#this game really showed how fluid i can be with my artstyle

[creature-of-pizza]

Original under the cut

[wolverinedoctorwho]

Gonna ramble about my thoughts on Ghost Trick below the cut, spoiler warning if you decide to read!

I really love the animations in this game, and how some of them are really thought-out. The one that comes to mind first is Lynne carrying Kamilla in the submarine, where you can see how Lynne adjusts her grip to carry the kid one handed while holding out the flashlight. There's so much personality visible in each character and it brings them to life really well.

I also really liked how everyone in this game owns up to their mistakes and calls out their own recklessness, particularly Cabanela and Jowd. They acknowledge that the incident with Yomiel was caused by their inexperience and carelessness, and that was really cool to see two police officer characters do.

The 3D-esque artstyle was interesting, especially for a DS title. There were a few places where it fell (pardon the pun) kind of flat, like in the scene with Jowd in the submarine. Because the scenes are 2D it's hard to convey distance, so when characters stand in front of one another it piles up and looks awkward. Also you could see the textures on Jowd's prison jacket swap around when he turns, so that was odd.

The only character whose vibe I didn't quite understand was Cabanela's - is he supposed to be in a relationship with Lynne? Sometimes it felt like the game was implying they were a couple and sometimes it just felt like a mentorship. It was weird.

The controls... I played the Switch port, so everything was joysticks and buttons, and moving from place to place stopped feeling fun and fluid about half way through the game. It felt like once Missile showed up they artificially limited Sissel's movement. Even with Missile's increased range, moving got sticky sometimes because you can't move between objects that are the same shape, you can only swap them. I also found things like people got in the way a lot. Getting used to using Missile's powers was also tricky, and I really wish it hadn't been implemented during that park mission where there's a lot of quick things you gotta do. The number of times I fucked that level up because I hit the wrong button in the moment...

I also found some of the puzzles sort of convoluted, but that's probably just me. There were some puzzles where I had the right idea and if I'd pushed a little farther I could have figured it out, there were some puzzles where I was thinking in the right direction but was missing a step, and then there were puzzles where I looked at the walkthrough and went "and how the HELL was I supposed to figure THAT out?"

Speaking of, the twist ending felt unnecessary. I don't think we gained anything from Ray being Missile, and Sissel being a cat felt really cheap. I would have been happier with some bullshit "oh it's Yomiel from another universe" explanation. The second that kitten appeared in the flashback I said "oh, we're the fucking cat?". I think if there had been hints at the twist throughout the game other than just repeating over and over that Sissel isn't the man in red, or if we had seen the cat more often, it would have felt less random and thrown in. I would have been satisfied with Ray just being a mysterious spirit, too.

There were some questions the ending left me with that I think the game tried to answer but I didn't quite get. The biggest one is, are Yomiel and Sissel the only ones who remember the events of the game? Do the others keep their memories as well? If so, when do they kick in? Was Kamilla born knowing about her death in another timeline?

One other small thing I liked, to cap off - in the new future epilogue, the two spies from the restaurant just straight up die lmao

Overall a fun game! I originally played the demo on the DS back when the Wii still offered freebie demos like that and I'm glad I was finally able to play it. For a game of its age it held up quite well!

[i-consume-content]

PIZZA TOWER

Piping-Hot Platformer Perfection

Having been a long-time fan of Super Mario and all things Nintendo, I have never played a Sonic the Hedgehog game. I never really thought going extra fast was enough to hook me into a new platforming experience, but when I tried out early 2023's indie highlight Pizza Tower, it began to change my mind.

You play as Peppino Spaghetti, who's on a quest to destroy the Pizza Tower before the evil Pizzaface uses it to blow up Peppino's Pizza. Pizza Tower's gameplay loop is simple: run to the end of the level, destroy the load-bearing pillar, and get back to the start before the escape timer runs out. Hidden beneath this simple premise is one of the most addicting games I've ever played. Peppino controls like a dream, even at top speeds, with responsive controls that have been finely tuned to encourage high speed, tight turns, and well-timed reactions. Levels have been carefully built, with each wall, gap, and enemy meticulously arranged to create a satisfying experience for the average player, and a potentially godlike one for those who have mastered Peppino's moveset. Once you've familiarized yourself with a stage, it can be an absolute joy to breeze through it like nobody's business, especially if you're going for those P-ranks. The difficulty feels comfortable on first playthrough and provides a fun challenge for those who want to be as great as can be.

