Wait, are there going to be water physics?
There will be fluid dynamics, but
don't expect something on the level of Pixeljunk Shooter. Particles are horsepower hogs, even on modern machines, so we are going to keep the fidelity at a level that feels plausible without going overboard.
Every time I look this topic I become disapointed.... I understand, it's a big love for TIG - doing stuff in pixel art, but... Man, you're one of the people, who REALLY could make beautiful 2D, and you're converting awesome concepts into pixels... It's terrible...
Think about it that way: there are A LOT of pixelated indie games, but there are only few of them, which aren't drawn in pixel art. And forgive me if I'm wrong, but most of the popular indie games ARE NOT pixel art: Gish, World of Goo, Braid, Machinarium... It seems to me, just seems to me, that most of developers use pixels because they cannot draw as beautiful sprites, as they imagine them... You definitely are one, who could.
Well thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm not at all opposed to doing other art-styles, but there are good reasons why I chose pixel art for this project:
1) It's relatively fast and easy to keep consistent. If I was painting every graphic and sprite in high resolution with brush tools it would take a lot more time.
2) I have (some) prior experience doing game graphics in pixel art. This makes it a medium I'm a bit more comfortable with, and that helps me maintain the confidence to keep on top of such a large project.
3) Pixel art scales nicely. This game will allow the player to zoom in and out at will, and the fact that pixel art is intentionally made to look attractive even when the pixels are evident means it works to my advantage. Vector graphics would be really cool to work with, and I'd love to learn how to draw art with whatever tools The Behemoth and other studios/artists use (Castle Crashers, Boomlands etc), however I have zero experience with vector painting in that style, and to abandon a project for such a small reason doesn't make any sense. I can learn that stuff on a different game.
4) I like it. This is the most important thing. It's more important than anything else really, and it's good to remind one's self of that occasionally. I'm doing this because I like to see the results. Cliffski just posted a wonderfully well-timed blog post titled "This is why your indie game isn't finished" (
http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/?p=943). To quote reason #5: "Because you keep jumping platforms/ technology to keep up with whats trendy (d0n’t)". On balance, I'm guilty of a couple other reasons on that list...
So yeah, there are plenty of popular games that don't use pixel art, but for every one of those I'm sure I can quickly find other hits that did use it (VVVVVVV, Canabalt, Spelunky, Retro City Rampage...). Even if that wasn't the case, and every cool game used some other graphic medium, my inner contrarion jerk (let's call him The Prussian) would probably choose pixels just to flip off the masses. I'm sure it's my inner pleasure-seeker (let's call that one The Westphalian) that has much more to do with my choice; it looks good and it's fun.
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