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[Glyph]

I remember all the old games I used to play- Super Metroid, Super Mario World, etc. I couldn't see them looking any other way and still being nostalgic.
So maybe why I like pixel art so much is the nostalgia I feel, and maybe kids can't appreciate that because they didn't grow up on it.
(Not that it's inappreciable on its own)

[superflat]

I couldn't honestly say, I'm far too old to know!  I do feel that kids are more likely to love a concept than an aesthetic though.

[Powergloved Andy]

(Andy, maybe your 2D game selection is boring! What does your sister enjoy on DS?)

New Super Mario Bros, and Animal Crossing! Which astounds me that she wouldn't want to play SMB or Castlevania!!

[Paint by Numbers]

Is there anyone exploring that N64 aesthetic? Sure, lots of people do pixels, but does anyone really make games in ultra-low poly anymore? I think it would be fun to explore.

I really love the bad-3D-graphics/low-poly look, and I would try to do a game in it if it weren't for my non-existent 3D programming ability. That said, I would really love someone else to try this idea.

On-topic:
I think that kids just don't have the game experience to really understand that pixel art isn't "bad". I'm sure lots of them would enjoy it if the mainstream game media didn't make such a big deal over very advanced graphics and modern styles of gameplay (read: 3D).

This entire topic is depressing. 

[JaJitsu]

I showed my 7 year old brother this:


He said he liked the right because it looks "more better"
I asked him why and he said it looks like a real body.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think he's right though -- that pixelated one is amateur pixel art -- you should compare good pixel art to something and see what he says

[Radix]

Little kids have dumb little kid brains and up to a point higher resolution art makes it easier for them to tell what's going on. Beyond that, from what I've observed they don't really give a shit about the finer points of pretty much anything we care about, and view games in a completely different way to real people.

[JaJitsu]

that pixelated one is amateur pixel art

[Aquin]

Unlike your theories and anecdotes, I have some real statistics to back up my following claim.


Kids like old games just as much as adults do.

When I was running my store, people could have their pick of the litter.  You could play any game on any system.  Yeah, I had a lot of adults and kids running to play CoD4 on the X360, sure.

But I also got a lot of little kids wanting to play Super Mario Bros 3 on the original Nintendo.  

I dunno about pixel art and graphics and what-not, but the old games hold just as much appeal to the young as it does to the old.  And, having said that, I know a lot of old customers that outright think pixel art looks stupid and prefer the 3D realism.

So I'm pretty sure age isn't a factor either one way or the other on pixel art.

[Loren Schmidt]

Speaking of pixels, and this may be slightly off-topic, it really disappoints me how often pixel art devolves either into nostalgia or just a clever way to mask terrible programmer art.

This is definitely a trap that's worth watching out for. But to look at it from a more positive angle, pixel art is a readily available, economical art style. It can be expressive or appealing in a simple way without requiring ridiculous amounts of manpower. That's very enabling for people who don't consider themselves visual artists. Personally, I think it's great to see people who consider themselves non-artists creating visual art.

More on topic, it's interesting to me that some venues (mostly the DS and cell phone games) are still very pixel art friendly, while others (The iPhone and PSP) tend not to be. Though from a design perspective I have complete respect for low fidelity games, it's surprising to me that all of these platforms seem to be well respected by the broader population.

[The-Imp]

that pixelated one is amateur pixel art

:D

Anyway, on the topic of children and pixel art, I think children like pixels, hell, I know I did! Mainly because I grew up with a SNES, gameboy color, and gameboy advance.

But Paul's examples, larger scale, more detailed pixels don't really appeal to the younger people. Mainly because when pixel art is discussed it's associated with videogames and not as a form of artistic expression.

Children nowadays can't really appreciate pixel art because of the current generation of consoles, you know the 360 ps3 and Wii. It's nice to know some games are still pixelled, and the PSN/XBLA/VC host a nice selection of classics, so maybe we'll se another generation of kids who like 2D pixel art games.

On a side note, I can appreciates some of the finer pixel pieces such as:

[mirosurabu]

i think he's right though -- that pixelated one is amateur pixel art -- you should compare good pixel art to something and see what he says

You are talking about high-detail pixel art and in case of high resolutions I think photoshop and vector art are better options.

Previously, I assumed we're talking about blocky low-res style. Fwiw, my views are different when it comes to DS-style art.

Dock, is this somehow related to the crab game?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

no, not necessarily high res, just good, regardless of res. there are plenty of attractive low-res pixel art that i think kids can still enjoy. example:



the ds is very low res but i'm sure thousands upon thousands of kids enjoyed the minisch cap

[andy wolff]

Paul Eres

your relentless bashing of the pixel art on these forums is disgraceful and puerile. you have failed to explain any reason for your disdain of said pixel art, or for the apparent superiority of the other pixel art you have shown as examples.

you have just lost a notch of my respect.

[Aquin]

Man, where did *THAT* come from?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i didn't say it's inferior, just that it's amateur -- i.e., not professional. it's not intended to be offensive. as for reasons, it's hard to give particular reasons without going into the details, and this isn't really the thread for that. also, not all the pixel artists on this forum are equal, there are some very good ones: konjak and derek as examples

[andy wolff]

oh, yeah, i think i may have misunderstood you to mean inferior when you said amateurish

even so, humor me with the details, if you would

[Aquin]

I get the details already, working with art myself.  Just think about a regular pic and how you consider whether it's some amateurish crap off deviantart as opposed to something really professional looking.

Proportions may not match up (left arm is shorter than the right), colours not matching up, perspective problems, etc.

The same stuff applies to pixel art... even more so.  One pixel out of place can ruin the whole image.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

sure, will try.

to avoid offending anyone i'll compare my own pixel art (which is amateur) with my friend orchard-l's pixel art (which is pretty good). here are examples of mine:




***************************RINKU PIXEL ART****************************














***************************ORCHARD-L PIXEL ART****************************

and here are examples of his:












the biggest difference is just the control apparent: orchard has a firm grasp of color balance, proportion, lighting, composition, etc., whereas i don't. he's a trained artist, who has spent years perfecting his abilities, i'm not. and it's pretty apparent when comparing two sets of pixel art. if you want me to go into exact details about exactly why i think his pics are examples of more professional work and mine more amateur work, i could, but this really isn't the thread for it i think, and i think it's kind of also obvious without going into the details what i mean

[bento_smile]

I think if the art is appealing to the player it doesn't matter too much... I mean, my very much younger cousins were all playing some Dogz game on GBA over something on PSP last time I saw them. (They're between 4-9 years old I think.)

Although, kids will never have the same sense of nostalgia over simple looking games. Somehow games seem much more innocent and toy-like when they are low resolution, to me anyway. Maybe when the kids become adults they'll get disillusioned with triple-A games and start looking for something different