The artstyle is messy and it works. The large-canvas pixel art echoes the classic look of Microsoft Paint, and fans of old Cartoon Network shows like Ren & Stimpy will recognize how those shows' energy works its way in to make the art look great. The animation is fluid and snappy, conveying Peppino’s brutal rage when attacking enemies and speeding around the level.

And the soundtrack? Don’t even get me started, it’s phenomenal. There was not a single miss in this musical journey, and even the bonus tracks on the OST go above and beyond. It’s Pizza Time gets you pumped up and sweating for the harrowing run back to the start, the boss themes set the stage just as well as the art, and the final track (which I will keep vague to avoid spoilers) really lets you know that this is it, you’ve done it.

Pizza Tower exploded in popularity for good reason. It is one of the best platformers I’ve had the pleasure of playing in recent years, so if you haven’t played it yet, this is your wake-up call. Go drop some cash on it on Steam, and I guarantee you’ll love it in 30 minutes or less. That’s an ICC promise!

FINAL RATING:

A Supreme Pizza out of 10

- Rock

[ss-2dplatformer]

Research on Animations in Games!

Taking a break from my daily postings about what I am doing in unreal, it's time for more research. This time, it's reviewing and highlighting aspects of animation used in specific 2D games. These games are Earthworm Jim, Blasphemous 2, The Act, as well as a previously discussed game on this blog, Dragon’s Lair.

Earthworm Jim:

To give a small history, Earthworm Jim is a video game franchise originally released on both the Sega Mega Drive and the SNES in October 1994. It was very well recieved as it was rated as being the 114th best game on a Nintendo System. This is because the game was very noteworthy for having a fluid animation style as if it featured a hand-drawn artstyle, which was quite unusual for games at that time.

One example of this is shown to you as soon as you turn on the game. The Sega logo, as well as Jim himself are shown to be made from pencil drawings, which immidiately gives the player a signal that this isn't just another 2d platformer released in the 90's.

And here you can see just how fluid the animations are. When you think of other games from the early 90's, you're imagining 8-bit stiff animations, probably similar to something such as the very early Mario games but these are quite fluid and really feel alive.

I think these animations are honestly great, even when put up against todays standards. Of course they're not going to be perfect, as they were limited by what was possible at the time due to hardware limitations, but even then, they're great!

Blasphemous 2:

Blasphemous 2 is a fairly recent title, compared to everything else I am looking at today, as it released on August 23rd, 2023, barely a year ago.

Though interestingly, it is still a 2D sidescroller while being mixed with RPG aspects, similar to Dead Cells. The animations are very fluid, seemingly no stuttering or pausing or anything too janky looking, which shows how far pixel art based games have come.

(Unfortunately, I am unable to directly upload more than 1 video at a time to my blog, so a YouTube link will have to suffice.)

Interestingly, the game also features some fully animated cutscenes too, reminding me of other games such as the ones from the Persona franchise. This gives the game a very unique feeling as this differentiates it from other side-scrolling rpg's such as, like I mentioned before, Dead Cells.

The way the main character swings their weapons very fluidly but at different speeds depending on what they're holding is super awesome attention in my eyes as it almost makes you feel the different weights of the weapons. The huge mace being heavier to use and taking longer to attack but with bigger damaged while the dual wielding daggers are more light and nimble, allowing you to attack quicker but while dealing less damage with the sword being a nice inbetween. Not too heavy and slow but also not too light as well as potentially dealing a nice inbetween amount of damage.

The Act

The Act is a very interesting game with a very interesting history (though we're here for the animation side of it more than anything). Originally released in 2007 for arcades before being cancelled not too long later as interest in the game was never too high, with the developers, Cecropia, closing their doors in 2008.

However, 4 years after being discontinued, in 2011 the website was suddenly updated with the game now being developed by a new company with the game now being a PC and Mobile game and releasing fully in 2012. The game has since been delisted however.

Anyways, enough of the short history, we need to discuss the game itself. It is a fully drawn 2D animated game in a sort of choose your own adventure. The gameplay loop is very interesting as, on the arcade machines, you used a knob to change what your character is doing at the time in order to progress through the scenes. You can see in the thumbnail of the video linked below what the arcade machine at the time looked like.

