Dead Cell is a bit special since it use 3D models on characters and then produce sprite from them using different effects which explain why it is this much fluid
I think another important thing about "low quality" graphics in general is clarity. Smooth or gradient opacity edges make platforming games hard to read. Realistic lighting is inferior to manually painted shadows especially for stealth games like the Thief games where the player should know what their visibility will be when they stand in a particular area. A 2d pixelated game makes distances easier to read, requiring just counting pixels and basic geometry (something like Minecraft is also good for this).
This is so true. The first time i felt it was in hollow knight, where i found it very hard to see just anything, specially with that _dang_ xbox controller light on my face when i was in a dark room (IRL)
Pixel art also leaves a lot to the player's imagination, making the experience more personal. In my opinion, though, it isn’t very easy to work with. While regular 2D art lets you rotate, stretch, and compress sprites, with pixel art you often have to draw every single frame, which can be tricky for things like cogs, for example. You also have to deal with all sorts of scaling issues. And to keep animations smooth, you need to quantize everything; otherwise, things like moving platforms might move 1 pixel... 1 pixel... 0 pixels... 2 pixels, and so on. So, in my experience, it’s a pretty challenging art style. What game is the winter landscape at 0:54 from? It looks gorgeous!
@@TalkLikeaBeluga-oh9rc very insightful comment, I love hearing deeper analysis like this, thank you. As for the landscape, it's just stock footage haha.
I've found myself super drawn to pixel art games. This video perfectly explains and puts into words WHY I like it, while also teaching me its more than just vibes and looks. Very solid video and thank you for sharing ♥️
Great video! Video games are the art of our age, and pixel art helps to make this type of art much more unique and memorable, since we don't often see pixel art in other types of media as the focus of the visuals.
nice analysis. It´s important to understand that graphics are, precisely, graphics. Realism is just one style between other alternatives and not necessarily best for every case.
This video really gave some great insight on why so many games use pixel art It's kinda sad that you didn't include Deltarune though, since the art in it is essencially an evolved form of Undertale
@wearenoblgames It's really good It's kind of a successor to Undertale made by Toby Fox (the guy who made Undertale) The game isn't fully completed yet though It's split up into 7 chapters, with 1 and 2 being out alredy and 3/4 comming out next year
3:58 I agree with this entire spot of the video, but I believe that there is another reason why indie dev’s use pixel art. It’s because pixel art is easier than any other type of art. For regular drawing sprites using drawing programs like, say, Procreate. Making walking animations (or any animation at all) can be seriously time consuming, getting every detail right, making sure the character is the same height in every frame, etc. Meanwhile with pixel art you can just take one of the sprites, draw a line above the character to remember height, and make sprites for interactions using that singular line to make sure it’s consistent. And there are other ways of making sure your sprites are consistent with pixel art. (Which I won’t list here because I don’t want this comment to be too long.) Anyways I’ll just say, I really like this video! The way it is documented makes it nice and short, not needing 20+ minutes just to explain why indie dev’s use pixel art like other UA-camrs. Hope to see more content of yours in the future! :P
@@jbdh6510 Huh, cool! Honestly rendering 3D models into 2D sprites is my favorite type of sprites in games! And is actually pretty impressive. (I BARELY know how to make anything in Blender, non the less being able to animate with 3D models lol. Nice! :P)
What you said that make pixel easier, also can be done with free drawing. What you said that make free drawing harder, is also required when doing pixel art... Now, try to create an art piece where ONE PIXEL makes the entire difference, and you HAS TO respect a grid, with limited brush format. Each drawing style has its own difficulties for sure, but pixel art is nothing easier.
The reason why game developers use pixel art instead of 3d because you don't need to learn how to use Blender or Maya, but Ms. Paint... It's just skill issues
Hi, creator, sorry for a harsh comment, but this video is just a nonsence and mumbling around the same point for 7 minutes, and feels like you could say your point in one or two sentences and no interesting information has been provided. Pixel art don't have to be nonrealistic, as well as not pixel art doesn't mean it's realistic. Comparing pixel art with realistic art style is just a small part of what could be said on the topic. I feel like you just completely ignored: 1. Indie 3d games, like low poly art, like in SUPERHOT, or Minecraft 2. Stylized 2d non pixel art (pixel art with more and smaller pixels xD), like Ori and the Blind Forest or The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante 3. 3d pixel art, like in Return of the Obra Dinn 4. Stylized 3d games, like in Neon White Also you could've provided some stats, not just mentioning some games, but actually stating how much pixel art is popular in indie gamedev, is it 10% or 90% of popular indie games of 2024 or what? Like do some work man, i know making videos can be hard, but just putting out nonsense won't do it, why even post it. If you just growing the channel and wanted engagement, here, take that, I spent like 15 minutes writing this comment... Sorry again, it's just very interesting topic for me and a feel like you thrown at me very shallow and ignorable video, with a script written by an AI chatbot. Also I'm just a dude sitting in a chair and you are making actual games and more knowledgeable on the topic. I just hope my comment may subtract just a tiny bit of chance from this channel becoming wikipedia paraphrase and add to it becoming more deeper thoughtful content. Now i feel like am wrong, but that's just how I feel. I'm not not posting that. This video it too well made for such a script, don't spend your time making video look good spend more time making its contents interesting intead... You've made actual full games man, surely you have more things to say=( I see, you have 20 edited videos in 3 month, that was stupid of me to expect anything... Now I'm the one adding a stupid thing to the internet, oh well, that's life.
