A bad looking pixel art game is almost impossible, right?

[justiceiro]

You really can't go wrong with pixel art. It's impressive how since we transitioned beyond pixel art, art has decreased quickly and everything is a hit or a miss, or at least divisible. And gets dated quickly. But pixel art don't suffer from that. It just works right out of the box.

So, if you unsure about your art style, just go with pixel art. If you can't make a pixel art game look good, you won't manage to make another art style look good either.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

There's a LOT of ugly pixel art. It's easy to mess up and very hard to get right. There's a lot of talent out there though..

 

[Caiusto]

I'd say it's actually the opposite, pixel art is something really hard, you need to conceive what you want with reduced details and make sure that people other than you understand what exactly did you draw.

 

[sir_crocodile]

I've seen plenty of bad ones in the 8/16 bit eras lol

 

[Redcrayon]

I think it's more that we remember the pixel art that looks great 30 years later, which proves it can be timeless, but we don't tend to discuss the stuff that was bad at the time too. A bit like how the discussion of 8-bit games tends to revolve around a very small fraction of those games today.

 

[ILikeFeet]

yea no, there's a lot of bad pixel art

 

[Ryuelli]

Are there any examples of bad pixel art?

Okay. This might be a hot take (and probably wrong), but generally all pixel art is fine. I can't think of an example of pixel art that is objectively bad. I'm sure that some exists, but I haven't seen it. What is the worst pixel art in gaming? Edit: You folks are fast. Also, delete if this...

www.resetera.com

 

[Greywaren]

This is just not true. Pixel art can be ugly as hell and there's people who can manage to make gorgeous stuff in other styles and would be unable to do pixel art at all.

In fact, I'd even say that making pixel art look good is REALLY difficult.

 

[Sacrilicious]

Nah, there is definitely some ugly pixel art out there.

It's lovely when done well but it takes quite a bit of skill to make it look and move right.

 

[HotHamBoy]

You should look up the term "pillow shading," OP

now you will recognize it all the time

 

[Lobster Roll]

Are there any examples of bad pixel art?

Okay. This might be a hot take (and probably wrong), but generally all pixel art is fine. I can't think of an example of pixel art that is objectively bad. I'm sure that some exists, but I haven't seen it. What is the worst pixel art in gaming? Edit: You folks are fast. Also, delete if this...

www.resetera.com

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Somebody in that thread had the audacity to suggest Celeste lmao

 

[XaviConcept]

Youre correlating pixel art with stylized art.

Bad looking art comes in all flavors

 

[Deleted member 21709]

I wanted to give at least one example after a quick browse through Steam's 'pixel graphics' tag but it turned out to be a porn game.

 

[808s & Villainy]

What are you talking about. There are lots of ugly pixel art games. If your pixel art is based on bad art, it'll look ugly. If the animation is janky, it can look ugly. If the pixel art itself is just badly done, it can look ugly

 

[giapel]

Fat pixels hide bad art, sure.

 

[Canucked]

So, if you unsure about your art style, just go with pixel art. If you can't make a pixel art game look good, you won't manage to make another art style look good either.

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You make pixel art sound like bottom of the barrel here but at this point, it's a style that you choose and not hardware constraints. If you choose it you have to execute well or it's damn terrible. Just like any art style.

It's not like "can't paint? try crayons!"

 

[Edge]

 

[Izunavis]

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[Mullet2000]

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I will defend Nidhogg 2 till the day I die.

 

[julia crawford]

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Faces on their bellies

 

[Dyle]

God no there are plenty of sprite based games that look bad, even outside of art style taste or execution.

 

[s y]

Hard for pixel art to look good to me

 

[justiceiro]

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It's kinda ironic because this is a sequel to a game that actually were way more pixelated, but looked way better.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Just to add to the chorus, there's plenty of ugly pixel art games.

 

[Dary]

 

[Pottuvoi]

You should look up the term "pillow shading," OP

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Yeah.
It's really easy to make bad looking pixel art.

Pixelart doesn't mean that antialiasing or knowledge of subpixels is not needed.

 

[Servbot24]

This looks bad to me tbh

 

[Acetown]

If you can't make a pixel art game look good, you won't manage to make another art style look good either.

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Check out this old Naughty Dog game:

BTW: If you think Nidhogg 2 is an example of bad pixel art you just don't get it.

 

[Efejota]

It's called pixel ART for a reason. There's a lot of choices you have to make.

You could also mix pixel sizes, which a lot of indie games do nowadays.

I can't find many good examples right now, but I have seen stuff like this happen with the game HUD and menus:

Edit:

But I agree with OP's suggestion that it's easier to make something in pixelart look good than any other art from. You are taking advantage of how the users might read the information, after all. You need to be clear, but you don't have the same "suspension of disbelief" luxury with other artstyles.

That said, if you REALLY can't do art... you might want to hire someone else for that role, regardless of the game being pixelated or not.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Absolute nonsense. The entire OP.

 

[KrillinLikeAVillan]

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I came here to post this, nidhogg 1 was such a clean and stylish game, 2 is just an absolute abomination in comparison.

 

[Deleted member 44122]

This looks bad to me tbh

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i have to agree. ive never been a fan of the art style of alttp. the sprites just dont look that good to me. links awakening, although it had even less pixels to work with, still looks great to me

 

[Deleted member 21709]

This looks bad to me tbh

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Something's off with the pixels.. I think this screenshot might be stretched.

Also I think LTTP is a defining game, art-wise and it looks incredible.

 

[Oneiros]

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That's more on the character design than the graphics.

 

[andymcc]

This looks bad to me tbh

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this image is definitely not reflective of the game itself, but i've never been a fan of the way LTTP looks.

 

[Adulfzen]

I can agree to an extent that pixel art is harder to mess up but it's not the sure fire way to make a beautiful game like you're implying

 

[Fisty]

I will defend Nidhogg 2 till the day I die.

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They lost the sleek minimalist style but gave it a lot more personality and humor. I totally loved the new art in 2

 

[LurkerSinceForever]

Pixelart is HARD and so, so easy to fuck up.
When done right it is the goat.

 

[arcadepc]

 

[scottbeowulf]

There's more bad than good actually. Especially with so many trying to emulate the 8 and 16 bit days.

 

[SigSig]

oh no, about 99% of pixel art sucks a lot. I know, because I'm part of those 99% :(

 

[BarringGaffner]

For me pixel art looks mostly good unless they introduce modern effects into it. Things like depth of field, blur, bloom look god awful when combined with pixel art aesthetic.

 

[Lube Man]

Mother Russia Bleeds is one of the most ugliest pixel art games I've ever seen (sorry, no hard feelings).

 

[Alex840]

I actually think most pixel art is ugly nowadays. Devs use it as it can be cheap, but good pixel art is both expensive and time consuming. Owlboy, Celeste, Hyperlight Drifter, Sonic Mania, Blasphemous, Eastward, etc. all look incredible, but there are so many bad looking pixel art games that get released nowadays.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

LJN

 

[ILikeFeet]

Nidhogg 2 is not bad pixel art

 

[Lylo]

Nidhogg 2 is not bad pixel art

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I would say it's just bad art...

 

[laxu]

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Hey! Time Slaughter is a piece of art! It belongs in a museum!

 

[SickNasty]

Have you heard of 'old video games' OP

 

[Filipus]

Op, have you ever tried pixelart? (or 3D modeling?) I used to do 32x sprites, and it's freaking hard to do something that looks good.
I can promise you it's way easier to do a 3D model that looks reasonable than good Pixel Art.