The game is very unique for what I've seen other video games from this time with the only other game I can think of that plays similarly to this also happens to be the next entry in this post.

Dragon's Lair:

Released in 1983 for arcade machines, the game was praised at the time for having vastly superior graphics to the other arcade games due to it being all hand drawn. This was especially notable because the animation was done at a film quality level by an ex-Disney animator called Don Bluth.

Interestingly, the game always seems to be ported to the next consoles whenever they release as this game is available on every PlayStation, every Xbox as well as many Nintendo products ranging from the Game Boy to the Switch. Interestingly, the latest release of these games was apparently in 2022 for the Apple IIGS of all things, a computer which was released in 1986 and was discontinued 6 years later.

The majority of the game when simplified is nothing more than a series with variating lengths of quicktime event. The game is also quite short. If you do a perfect run without making a single mistake, you can complete it in no more than 12 minutes. However, there's an additional 10 minutes of footage ontop of that which includes individual death scenes as well as game over screens. 50,000 frames of animated footage have been put into this game with a total length of everything combined coming out to 22 minutes.

Here you can see the gameplay of Dragon's Lair, which constantly gives you a short amount of time (about 2-3 seconds) to click a correct button where your character will die if you fail to do so.

The way it's animated is very interesting to me as it looks exactly like an animated cartoon or movie from the 80's which is to be expected because the game was animated by an ex-disney animator. That just makes this more of an interesting and incredible game to me with how good it looks for the time of release, when every other game was stuck to a very small amount of colors and an 8 bit art style.

[kornyo]

Hello, my name is korny and some of you know me as a former beta, then sweet elite’s former clothing artist, that also (singlehandedly) drew the animated mini-game with momo and the little coffee and coin icons. I never had a proper introduction which is why probably most of you see me for the first time now.

I didn’t plan on publicly making a statement, but it has been brought to my attention that the se management said rude and nasty things that – most importantly – are just plain bullshit and I cannot let this be said without a proper response.

 If you click this link you will find a google doc with various screenshots, showing what exactly has been going on that made me (& cecile) finally leave the team. I made the doc and the screens a few days prior to leaving (April 2019) and already shared it with all the betas and some staff back then, but also some people on tumblr who have come into my dms asking me to clarify what happened. I feel the right time has come to share this link with the public, although it might be a little confusing to understand for some.

 Now, what bothers me the most about serenas ugly behaviour from the past few days is the topic of “’lazy’ cecile”. I’d like to clarify that this entire post is MY opinion, and was written because *I* am angry about this, I was not forced to write this whatsoever by Cecile or anyone else. I’ve kept my mouth shut so far bc I could not be bothered, but this is where I draw the line.

“Lazy Cecile” has been something even BEFORE my beta days (which started in January 2018). Serena used (and still does, as you can see in her latest posts) to call Cecile “lazy” a lot jokingly, but saying it that often didn’t make it funny anymore, and it certainly isn’t a nice thing to say to a good friend. She continued to say it even after Cecile approached her not to.

To add, Cecile is - if not THE - most hardworking person that ever participated in the production of the game. While juggling a full-time job, she also drew AND redrew ALL the sprites, for a short time also drew ALL the illustrations WITH customization (2 genders x 3 three different hairstyles), AND new backgrounds because An already left the team. And that’s just the art she did! She also took part in writing large chunks in almost every chapter, even writing an entire big ass chapter 7 ON HER OWN, which she now has posted on her blog @retconomics (which Serena in response tried to make us afraid by telling us how merciful she is by not suing us for copyright. Your case wouldn’t be that strong honey LMAO not without a contract anyway 😉 ). ALL WHILE WORKING A FULL DAY JOB AND GETTING A DOG, WHICH ALSO REQUIRES A LOT OF ATTENTION. Meanwhile, it took Serena several months to almost a YEAR now, guessing from the release date, to write chapter 6 and it wasn’t a rare case for her to magically loose the file or it getting corrupted. So please tell me how the fuck cecile is lazy? In any fucking way?

Her time schedule was very demanding, so of course we had to cheat a little bit, which brings me to my next point: professionalism. Serena claims that Cecile was very unprofessional, “cutting corners” and her art “unpolished” and “not up to par”. In her example of ‘proper’ professionalism, serena used this image:

Illustrating how the new artist does things better and more polished.

This is where I call huge, MAJOR bullshit.