Absolutely don't feel bad for writing stuff like this, I need to hear it! The first time I got constructive criticism was because I used the word analysis and my review wasn't deep enough for the viewer to be considered an analysis. Hearing that and upping my game made me go from a few hundred views to a few thousandth on each video. So I'm always happy when somebody challenges me and pushes me to go further. That being said, please keep in mind a few things. I'm a college professor and I only teach a few hours a day which gives me a lot of time to work on my videos which is why I have edited so many. Second, I'm still learning how to write scripts and what to talk about since this is all brand new to me, so when I first read your comment I felt it was a little harsh as I do work very hard to build up the channel. But of course you're entitled to your opinion. It's your time and I try to respect it! Thanks again for watching my videos. I hope I can earn your subscription in the future. Cheers mate
@@wearenoblgames I actually already subscribed, the video about Drove got me interested and I played the game a little bit=) Also I usually subscribe to smaller channels if topics are interesting, and one bad video doesn't stop me from doing that.
i agree 100% with this, pixel art allows great art in video games and makes them more special, great video!
@@Gustavo-bc8fe glad you like it!
Dead Cell is a bit special since it use 3D models on characters and then produce sprite from them using different effects which explain why it is this much fluid
I think another important thing about "low quality" graphics in general is clarity. Smooth or gradient opacity edges make platforming games hard to read. Realistic lighting is inferior to manually painted shadows especially for stealth games like the Thief games where the player should know what their visibility will be when they stand in a particular area. A 2d pixelated game makes distances easier to read, requiring just counting pixels and basic geometry (something like Minecraft is also good for this).
@@frogfan449 great insight!
This is so true. The first time i felt it was in hollow knight, where i found it very hard to see just anything, specially with that _dang_ xbox controller light on my face when i was in a dark room (IRL)
Pixel art also leaves a lot to the player's imagination, making the experience more personal.
In my opinion, though, it isn’t very easy to work with. While regular 2D art lets you rotate, stretch, and compress sprites, with pixel art you often have to draw every single frame, which can be tricky for things like cogs, for example. You also have to deal with all sorts of scaling issues. And to keep animations smooth, you need to quantize everything; otherwise, things like moving platforms might move 1 pixel... 1 pixel... 0 pixels... 2 pixels, and so on. So, in my experience, it’s a pretty challenging art style.
What game is the winter landscape at 0:54 from? It looks gorgeous!
@@TalkLikeaBeluga-oh9rc very insightful comment, I love hearing deeper analysis like this, thank you. As for the landscape, it's just stock footage haha.
The winter landscape is a similar style to a couple games I can think of: Return of the Obra Dinn, and World of Horror.
I've found myself super drawn to pixel art games. This video perfectly explains and puts into words WHY I like it, while also teaching me its more than just vibes and looks. Very solid video and thank you for sharing ♥️
@@Dcyaboi33 Thanks! That means a lot to me! Glad you like it
The best modern pixel art game has to be Sea of Stars. What they were able to achieve with pixel art is utterly breathtaking at times
@@writingreality 💯 agree!
Great video! Video games are the art of our age, and pixel art helps to make this type of art much more unique and memorable, since we don't often see pixel art in other types of media as the focus of the visuals.
@@lony6331 that's true!
love the channel Nick. Just subbed.
@@makeitsogames thank you! That means a lot to me!
nice analysis. It´s important to understand that graphics are, precisely, graphics. Realism is just one style between other alternatives and not necessarily best for every case.
@@diegobis2048 exactly, well said
my favorite pixel art styles is ones like pizza tower since they show that pixel art can work with other styles
I still have to play that one! Thanks for reminding me
Did my guy mention Pokémon as an example of pixel art lol
I mean I guess but by that logic we should also mention Super Mario Bros.
@@AdreKiseque 🤣 good point...
you should see octopath traveller
@@fxETA I have seen it! Not played it though. Is it that good?
man I love pixel art
What game was shown after To the Moon at 7:17?
@@cheesesnax6190 that was Sea of Stars again. Amazing game!
This video really gave some great insight on why so many games use pixel art
It's kinda sad that you didn't include Deltarune though, since the art in it is essencially an evolved form of Undertale
@@Peabrain_Piano thank you! Let me check it out, I haven't played it!
