Sweet tea? Ice cream? A nice, cold beer? Show us how you "beat the heat" this week by pixelling your favorite frosty treat!
Be sure to use Ice Blue #99FFFF.
Canvas Size - Exactly 64 x 64
Colours - Max 16, including Ice Blue #99FFFF
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Edit: an earlier version of this post listed #9999FF, which is NOT "Ice Blue", but is also a lovely color. Entries using either #99FFFF and/or #9999FF will be accepted!
Listen up soldier! Your mission sounds simple, but can be tricky. You have exactly one week to join one of the following factions and pixel a sprite that would fit in their ranks.
Kaklasian Jungle Fighters (Lightly armed troops without much protective gear that specialise in melee combat)
Sons of Peril (Mostly ranged troops that use heavy machinery to get the job done)
Nightchiefs (Stealth-focused units that like to strike at night)
Omega Legion (Balanced troops that come in masses and are cheap to replace)
You can approach these anyway you like. Your units don't have to be human! Monsters, machines or even animal, anything goes.
Dismissed.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 32 x 32
Colours - Max. 12
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
This week, we want you to draw a gadget using the retro palette below. It can be your own creation or something existing.
Optional Bonus Challenge: 4th of July is the birthday of cartoonist Rube Goldberg, famous for his designs of complicated gadgets doing everyday things in indirect or redundant ways. The optional challenge is to draw a Rube Goldberg style mechanism.
Canvas Size - Max. 188 x 197 vertical or horizontal
Colours - Max. 9 only colors from this palette.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
“You're flying Buzz!", "No Woody we're falling in style!”
I'm sure you have imagined at least once how specific scenes would look like from the eyes of a bird soaring in the sky. And this week puts you behind the eyes of that bird.
You can either choose between a top-down / top-down2 or an isometric view
The scene doesn't have to be something specific, however, make sure that a lot happens on the ground. A war scene, buzzing city or thrilling race are good examples.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 200 (Width) x 150 (Height)
Colours - Max. 20
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Perhaps one of the most memorable photographs from the incidents in Tiananmen Square on 1989 was a single civilian stopping a convoy of tanks by standing in front of them. For the 30th year of the incidents, this week we ask you to draw a scene or sprite involving a single standing figure, seen from behind.
Canvas Size - Max. 200 x 200
Colours - Max. 32
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
Are you afraid of the dark? Well, you should be!
This week, I want you to give me top-notch nightmare fuel. Pixel a scene or a sprite of a creature that lurks in the dark and preys upon it's victims. The more nightmare inducing the better!
Canvas Size - Max. 200 x 200
Colours - Max. 18
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
After moulding 1.4 billion crayola crayons, Emerson Moser revealed that he is color blind. Obviously this didn't hold him back! This week, we want you to create a piece that involves something related to at least one of the color names below, using these 8 crayola colors, plus "paper" white (#ffffff).
Canvas Size - Max. 300 x 200 (vertical or horizontal)
Colours - Max. 9 (The colors below)
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
It's been a while, but the time has come to do another challenge that is for all you animators out there!
In order to keep the challenge simple enough for everybody you don't have to animate a large piece. However, your animation must have at least 4 frames with more to be added if you feel confident enough.
The overall theme is yours to choose, just make sure you meet the requirements.
Let's make those pixels move!
Canvas Size - Exactly. 64 x 64
Colours - Max. 16
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Required. (4 frames minimum)
This week, we want you to pixel a sprite for a futuristic gun (rifle, pistol, cannon, etc.) that you can expect to see in a shooter game's inventory. You can draw a ballistic weapon, beam gun or just go wild such as a sludge thrower. Side view is suggested but any perspective is ok as long as it can fit in an inventory.
Optional: If your gun has a feature such as acid or electricity, you can animate it.
Canvas Size - Max. 200 x 200
Colours - Max. 20
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
A simple challenge, trust me.
Create a sprite of the "Coolest Thing Ever"
Keep it simple and pick a thing that already exist and you think is just too good not to have or go creative and pixel an all-in-one device suitable for every purpose!
You may even pick the finished thing as your avatar for a week if you want. (10kb limit for avatars!)
Canvas Size - Exactly. 64x64
Colours - Max. 12
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, you have to face a colour that stands for so many things. Love, blood, danger and "The Moscow–Washington" hotline.