I have worked on the sprites with cecile. Due to the tight deadline Serena has given us, Cecile would give me the rough sprites and I would finish them & look for any spots that were smudges/did not have clear edges or full transparency. Wanna know how these files looked like?

Hm! Absolutely no fucking different! The expressions were all on one layer, unlike in the example above, but as Serena said: she didn’t say anything against that. That was because Serena wanted to pump content out, which, fair enough, and she needed everyone in the team to “set priorities”, as she said. And adding so much customization was NOT a priority at that time and she knows it.

However, if it DID bug her that much, it’s her own fault if she won’t say “hey Cecile, could you put all the brows on one single layer, all the mouths etc”. And if her excuse is that Cecile lacked the time, I could’ve done it just as easily, as I worked on the sprites anyway and did not have the huge workload cecile had at that time. If the manager is unhappy with their product, they should say something, otherwise nothing will happen. So, if Serena was unhappy with the ‘lack’ of expressions (lets be real tho, 5 expressions isn’t lacking at all)? Her fault.

“Not to mention, all of the sprites will be polished and the artstyle will finally be consistent throughout the entire game (something that our old artist really struggled with at times). Also, both Alita and Ariel are awesome at what they do, take growth and sustainability seriously, and constantly look for ways to improve and build onto the world of Sweet Elite.” Taken from here (x).

Ah, yes. You want consistency and yet hired two artists with two very different styles, and even *advertised* it as something good. Also, if somebody improves art wise, they rarely stay the same way. Art is FLUID. Art CHANGES, especially while improving. And if ceciles art was so unprofessional looking and unpolished for you serena, why didn’t you just tell her to stop drawing? Why not “get rid of the garbage” sooner? Would have saved both you and cecile the clownery that has happened and is going on right now.

(taken from here)

Also calling Cecile a weakness while she literally held the weight of the entire game on her shoulders while having to provide so much art and writing while you failed to write even one chapter during all that? You’re pettier than you care to admit.

I literally could go on and on about this, but this is already 1k words, so im gonna wrap this up. But I am so mad about this “boo hoo there is a narrative spun against me ☹” “I was creatively constricted by my cowriters” (also bullshit lmao, but another topic). You’re just a big liar and an awful person overall, and don’t get me started on your boyfriend.

While you’re getting “rid of the garbage”, please also remove MY minigame which I was forced to make while I was collecting money for my dog, and pay me 100€. You can have the clothes as I actually *agreed* on doing that for no money. 25€ for all the coffee and coin icons would be appropriate as well.

Now, as a former fan thats been on this journey since 2015, I am very dissapointed in how this game is developing. You’re taking this game into a direction you promised not to - not diverse, full of clichés, mainstream. As a fan, this broke my heart. A lot.

I hope you learn that your actions have consequences and that I will NOT be quiet if you decide to spit some lies again.

[muffinrecord]

Top Ten Favorite Card Art

This will be a long post, so I’m putting it under a read more! There is a lot of card art I love in this game, so here are my top ten favorites (for now). These are only from the EN server, so nothing from JP.

I already talked about how much I love Konomi’s art so check this link out here if you want to see that. Otherwise, let’s do this!

Number 10: Seika Kumi Four Star Card Art

This is just really gorgeous to look at. I love Seika’s design (I’m a sucker for magical girls in vest-type attire) and I think this image does a good job showcasing how damn cool it looks. I like her pose here, I like how her hat is floating above her head a bit (as if she’s falling softly?), yet her feet seem pretty tense-- as though she’s relaxed a bit, but still on edge slightly. The water effects look pretty.

This also has a starry background, and I’m gonna spoil you guys: If you appeal to my basic bitch astronomy-aesthetic-loving idiot self, then you have won me over.

Number 9: Felicia Mitsuki Five Star Card Art

This is so COOL. I love Felicia’s expression. This is just OOZING personality and character and I LOVE IT. The hammer looks badass as fuck, she looks POWERFUL. Like she’s posing after a monumental battle. When I think of magical girls I think of wish fulfillment, and this is the epitome of that. What an icon.

Also stars.

Number 8: Mayu Kozue Five Star Card Art

THIS IS SO PRETTY. I love the perspective here! Her hair is so flowy and pretty... I love the pose of her feet. It’s like she’s dangling a bit? I feel like we’re looking from below, underwater, in a typhoon... It’s beautiful. The composition is great too, the way it leads your eyes up to her expression, which is just one of joy. The way her little hair feather-things move off into the distance but don’t look weird is also gorgeous. Lastly, it would be so easy to make a pose like this into a stupid fanservice shot, but luckily the artist didn’t do that and I’m thankful for it.