@wearenoblgames
It's really good
It's kind of a successor to Undertale made by Toby Fox (the guy who made Undertale)
The game isn't fully completed yet though
It's split up into 7 chapters, with 1 and 2 being out alredy and 3/4 comming out next year
What is the game you show at 1:47 , please ?
@@Brandon-w3o that is called Sea of Stars!
3:58 I agree with this entire spot of the video, but I believe that there is another reason why indie dev’s use pixel art. It’s because pixel art is easier than any other type of art. For regular drawing sprites using drawing programs like, say, Procreate. Making walking animations (or any animation at all) can be seriously time consuming, getting every detail right, making sure the character is the same height in every frame, etc. Meanwhile with pixel art you can just take one of the sprites, draw a line above the character to remember height, and make sprites for interactions using that singular line to make sure it’s consistent. And there are other ways of making sure your sprites are consistent with pixel art. (Which I won’t list here because I don’t want this comment to be too long.) Anyways I’ll just say, I really like this video! The way it is documented makes it nice and short, not needing 20+ minutes just to explain why indie dev’s use pixel art like other UA-camrs. Hope to see more content of yours in the future! :P
@@Expandable_on_door_30 amazing! That's a great breakdown, thank you for taking the time and for the kind words! Appreciate it!
I can't draw but I am decent in 3D modeling. So for me it would be harder to do Pixel Art. Instead I render out 2D-Sprites of my animated 3D model.
@@jbdh6510 Huh, cool! Honestly rendering 3D models into 2D sprites is my favorite type of sprites in games! And is actually pretty impressive. (I BARELY know how to make anything in Blender, non the less being able to animate with 3D models lol. Nice! :P)
@ just start out. You will make incredible progress in no time!
What you said that make pixel easier, also can be done with free drawing. What you said that make free drawing harder, is also required when doing pixel art...
Now, try to create an art piece where ONE PIXEL makes the entire difference, and you HAS TO respect a grid, with limited brush format.
Each drawing style has its own difficulties for sure, but pixel art is nothing easier.
What's Crazy is somehow pixel art elevates a game so much
@@Zenovra yeah I agree! I love pixel art
The reason why game developers use pixel art instead of 3d because you don't need to learn how to use Blender or Maya, but Ms. Paint... It's just skill issues
Hi, creator, sorry for a harsh comment, but this video is just a nonsence and mumbling around the same point for 7 minutes, and feels like you could say your point in one or two sentences and no interesting information has been provided. Pixel art don't have to be nonrealistic, as well as not pixel art doesn't mean it's realistic. Comparing pixel art with realistic art style is just a small part of what could be said on the topic.
I feel like you just completely ignored:
1. Indie 3d games, like low poly art, like in SUPERHOT, or Minecraft
2. Stylized 2d non pixel art (pixel art with more and smaller pixels xD), like Ori and the Blind Forest or The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
3. 3d pixel art, like in Return of the Obra Dinn
4. Stylized 3d games, like in Neon White
Also you could've provided some stats, not just mentioning some games, but actually stating how much pixel art is popular in indie gamedev, is it 10% or 90% of popular indie games of 2024 or what?
Like do some work man, i know making videos can be hard, but just putting out nonsense won't do it, why even post it. If you just growing the channel and wanted engagement, here, take that, I spent like 15 minutes writing this comment...
Sorry again, it's just very interesting topic for me and a feel like you thrown at me very shallow and ignorable video, with a script written by an AI chatbot. Also I'm just a dude sitting in a chair and you are making actual games and more knowledgeable on the topic. I just hope my comment may subtract just a tiny bit of chance from this channel becoming wikipedia paraphrase and add to it becoming more deeper thoughtful content.
Now i feel like am wrong, but that's just how I feel. I'm not not posting that. This video it too well made for such a script, don't spend your time making video look good spend more time making its contents interesting intead... You've made actual full games man, surely you have more things to say=(
I see, you have 20 edited videos in 3 month, that was stupid of me to expect anything...
Now I'm the one adding a stupid thing to the internet, oh well, that's life.
Absolutely don't feel bad for writing stuff like this, I need to hear it! The first time I got constructive criticism was because I used the word analysis and my review wasn't deep enough for the viewer to be considered an analysis. Hearing that and upping my game made me go from a few hundred views to a few thousandth on each video. So I'm always happy when somebody challenges me and pushes me to go further. That being said, please keep in mind a few things. I'm a college professor and I only teach a few hours a day which gives me a lot of time to work on my videos which is why I have edited so many. Second, I'm still learning how to write scripts and what to talk about since this is all brand new to me, so when I first read your comment I felt it was a little harsh as I do work very hard to build up the channel. But of course you're entitled to your opinion. It's your time and I try to respect it! Thanks again for watching my videos. I hope I can earn your subscription in the future. Cheers mate
@@wearenoblgames I actually already subscribed, the video about Drove got me interested and I played the game a little bit=)
Also I usually subscribe to smaller channels if topics are interesting, and one bad video doesn't stop me from doing that.