner]

if it looks good who cares

ok i was going to respond to a few other posts but this just fucking says it all

[Uykered]

Played Bit Trip Runner today for a few minutes, and was reminded of this thread. Text in the game was almost unreadable due to the "retro" style, couldn't bear it.

[1982]

if it looks good who cares

ok i was going to respond to a few other posts but this just fucking says it all

It might be the final truth in any aesthetics, but still, the conversation getting there is much more interesting and important.

[vinheim3]

if it looks good who cares

Yeah, I think very few care. It's been a norm for so long and there's been so many good artists, that you kinda expect it from an indie game. Nowadays, when playing a game, I hardly even notice or care about the graphics and focus on the gameplay. Like other people said, you truly recognize the problem when people start doing it wrongly, making bad pixel art. No offense to whoever made Minitroid or whatever it's called, but it doesn't look interesting at all, it looks all blown up and hard to understand what's going on.

It's sorta like what OP said,

Good pixel art is nice and I do notice it; but - and I hate to say it - when I see pixel art now I almost immediatly write it off as 'just another pixel art game.'

which is why when games like Bastion come out, this is the only time I really care or am impressed. Again, there's nothing wrong with good pixel art, but I don't think the discussion is about how bad pixel art is or whether it is good or bad, but like what other people were asking, what kind of art styles could we adapt to?

IMO, if you're not skilled in any art, it's a lot easier to get into printing off the size of a tile/environment, drawing on it, then scanning it back on, and would take much quicker time than trying and then doing good pixel art. There's also vector art, which I haven't seen many good examples of, but I'm sure some people can get skilled at that.


Also, there was one game that blew the whole lofi graphics version out of proportion. In the game, you can only see 8x8 "squares" and each square was made of 1 colour like some super blown out lofi game. I found this interesting actually, as it meant experimenting and restarting the game over and over and figuring out what each pixel means, which is complicated, but interesting seeing as it was an RPG. Taking notes definitely helps, especially with calculating where to go in order based on enemies. Anyone know what game this is?

EDIT: found it http://boingboing.net/rob/tinyhack/

[Elk]

I like this pseudo definition called lofi haha