Also it kind of has starry patterns in it.

Number 7: Hinano Miyako Five Star Card Art

This is an amazing piece. First off, I really like this artstyle. I’m not sure how it was drawn, but the shading makes me think of colored pencils and I appreciate how different it looks. 

But what I really love is the marriage between art and science here. It’s SO easy to make a scientist this anti-art asshole who is just... cold and calculating and not interested in seeing the beauty in what the work on. BUT HAVE YOU EVER MET A SCIENTIST LIKE THAT. No way fam. They tend to love what they do. Snail scientists will weep at the beauty of a snail. They love art.

And this piece is so colorful and gorgeous. Hinano is smug but not too smug and she’s pleased with herself. I love the colors in the background, and I love the colors of the vials. This is a picture I want to hang up on my wall. Beautiful.

Number 6: Madoka Kaname Four Star Card Art

This is so beautiful. Madoka has a cool as fuck pose, I love how it’s an action pose but it’s also playful! She seems so excited to be here and I am HERE for that energy. Her bow looks powerful and badass and I love it.

It also has a starry background and I like that too.

Number 5:  (Kimono) Mitama Five Star Card Art

For someone who hates Mitama, I sure do love this art. Cool pose-- I love the implied movement here. I love the sleeves and how they they move across the picture. I love the simple background with cute patterns, and the way the cards lightly fall shower over her. Beautiful.

Number 4:  Shizuku Hozumi Three Star Card Art

This is SUCH a cool pose, I love it. There is so much energy here, and I love her expression. I feel like this shows that she’s a fighter who has some inner conflict going on inside-- just a small hint of it. I like the colors too. It just looks really cool!

Number 3:  Masara Kagami Four Star Card Art

This is a boob and butt pose, but I’m actually kind of okay with it? It doesn’t feel gross like some other artwork is-- it feels like her pose actually has a purpose here. Much like Konomi, Masara is angled back, but here she is in the process of turning around. Her eyes seem to have caught something-- is it something to fight? Is it Kokoro? It’s hard to read her expression, which is very in-character.

Her fighting style is described as being without regard for her life, as just ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK. But I think it’s implied here that it’s graceful and beautiful as well. I feel like her movements must be very fluid. Her legs are behind her as she turns, and I like how one is closer to us, just suggesting the movement of the turn in a gentle way. Her arms are very straightened, but not in a tense way-- almost like a stretch. 

The blade of the dagger leads into her ribbon, which leads goes through her head and into the particle effects, leading to her skirt, leading back to the dagger. It moves your eyes around in a cycle, which is pretty neat.

Yeah yeah, there are stars here too, but I think they are thematically appropriate. The mountain range and the aurora bring to mind coldness and beauty, and that’s really Masara isn’t it?

Also I love how her hair looks here. Nice shading!

Number Two: Mifuyu Azusa Five Star Card Art

THIS IS SO PRETTY LOOK AT HER. Mifuyu’s design is stupid, but I like how it looks here-- it all flows so well together. I like the ripples in her skirt, I like the loose feathers. I like how her hand swims in the opening of her sleeve here, and how the shine on her socks contrasts (nicely!) with the fluffiness of her outfit. The glow of her weapon is so soft, much like the moon itself, and the particle effects flowing off of it are magical. This color scheme is pretty as all hell.

Also stars. and moons.

Number 1: (Uwasa) Tsuruno Yui Five Star Card Art

Aaaaand my favorite. This one still takes my breath away, I like it so much! Her expression is my favorite of this piece. It’s empty but satisfied. This is another personal thing for me. As someone who’s really struggled with depression, I can really relate to this. It feels self-destructive for the sake of it. It’s like when you are so miserable and sad and angry and empty that you feel free-- you smile, you laugh. You are at rock bottom and nothing matters, so nothing matters. 

Her pose looks cool as hell. She’s in the middle of an action, but it’s elegant. There are a lot of sharp elements to the pose but it still manages to feel rounded. This is another one that has great suggestion of movement; her arms are moving in a circle and she’s in the middle of twisting to complete it, but this done all while feeling very stable. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color scheme here. Teal Tsuruno is beautiful as fuck but the small portions of red really elevate it here.

