[Competition] A: Don't hesitate, PIXELATE!

Comp A: Don't hesitate, PIXELATE!

Welcome to an early attempt at an MGSA art competition! We fully expect these things to morph and change over time, but we need to start somewhere. If you've got input and ideas on how to make this whole thing better, please join in the discussion on the competition meta thread. (That I'll totally link to when it exists)

Pixel artwork has had a huge influence on games in almost every way possible: Everything from Mario having a mustache and a huge nose (seriously, look it up) to game stories and final conclusions. Many people insist on calling pixel art "retro" and dismiss it far too readily as no longer relevant. Bugger that, it's as valid a style as anything else you choose to make a game with. That's why I think it would be amazing fun to take characters from non-pixelated games you love and see what they'd look like if a different style had been chosen for their games, right from the start.

While it's no doubt going to be awesome answering questions like "What would your favorite LoL champion look like as pixel art?", it's going to be just as awesome figuring out what makes our characters differentiable from each other, what elements of their own style carry over and, most importantly, what doesn't end up working at lower resolutions.

Take a character from a game you love and reinterpret them as pixel art.

Rules:
  • Competition starts on October 20th, 20-10-2012.
  • Deadline for entries is October 31st, 31-10-2012.
  • Max resolution: 64x64 (and that's pretty huge, trust me), min resolution 4x4.
  • No, you don't have to be "8 bit", any colour depth you like is cool, even a constrained one.
  • Don't be a dick: So no using someone else's art and saying it's your own.
  • Obviously we're using other people's characters as inspiration, but keep it fair use.
  • Ask for help when you get stuck.
  • WIPs are posted. Always. Even if you think they're terrible... How else are you going to get tips and feedback?
  • If someone else chooses the same character as you, that's totally cool. Give each other advice and enjoy having another take to learn from.
  • Competition is open to entry for South African citizens, current residents of South Africa and South African passport holders.
  • The judges' decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into. All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the entrant, Make Games SA takes no responsibility for entered content.
  • We have no idea what winning means right now. You'll probably get a high five and a warm sense of accomplishment.
Entering:
To enter the competition, start a thread titled "A: Name of the character you'll pixelate" and post your WIPs and final images there. Start the post with why you love that character and what you want to capture in your final image. Include some reference shots of the character so the rest of us know what the crap you're trying to do!

Other people WILL reply to your post with their feedback and ideas, it's a fact that more feedback directly equates to better outputs. Please report any offensive comments to for moderation. At the same time, don't be precious about your work - remember it's not you personally that's being critiqued.

You may enter multiple times if you wish and can handle the work.

Advice:
This is a short competition, have fun with your entries! Fun is better than perfectionism. Start with medium-sized resolutions, trying to go super minimal is just as hard as trying to be brilliant at 64x64. No, you don't have to keep it power of 2 if you don't want to.

If anyone has great pixel-based tutorials, post them below and I'll edit them in... That said, you really don't have to be a pro to take a stab. Use this as an opportunity to learn from the badass artists here. I have seen artists like @dipso start a sprite with no colours, just greys, in order to get a feel for the important elements of the image. Also, keep your backgrounds transparent, the universe will thank you.

Feel free to post images at higher resolutions as your WIP shots, that way we don't all have to squint at our screens too much ;)

...

Good luck and enjoy the competition.

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