Just some simple shades of red would be too easy for all you pixel pushers out there though. That's why you have to deal with not very pleasing greys, blues and greens.
There are no restrictions. However, make sure you incorporate that pesky red! My polite looking ork friend serves as an example.
Canvas Size - Max. 300x300
Colours - Exactly 4, the colors in the sample image #141725 #4e6058 #858d83 #f00a0a
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Notre Dame Catheral, one of the most famous landmarks on the world is on fire at the moment. So this week, we want you to draw a piece that involves a building (landmark or not) on fire (scene, mockup, sprite, etc.) in memory of landmarks that are no more.
Canvas Size - Max. 116 x 163 (horizontal or vertical)
Colours - Max. 16
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Winter is coming! Game of Thrones final season is about to hit, but who will win, pick your side!
This week, we want you to draw either an undead or a dragon. You can be creative about it, any undead or any dragon will do. Sprites, portraits or scenes are all welcome.
Optional bonus challenge is drawing an undead dragon.
Canvas Size - Max. 200x120 (horizontal or vertical)
Colours - Max. 14
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.
It's once again time for our ever popular yearly April Fools Gallery challenge!
For those who do not know the rules yet, the idea is to study the PJ gallery of another pixel artist. Look at the techniques they use, the colours they pick, the subject matters they gravitate towards, etc... Then once you feel like you have a grasp of that person's style, create an image that will fool us into thinking that it's theirs.
Don't forget to mention the name of your chosen pixel artist in your description!
Previous April Fools Gallery challenges can be found here: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]]
"Fooled ya!" This was written by the one and only Pyrometal for last year's April Fools challenge
Canvas Size - Unrestricted.
Colours - Unrestricted.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, we want you to draw a fantasy monster! But only within 24 x 24 pixels! It may be a well known design or your own creation.
Canvas Size - Max. 24x24
Colours - Max. 12
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Danger is everywhere! Death might come from where you expect the least. This week, we want you to draw three pictograms/signs for the stupidest dangers you can imagine. Squirrel attack, fish rains, rainbow burn...
Canvas Size - Max. 200x200
Colours - Max. 8
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
Some of the best moments of 80s were when you finally saw the title screen of a Commodore 64 game after a really long wait.
This week, we want you to draw a title screen of a game for Commodore 64. The game can be an original one you imagined, or an existing one with a different title screen. You must use the C64 palette with fat pixels (2x1 horizontal pixels) and C64 resolution.
Canvas Size - Exactly 320 x 200 (horizontal)
Colours - Max 16. C64 palette:
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week is metal time! We want you take out your material skills and pixel something that is complety made out of metal.
Tanks, robots, buildings or even just a material study.
Canvas Size - Max 200 x 200
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, we want you to draw the interiors of a building or a landform that can usually be found in medieval fantasy fiction; such as a dungoen, a tavern, a tower, a cave, a temple or a potion shop. The interiors should be depicted in isometric perspective. You're allowed to add any necessary characters, creatures or items.
Canvas Size - Max 150 x 100 (horizontal or vertical)
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
There's hardly anything that's more fascinating than the universe. Countless stars, planets and clouds of gas.
This week I want you to pixel something that you could find in outer space. From a spaceship to a planet, anything goes.
Canvas Size - Max 100 x 100
Colours - Max 12.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
You wake up one morning and you finally discover that you have super powers! You look into the mirror and you see...
Create a portrait of yourself as a super hero. What your super powers and / or costume are (if there is one) and how they affect your portrait is entirely up to you.
As this is a portrait challenge, only head and shoulders are allowed to be seen.
Optional bonus challenge: Find yourself a cool super hero name and use your challenge entry as your avatar.
Canvas Size - Max 64 x 64
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
You find yourself alone in the woods at night with just a flashlight and a cast-iron pipe in your hand. You wander through the darkness and suddenly hear devilish noise behind you. You turn around and see....
Canvas Size - Max. 150x150
Colours - Exactly 6
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
Remember those old boss fights where the boss enrages at 50% HP? This week, we want you to create this! Draw a boss sprite (with or without a background) and make its enraging animation. You may or may not make it change form/color after the enrage animation.
Canvas Size - Max. 200x200
Colours - Max. 20
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Required.