I like the feathers, which are just a reminder of whose side she’s on right now, but they’re not intrusive. 

I also really just like how her hair is shaded??? It looks like candy and I like it.

Also: starry background.

ANYWAYS THANKS FOR LSITENING TO ME RAMBLE

[translationandbetrayals]

When designs aren't set in stone

It is said that a good design is one where you can recognize the character by their silhouettes alone, and while that’s certainly true, there have been anime or other pieces of otaku media where their character designs are not set in stone and in fact change a little bit to quite a lot from time to time.

Under the current anime landscape most average anime viewers would agree that a character has to be recognizable at aany given moment, a situation that makes sense as anime tends to be for them something like a cool drawing in cool set action pieces, thus there is bigger emphasis on the key frames of the animation while the in betweens are on model most of the time.

Sometimes, some directors or action directors would prefer to go off model in order to sell a better looking and faster paced animation. After all, one of the 12 principles of animation is the concept of squash and stretch and this rule basically means that you have to deform the character in order to make its movement better.

If it’s done right, most people wouldn’t even notice, like for example in the videogame Dragon Ball FighterZ (Or anything done by team Red of Arcsystem works, just search for different camera angles and look at their arms) but some other times, be it because the animation was really lackluster or simply because someone decided to pause on an in between frame and then made a lot of complaining on social media, you get situations like what happened at the beginning of the run of Dragon Ball Super or the infamous Naruto vs Pain fight, that was handled by no other than sakuga legend Shingo Yamashita (Jujutsu Kaisen and Ranking of Kings opening director, as well as the director of many other breathtaking fights)

While this isn’t really what I meant at the beginning with character design it is important to take into consideration for the next topic. The time Pokemon decided to drastically change their designs on order to accommodate a more fluid and dynamic show. When this decision was revealed, it was taken with great skepticism and straight up bad faith, however, the animation has improved tremendously thanks to the more simple and cartoonish design. Like, Can you imagine how One Piece would look like if it had designs as intricate as Tite Kubo’s Bleach? Luffy is literally squash and stretch made a character.

Another good example can be Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, a series that is literally praised by the lack of color scheme consistency as, every character, setting, object and stand could be colored one way in once scene and then something happens that raises the stakes making the entire world change color.

And because every single one of my post has to talk about something mainstream as a way to then talk about something niche that I like. Here comes Touhou project once again, a series that is never consistent to the point of ridicule. The easier example is the character Koishi Komeiji that debuted in Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism with white/gray hair, just to have green hair in every later apparition. A meme of the community is how the main character Reimu, actually died and is in fact a Zombie, this is because, in every subsequent game she stars, she has become even paler than in the one before.

But enough of colors, the character in touhou don’t even have a set age, so anything goes when it comes to how they look. You would think this only applies to fanart but no. Touhou not only has games, it also has manga and light novels and if you think the differences here are a thing of artstyle then you would be mistaken as well, simply because everyone is free to have their own vision of how Gensokyo should look like.

(yes, both designs are part of official media and are the same character)

- John Coldsteel 

[gwgamesterm1]

Pixel Artist Research

Paul Robertson:

Robertson is an animator mostly known for his pixel art work and animation style, he's worked on a variety of projects like Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game, Rick and Morty, Gravity Falls and much more.

One way to distinguish he work is that it generally resembles a drug trip on a screen. It's always heavily characterised, bizarre and at times grotesque with an incredible range coloured that jump out at you.

His animation style is also quite interesting, everything has very fluid motion and at times it's even weightless, which in combination with the often large, bulbous creatures, or the lanky, long limbed characters just adds to the weird, cartoony aesthetic.

As much as I appreciate the skill and talent that goes into Robertson's work, I'm not the biggest fan of it. The way everything is drawn and the use of colour is very late 90's and I never particularly liked that in the first place, I prefer artwork that is somewhat more realistic, or at least a lot less saturated with colour.

Waneella:

Waneella is an artist that seems to specialise in creating impossibly detailed city and urban scenes using a Pixel artstyle, they're somewhat of a rarity in the pixel art space as they're as photorealistic and lifelike as a pixel art can get.

It's amazing to me how she turned what in concept would be a rather dull scene into stunning piece of artwork. Most of her pieces seem to be based right around sunset or dusk, giving them rather dim lighting which allows the artificial neon lights that often decorate the scenes the chance to pop.

