I’ve been waiting to write this post for … I don’t know, 4 years? That’s why I’m that much more delighted to finally tell you that Pixel Logic: A Guide to Pixel Art (@pixel-logic), a digital book that started its way on Indiegogo all the way back at the end of 2014, is finally fully released!
Written by Michael ‘@michafrar’ Azzi (and a dozen of guest artists … @unseven, @jinndevil, @pixosprout to name just a few), Pixel Logic is your ultimate tome of knowledge about all things specific to the art of tiny squares.
Weighing in at 242 pages, Pixel Logic spans 9 chapters which quickly leave introductory basics behind for a deep dive into things that make pixel art a unique art form: anti-aliasing, dithering, sub-pixeling, and less talked about—but just as crucial—topics of readability and clean-up.
While it won’t teach you how to draw in terms of shading and anatomy (for that you can use hundreds of resources on art fundamentals out there already), the book does attack foundational areas that matter a great deal in video games, namely graphical projections and animation.
All topics are neatly illustrated with Michael’s art, guest artists’ work, useful diagrams, and plenty of examples from classic and modern pixel art games. Thanks to the colorful design by Jenna ‘@cyanatar’ Brown, working your way through the content is just as charming as it is super useful.
If you ever wanted all major areas of pixel art knowledge neatly gathered in one place, your wish has been granted (and then some). Pixel Logic is available in both English and French for the very affordable price of $9 or more, and even comes with an enhanced PDF of the Animation chapter that has GIFs embedded right into the book. You can get the first chapter as a free preview, in case you want to get a taste before you buy.
This is now a must-have in your artist arsenal, right next to the $1 kindle title Learning Pixel Art, which I also always recommend for intermediate/advanced pixel artists. It’s not the end of the story for pixel art books though; Make Your Own Pixel Art by Jennifer Dawe is already looming on the horizon. See you back in March!
It’s been almost another year since my last Tumblr update, time sure flies doesn’t it? I thought I’d be able to fully focus on adding content to my hobby dungeon crawler game this year, but boy, how absolutely wrong was I!
Getting hit by design indecisiveness at this point of development sure didn’t help. Luckily I have a much clearer direction now and hopefully things work out for the better.
Stuff I did this year:
new hot springs map theme
trap support
ice element (freezing and sliding)
knock back chaining
new inventory (you can carry more junks now!)
text delay support for dialog box
complete rework of map branching system
a couple of new mobs
mob aura and leveling system
added proper sound effects
bug fixes and more!
I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s really okay to spend so much time on this single project when I could’ve done a hundred of other different things over these years. Who knows…
Till next time!
PS: I finally have a proper portfolio site too. (Please hire me for pixel art jobs so I can indulge in my gamedev hobby)
Woah… almost year went by since the last update!
This game is still chugging along slowly (4 years and counting). It’s wasn’t easy juggling between work and this side project, so the graphic side has remained somewhat stagnant. I was just too drained to do art after a long day of work. On the other hand, coding has been going pretty well!
Some things I’ve managed to do this year:
updated UIs and controls
support for branching levels
destructible walls
fire propagation
new AI system
reworked map generation system
basic sound system
various game mechanics (not gonna post any spoilers!)
lotsa bug fixes!!
Just a few more essential things to do before I get to the fun part: adding game content! =D
That’s all for now. Have a great new year ahead!
I-I’m still working on this! Just dumping a bunch of random shots from the latest build. Follow my Twitter for more up-to-date progress.
And some info before anyone asks:
There’s still no game title (just calling it Project Dungeon for now).
There’s still no release schedule.
It’s loosely based on the Mystery Dungeon game genre.
It’s currently developed with Unity for the PC.
I’m only working on it during my free time.
I’ll be focusing more on coding next year so there won’t be much pretty things to show then. Till next time!
frankfreeman:
Hii hello, I'm a 3D artist about to enter my senior year and I was wondering if I could rig those old models you posted you know just for fun, okay well thanks I just thought they were really cute. :)
Me:
Oh yeah go right ahead! Have fun with them! =)
Just rummaged through my backup CDs today and found some of my older 3D models (from 2005 and 2011 respectively).
I’ve converted them to Blender format for anyone who wants to poke around. I couldn’t salvage the old rigs however, so they are just T-posed models along with their textures.
Anonymous:
Can you share a couple of wireframes of full human-like characters? I love your low poly chibi style and want to learn how to master it!
Me:
Here you go!
Anonymous:
Hi ! So the game has been cancelled ? I'm a little sad. :c Don't u think to use donations ? Anyway do u think of making another game like that in the future ? ~ Have a nice day ! :D
Me:
Hi anon, no worries, we’re doing fine financially (thanks to day jobs) =)
While it’s not exactly the same, but I’ll still be continuing on my dungeon game. Cheers =D
Anonymous:
just curious, but did you make a game in the past that did get uploaded?
Me:
Hmm.. I had a couple of solo game projects up online yeaaars (decade?) ago, which thankfully aren’t available anymore (cause they are just plain awful). I haven’t uploaded anything else since and the rest are just commercial titles I was involved in.
Here’s a shot from an old game that was up (yes, it has chickens too). I’m too lazy to dig through my backup CDs for any older ones haha
Anonymous:
Just curious, is there anyway that a downloadable vers. could be made of what existed before cancelation? Or is it all just being thrown away? It seems like such a waste of an awesome looking game
Me:
Thanks!
There’s no plans to upload the prototype at the moment. Sean (the programmer) may repurpose some of the assets for future games he’ll be doing (while I go back to focus on my dungeon game project), so it’s not a complete waste! Plus we’ve learned lots from this project! =)
Anonymous:
why has it been cancelled?? :c
Me:
We hit a few snags with getting multi-mobile-device-local-multiplayer working smoothly plus the lack of wide market appeal for such game made it hard to continue on.
Art dump from our Sneaky Paws project (development has been cancelled)
HD
HD
