[engeljohnb]

After classical art training, I thought pixel art would be fast and easy -- the low resolution would disguise any mistakes.

Quite the opposite. The fewer pixels, the more each one has to be perfectly in place. Honestly should've been obvious in hindsight. If I have any games left in me after my current one's finished, I'll just use as high a resolution as I'm comfortable with.

Unless the sprites are truly tiny, like 16x16 with 2 or 3 frame animations, I don't know if pixel art makes a good shortcut to an aesthetically appealing game. Then again, it might be easier than six years of every day practice.

[torginus]

More than a dozen artists I've talked to told me pixel art is entirely it's own discipline - they're no more comfortable approaching it than a layman would.

The traditional workflow of creating a rough sketch on paper or tablet then progressively refining it just entirely doesn't apply.

[spankibalt]

> "The traditional workflow of creating a rough sketch on paper or tablet then progressively refining it just entirely doesn't apply."

For many a pixel artist that is a typical workflow, especially when working from reference, e. g. by retracing/"converting", say, an architectural period piece such as a street view to be used in a period- and location-accurate adventure game. In other words a classic line-to-pixel A/D conversion.

[rockskon]

If you want to see someone who has truly done wonders with pixel art - the game Look Outside has so much incredible (and disturbing) pixel art.

[amelius]

Makes me wonder if GenAI can get these kinds of subtleties right.

[Minor49er]

I've seen at least one indie game (Ta*dQuest) use Midjourney to create pixel art sprites for some NPCs that appear in the dungeon. Extra art, like portraits for those NPCs, was drawn by hand to complement the sprites after they were generated, so it all feels deliberate. I would have never guessed