Ultimately, I really love her work. I already enjoy east asian influences and the compact, lived in environments encapsulate that perfectly. The use of colour is also something I enjoy, nothing seems to stick out like a sore thumb unless it was meant to, the scenes are completely cohesive.

Army of Trolls:

JunkBoy - Markus Toivonen:

It was actually a bit difficult to find reliable information on JunkBoy, other than he is Mojang's Art Developer who designs all of the textures in their game Minecraft.

From what I've been able to find, his artstyle varies wildly from the very simple pixelated texture work in minecraft, to his seemingly Japanese inspired game screens. It's really difficult for me to judge his work when it's so varied, but it definitely indicates his skill.

The use of colour in pixel art is actually one of the key factors that determines whether I like it or not, and i think JunkBoy is very good at making the different colour schemes match their respective artstyles and I don't think you'd be able to tell which style he specializes in because they all are equally well done

Pixels Huh - Octavi Navarro:

Navarro is, of course, a pixel artists who has worked on the video games Photographs, Timbleweed Park and Super Barista.

This is another great example of how versatile pixel art can be as a medium, it varies completely from the other artist on this list and I would argue it is just as detailed as Waneella's work. Most of the pieces have a limited range of colour, which I think adds to the fantastical nature that is created by the subjects.

I dont have much to as about Narvarro's work except for the fact that I think its excellent. It somehow tilts in the direction of extremely detailed while keeping that distinct less detailed feel that pixel art is known for.

Evaluation:

I believe when most people think of pixel art, they think of things like Mario, Sonic and other classic video games where it was first used, which is a shame because it is way more than that. I'm honestly impressed with the variety that you can find with a little looking around.

My favourite type of pixel art is still the kind that you have to take a minute to realise it is actually pixel art, it shows such skill and patience to methodically go through a canvas and place the pixels in their perfect place.

[hawkingbishop]

OC questions:

I’m gonna answer these for my character Rebecca Tollingworth. Who I later changed to Persephone Rhodes. She’s from the story The Undeclared Life of Marilynn Baxter.

1. What’s their full name? If they’re an alien and their name is in their native planet’s language, have you thought about what it means? —// Rebecca Philippa Ann Tollingworth —// and then later on —// Persephone Alexandra Rhodes

2. Say your OC made a playlist on Spotify. What bands would be on that playlist? Any specific genres? —// I actually have writing playlists for different characters. —// https://open.spotify.com/user/hawkingbishop/playlist/4munDDgJ08wsBLwSXc0e73?si=3X6dnju1 —// That’s the one specific to Rebecca/Persephone, but I have a few more for Rebecca/Marilynn and one full playlist for the whole story. —// I’ll go back and add links for those. —// Brand New, The Wooden Birds, The New Amsterdams, The American Analog Set, Fiona Apple, Tegan and Sara, Jenny Owen Youngs, Uh Huh Her, Do Make Say Think, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Paramore, Daughter, Kate Nash, Kesha, No Doubt, Weezer, Feist, Metric, Bright Eyes. —// She likes a lot of music. She bonds with Marilynn over music. They share bands back and forth.

3. What kind of video games would they play? Any specific titles? —// LIFE IS STRANGE. —// She’d probably play Overwatch. Portal, Halo, Fallout 4. —// She’d probably be a Nintendo fan. Mario Kart, Pokémon, Zelda, etc…

4. What would their favorite cartoons be, and why? What would their favorite characters be? —// Sailor Moon, Hey Arnold!, The Powerpuff Girls, Totally Spies, Jem, Gargoyles, Doug, Scooby Doo, Aladdin, X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, Recess, Captain Planet, Daria, Pepper Ann, Kim Possible, Gummi Bears, Care Bears, Futurama, Avatar, The Legend of Korra. —// She loved these because they showed her tough, strong, independent women. Also they were super cool with superheroes and adventurers. (Plus she had a crush on most of the girls.) —// Faves would be Korra/Asami, Katara and Toph, Elisa and Demona from Gargoyles, Daria and Jane, Sailor Uranus, Spinelli from Recess, Shego and Kim Possible, Rogue from X-Men, Patti Mayonaise from Doug, Leela from Futurama.

