With a Staff, I Guess? :: Pixel Art Detail

The only original Phantasy Star game I played at all was a bit of IV for the Genesis(Mega Drive). So it's not an intentional homage or anything.

I should really go back and try that game again. It was very ... unique. To say the least.

Total congrats on the award, K!

My favourite part is the building -

no, wait, the jellyfish are such a cool non sequitur -

no, the fox characters are the most endearing part -

or is it the textured sky?

Dang!  Doodle or not, there's a lot to love!

(by the way, were you inspired at all - this piece or ever - by the backgrounds of the character portraits of Phantasy Star 2 for the Sega Mega Drive?  I had no idea anyone else could kick with this style so well!)

Thanks again for the great piece.

 You're right, you didn't suggest that it wasn't pixel art. I'm just knee-jerking in reaction to your suggestion that he might have used a spray brush, as if that were a bad thing. I'm opposed to the idea that keeps coming up around this site that any use of a tool other than a one-pixel pencil disqualifies something as pixel art. The end result is all that matters - unless you're ripping off someone else's work, it doesn't matter how you arrived there.

Anyway, as a professional graphic designer/game artist (as in, I make my living at it), I can tell you that the quality of execution of this piece is up to professional standards. Maybe not AAA studio senior artist quality, but if Kaiseto can take artistic direction and work within the constraints of an actual game, based on this image, he could definitely make a living as a freelancer, or get at least a junior position at a AAA studio if he wanted to.

Now, if you don't like the content, composition, subject matter, etc., that's another story. I'd say I'm indifferent to it... neither great nor awful. I think flying jellyfish is kind of a neat idea, but you're free to disagree. That part of things is subjective, so no one's right or wrong there... but in terms of execution, I'd say this piece is very slick.

Kaiseto - its a spectacular doodle I was wondering if you were going to make a mockup for a game based on this what would you change?

I must say i think it's insanely beautiful. :o

Although the color count is high, it has this "glowy" charm to it. ;D

*crickets*

*backs away slowly*

Alright, how about everyone STOP being a jerk to Shrub, and end the conversation. It ceased to be about the actual piece awhile ago. He wasn't a fan, he's made his point. Quite honestly, I did put less effort into this piece than usual, because it was the culmination of  6 bored hours of downtime before and after classes last tuesday.

The piece is in the weekly showcase. I have no control over that. Apparently some people liked it a lot, and rated it highly enough to get into the showcase. I'm sorry if that offends some people, I'm sorry if the offended people are offending some other people. I'm just sorry about the whole damned thing.

BTW, it seems people don't like critisicm here, am I gonna get banned for not liking this piece or something?

I dunno, it just feels like the jellyfish were thrown in there randomly like "hmm what can I put in... how about jellyfish? Flying jellyfish... yeah I'll go with that".

Anyway I wasn't saying that this isn't pixel art,dunno where you got that from.

And I don't agree with your statement that "this is professional-quality game art".

I don't know why people think this piece is so fantastic to be honest.

 i really like it,

 Dunno what all the negativity is about; this piece is great. People need to stop being so anal-retentive about what is and isn't "pixel art" - the fact of the matter is that this is professional-quality game art, regardless of how it was made.

Also, flying jellyfish = awesome. Since when do things in video games have to "make sense," in the sense of physical realism?

Yes Kaiseto, I quite agree.

I've been spoilt by him.

I really like the colors + building. I think the building and characters are very pleasing to look at. Only gripe would be how the characters feet don't look like they are attached to ground and the jeelly fish are in different rendering style.

Fool is like... quite possibly the best pixel artist in the world. There aren't too many other pixel artists that even approach his quality.

 I think it's cool. I'd play it.

Hey I mean, I'm not saying it sucks, you obviously spent some time on it.

@ jalonso, whether it's worthy or not is a matter of personal opinion, and you say it is and I say it isn't - it's just opinion, you know?

@ Kaiseto, I wasn't saying you USED the the spray paint tool, I'm saying it looks like you did. The individual components of this piece are fine, and I do like the characters... it's got some things which could be improved on, is what I'm trying to say.

@ Artic, well, usually I give enourmous praise when it comes to pixel art, see my other comments if you don't believe me. However, I've lived my pixel-life viewing pixel art such as Fool's. So I've grown to expect a massive amount from these pixel artists. I saw this piece and I didn't like it very much, which is different to my usual reaction when I see pixel art... so maybe it's time I gave some more criticism instead of "OMGZWOWTHATISAWESOME" which is what I am usually like when it comes to pixel art.

I understand I've come across as negative here, but different people like different styles I suppose.

Just like to point out again that whether or not this is in the weekly showcase has absolutely NOTHING to do with me :p I'm not the one who put it there.

I agree with Scrub, doesnt think this piece deserve weekly showcase.

Inspired by Ratchet and Clank?

@Shrub - I dunno Shrub, I think its worthy of the WS and certainly enough members voted it high enough for it to definately belong there :| It may not be a piece you personally like a lot but its not unworthy.

@Kaiseto - Again your color sense is top-notch and as usual your critters are cute x1000

It looks amazing. Great job. 

Shrub: Woah, getting pretty negative, arent we. Did you ever think the reason some things dont make sense is because they arent supposed to make sense?

Very good work, i like everything on here. the J-fish are cool, hanging in the dry air and whatnot

9/10, only thing i dont like is the lack of AA on the metal/grass tiles.

Hey, I don't control the weekly showcase. :p I'm sure it'll be pushed off by better stuff later on.

That aside, I never touch the spraypaint tool. Everything on here is done 100x by hand with a 1-pixel brush, excepting the few large areas that were originallly filled with the paintbucket tool.

This is kinda "meh".

All those fans don't look like fans, they look like weird 2D tiles which have been copy-pasted around. Why on earth are there fans built into the floor?

The BG has the fan tiles from the foreground, at the same size, which looks cheap.

The jellyfish aren't that amazing. They make no sense anyway.

The only redeeming feature about this is the characters. But they don't make sense either.

The grass to metal transition tiles look like the Spray tool in Paint has been slapped on one of those ordinary metal tiles.

Sorry, but I think that the weekly showcase deserves much better than this.

4/10

I would both play this game and watch the OVA that was later based on it.

Well, I spent more time on the background, so that probably means a little more to me :D

For me it's the opposite.  The characters (though nicely pixelled) don't appeal to me at all but I find the background quite interesting

It looks great, yet a bit too mcuh, I say make it a little bit simpler.

not too fond of the background, and the tiles are kind of meh, but the characters and enemies are great

 amazingly cool.

I really like the animal characters on the right, they're cool and cute.... they foxes?

I really like the left part of this piece :D

I have long stood by the fact that flying jellfish are the world's number most most dangerous nightmare and I continue to stand by said claim.

in other news, this is a great little pixel, especially for something unplanned. I'm a real big fan of those tiles, nicely done

Cool character design!

smoothie style :) good colors choice

I like it very much!  

Wow I LOVE THE BKG with those orange stuff that i think are jellyfish..

amazing job....!

amazing. really like it. the one thing that doesn't looks so good imho are the legs and feet. The feet could use may one or two more pixels on their left side, because now they look like "seen from the front", standing on their toes, ballerina style. Maybe remove the rightmost toe, make it bunion.

The legs of the left fox look a little bit crippled, this may go away if you change something in the foot-leg-context.

Very good work, keep going on!