"The Trojan Horse is a story from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the independent city of Troy and win the war. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside including Odysseus."
- Wikipedia
A wooden horse shouldn't be too hard to pixel, right? However, what if you only got 4 colours?
Canvas Size - Max. 250x250
Colours - Exactly 4 (given palette)
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
Brrr! It's cold out there. While we're safe from cold inside our warm houses, I wonder how the trees must be feeling. This week we want you to draw a scene that includes tree(s) covered in snow. Of course the rest of the scene may show anything else you want.
Canvas Size - Max. 160x100 (vertical or horizontal)
Colours - Max. 14
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
We are all to familiar with the classic version of a death race. Badass looking muscle cars right out of Mad Max 2 which try get to the to the finish line first not without doing their best to kill their opponents.
However, how would such a race look in ancient times. You can go as far back in history as you want, just make sure that your vehicle doesn't have an ordinary petrol engine. A war chariot with a ballista or even a steam-powered weapon on 4 or even 2 wheels, everything goes.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 64x64
Colours - Max. 16
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
Happy new year pixel-heads! Have you missed a challenge from the past year? Did you start but couldn't find the time to finish? This week, we want you to pick any weekly challenge from 2018 and make an entry (check the ALL CHALLENGES coloumn on the right).
Please make sure you write in the description which challenge you chose and make sure you follow it's rules and limitations. Have fun!
Canvas Size - see the corresponding challenge
Colours - see the corresponding challenge
Transparency - see the corresponding challenge
Animation - see the corresponding challenge
Merry Christmas, everybody! I hope you are spending some great time with your family and loved ones.
For this year, I want you to pixel an object that respresents christmas for you like no other. It can be anything! Just make sure that you post a small description when the connection to christmas is not obvious.
Canvas Size - Max 100x100
Colours - Max 24
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The level challenge is back after 5 years! What is the most common level theme of all? Of course the jungle. This week, we want you to design a mock-up of a new, original video game showing a forest or jungle level. For this particular game you are restricted to 12 specific colours, these colours are shown below.
Canvas size - Unrestricted.
Colours - Max 12. Must use only the colours from the palette below:
Animation - Optional.
Transparency - No.
Previous level challenges: Underwater, Lava, Desert
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
This week, we want you to create the flight animation of a character with a mountable or wearable flying machine such as a jetpack, jetman or artificial wings. The character must be seen, so no airplanes with a cabin or cockpit. You can be creative about it and draw something completely unusual, the sky is the limit.
Canvas Size - Max 120x120
Colours - Max 18
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Required.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Engineer, you are given following order:
Design a weapon that has the ability to hit a grain of sand on the other side of the earth. The weapon has to be small and light enough to be manned and carried by a group of two. Cost doesn't matter, you are given every material you can imagine. Now go and pixel that weapon!
Canvas Size - Max. 200x200
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
This week, we want you to create the inseparable duo of video games: the sprite AND the portrait of the same character or monster. The game genre and the perspective of the sprite is entirely up to you. You can use a border for the portrait. You must separate them from eacother by transparency.
Canvas Size - Max 100x200
Colours - Max 14
Transparency - Required (to separate the portrait and sprite).
Animation - Optional.
Rick Nelson seems to like garden parties and so do I. Sitting down with some friends, eating good food and drinking a few beers is an evening well spend.
This week I want you to capture the spirit of a garden party, but there's a twist! You are only allowed to use top-down view and are restricted to a canvas size of 200x200!
Canvas Size - Exactly. 200x200
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Humans are going beyond the solar system to find a new home. Draw a spaceship sprite designed to carry the human race for decades - or even centuries. Of course, imagination is what we're looking for rather than scientific accuracy. The perspective for the sprite is up to you; side, topdown, isometric... anything goes.
Canvas Size - Max 150x150.
Colors - Max 20.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
In a world as huge as Hyrule or Red Dead's rendition of the wild west we would easily get lost without a proper map.
This week I want you to create a game map. It doesn't have to be a map of an existing world. You can be as creative as you want.
Canvas Size - Max. 350x350
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
 |  |  |  |
 | Bastille Day (France) July 14th |
 | Canada Day/Dominion Day July 1st |
 | Fourth of July (USA) July 4th |
| More holidays | |