5. What’s their favorite type of weather? Do they like to do anything specific on days when the weather is how they like it? —// Autumn for sure. She likes wearing nice warm sweaters and going for a walk, watching the leaves rustle in the cool breeze, listening to music. She likes hot cocoa. She likes snuggling with Marilynn (both for gay reasons but also just friend reasons).

6. If they’re a fan of Hot Chocolate, Tea, or Coffee, how do they like either of those drinks prepared? —// All of the above! —// Hot Chocolate with mini marshmallows. —// Tea with sugar, milk, and honey. —// Coffee with sugar and milk. —// She likes chai lattes. Caramel Macchiato.

7. What kind of animals would they like as a pet? What names would they give their pets if they got any? If they already have pet’s what are their names? —// She’d love cats and/or dogs. —// I forget if she already had a pet. I tried looking back but couldn’t find anything… —// She’d have a cat named Lara Croft and a puppy named Hades. (Get it? Because she’s Persephone. I’m so lame…)

8. How does your OC keep track of time? Do they have a planner? A calendar? —// She has a journal she’s constantly writing in. So each page has the time and date. —// Other than that she has a wall calendar of Symmetra and she uses the calendar on her phone.

9. How do they write? Do they write in cursive? How do they dot their i’s and j’s? Do they have specific ways that they write certain letters? —// She’s a neat writer. Print. The perfect mix of bubbly and square. Sometimes she put stars above the “i” and “j”. Most times it’s just a big dot. —// She writes “z” and “7” with a line through it. —// She sometimes mixes cursive and print.

10. What’s their favorite time of day? —// Evening. She loves the dark, cool, quiet of it.

11. What kinds of foods and drinks do they like? Do they like certain foods to be fried? Do they prefer certain foods to be prepared hot/cold? —// She tries to be a vegetarian. She’s mostly good at it. She still eats eggs. She prefers scrambled with cheese.

12. If they were an actual character in an animated film or TV series, who would they be voiced by? Do they have a certain accent that the person would need to perfect? —// I think Tessa Thompson would be good. Or maybe Kiersey Clemons.

13. If you are an artist, and if your OC can draw as well, could you replicate what their artstyle looks like? Or, if you can’t, could you describe it? —// Lots of rounded edges. Very fluid. Precise when she needs to be.

14. If your OC owned a Tumblr blog, what kind of content would they post? —// GAY STUFF™ —// She’d be complaining about Supercorp not being canon. She’d love Wynonna Earp. Van Helsing. Grey’s Anatomy. How to Get Away With Murder. Scandal. The Bold Type. Chasing Life. Sweet/Vicious. —// She’d reblog a lot of hot women. —// Poetry. Mostly others’ but she’d post her own sometimes too. She might even have a sideblog she uses to post her writings about Marilynn. —// Cool photography. Drawings. Art in general.

15. How do they type? Do they use emojis? Do abbreviate and shorten words? —// She’s a fast typist. She begrudgingly used emojis at first but then falls in love with them. 🤷🏼‍♀️ —// When texting Marilynn she’ll shorten things. But on her blog she’s mostly longhand everything. Usually just when she gets excited will she resort to things like “v sexy” or “btw” or something…?

16. If your OC was a film director, what kind of movies would they make? —// Gay ones. Lesbian indie romances. LGBTQ in general. —// She’d use lots of flowy imagery and close ups. Lingering scenery shots. —// She’d also want to direct sci-fi/fantasy.

17. If your OC was a musical artist, what genres would they do? —// She’d probably play bedroom pop? Indie? I can see her playing acoustic guitar and singing. Maybe ukulele, keyboard, drums?

18. What type of singing voice does your OC have? —// Sultry. Soft. A bit scratchy. She has trouble with really high notes, but she mostly sings in whispers anyway.

19. Does your OC like to collect things? What kind of things do they collect? —// She has tons of pictures of her and Marilynn from over the years. She has some on her vanity and the rest in a photo album. —// She also collects little things she finds when traveling somewhere with Marilynn. Seashells, rocks, twigs, leaves, feathers, coins, other miscellaneous stuff people dropped like playing cards or dice or something.

20. Was your OC inspired by anything? Another character? A person? —// Yeah, she was originally inspired by my friend (crush at the time) Molly. Rebecca was originally a tall blonde just like Molly. Wlw like Molly (she’s bi though). Vocal. Social-minded. Nice. Beautiful. Smart.