Pixel Art – Digital Graphics Used For Computer Games

Pixel art is a style of digital art drawn at the pixel level, sometimes having the pixels enlarged for a retro appearance. Pixel art is almost exclusively used in video games, however there are some uses for pixel art outside of video games. One notable example of this is are the emoticons from older social media such as MSN or MySpace. These have been replaced in recent years by vector graphics being presented as pixel art in recent years, which brings us to the first problem with pixel art. Pixel art is raster-based digital artwork, which is created pixel by pixel. This has the inherent disadvantage on vector based artwork in that raster based artwork can’t be enlarged without losing quality due to the pixels being spread over a larger area. As such, the reason that the pixel art has been replaced with vector art posited as raster art is due to the variety of different sized devices that require an image to be constantly resized.

Pixel art is used in different ways in the context of video games as well. The most familiar example to a lot of people will be the 2D sprites from classic arcade games such as Space Invaders and Pac Man, as well as the games from 8 Bit consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System. Pixel art was largely used at the time due to technical constraints, however due to advances in 3D graphics, pixel art was taken largely out of the mainstream of games. The other type of pixel art is isometric pixel art, which is drawn as a projection from approximately 30° above horizontal. This is typically done to give a 3D perspective without having to use any actual 3D processing, thus being easier to run for the end user. However, this too has been largely abandoned by developers in pursuit of 3D rendered graphics, such as the isometric view in a game like Frostpunk - A recently released strategy game displayed from an isometric position (albeit a slightly higher angle).

This isn't to say, however, that pixel art is a dead artform in the context of gaming as some devices, such as mobile phones, are still dominated by side scrolling games and simply do not have the power to render in 3D properly. As well as this, pixel art is often used in Indie titles. A specific example of this is Hotline Miami, which is shown from a top-down perspective and drawn in pixel art. This is done specifically as a retro visual callback, which is accurate to the rest of the game as it aims to be similar thematically to an 80's action film i. e. neon colours and a synthwave soundtrack. Examples such as this show that pixel art is now more of a stylistic decision to include in gaming rather than a necessity.