Well it's that time of year again...

Go to another member's PJ gallery, study their pixels, and fool us into thinking that that person made it.

No copies, only 100% original work.
Think style, technique and artistic sensibility.
You must name the pixel artist in your submission.

No real rules this week but find the parameters set by the artist you choose.
This applies to general size, color choices and don't forget to pay attention to preview icons.

Also have a look at the previous two April Fool's Gallery Challenges [1] [2]

(Yes, this is the real Weekly Challenge!)

This week you are challenged to create something using the controversial pillow shading technique.

Canvas Size- Exactly 400 x 100.
Colours - Unrestricted. Because pillow shading can often require a large number of colours, we recommend saving your work in the .png file format this week, as .gif can only handle 256 colours.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

If you are having trouble with this technique have a look at this handy video tutorial.
 

The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
 

 APRIL FOOLS!

Yes, it is a bit early for an April Fools joke, but this is something that we thought would work better by pulling it off at the start of a challenge week.

Happy (almost) April Fools Day everyone! =)

This week you're challenged to create the front packaging for a new breakfast cereal called "Pixel Crunch".

Make sure you're not using any existing fonts.

Canvas Size - Exactly 100 (width) x 150 (height)
Colours - Max 48.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

Challenge winner Calv challenges you to create a new video game character by melding two or more existing characters together. You can use any character from any game, but be as creative as possible. You can do it as a portrait, a sprite, a scene or however you want.

Some examples; Mario wearing Master Chief's outfit about to race in an F-Zero machine or Sonic mixed with Blanka.

Make sure you tell us who your characters are and what games they are from.

Canvas Size- Unrestricted.
Colours - Max 36.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.

EDIT: If anyone is found using existing sprites and editing them for the challenge, they will be banned. Tracing an existing sprite is also frowned upon and will be considered ripping.

The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.

the awesome people at OCremix is proudly relasing their 13th album, Summoning of Spirits: An Arrangement of Music from Tales of Phantasia(Snes) and Tales of Symphonia(Gamecube) made by the collab works of several talented artist.

"From disco to symphonic rock, it features over fifty musical arrangements from over thirty five artists, each interpreting the works of composers Motoi Sakuraba, Shinji Tamura, Ryota Furuya, Takashi Arai, and Akio Shimizu in their own unique style."

The album can be downloaded via Bit Torrent, or by HTTP, as either a full zip file or individual tracks.

 The PAX 10 is a showcase of independent games to be exhibited at the Penny Arcade Expo. Taking submissions until May 9th, our group of 50 industry experts will cull the selection of games into what they collectively feel are the ten best in regard to gameplay and overall fun-factor. Click here for more information.

The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for February 2009. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.

Clockwork Whistler by iLKke

Robot wants to play by ptoing

Digger by big brother

A Dragon and His Princess by MashPotato

Tei by Panda

Secret Santa by Fool

4Billion% Horsemen by probertson

Golden Suprise by jamon

Clouds by Panda

Executioner pondering where he put his nose by ptoing

No, its not a speedrun, but its the kind of fanservice we love.

Needless to say, don't watch it if you don't want to get spoilers.

(German version avaliable here).

If you're in the mood for some retro music, pixel art and massive seizures check out Dawn Metropolis.

www.dawnmetropolis.com

You are challenged this week  to create an image using any of the CGA palettes listed below.

The image must include some kind of cyclops. You do not have to make it a 'typical' cyclops, it can be any creature with just one eye. However, it must be clear that the creature does just have one eye.

    NOTE: If you were intending to make an image of the X-Men character "Cyclops" your piece will NOT be accepted into the challenge as technically that character is not a cyclops.

Canvas Size - Maximum 320 (width) x 200 (height).
Colours - Exactly 4. Select one of the following CGA palettes:



Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.

The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.

From PopCap:

Channel your Peggle Fever into something great and help create the next version of Peggle. You could win some great prizes in the process!

Sweet!

I'll admit I don't really know anything about Fall Out Boy (being an old curmudgeon and all), but the Oregon Trail inspired pixel art game is pretty sweet.

Check it!

Mecho Wars coming soon.

I'm sure most of you have seen badassbill's piece in the gallery. I just found it kinda cool to see it show up in the news.

Now I'm giddy as a school girl. Dreams do come true.

In an effort to celebrate the entertainment masterminds of our industry, your pals at IGN.com com have assembled the ultimate list of creative game geniuses. The list is not complete yet but check it out: The Top 100 Game Creators of All Time.

Challenge winner [thUg] challenges you to create a portrait of a Two-Face type character, like the character from Batman, but not necessarily with a human side.

Examples: robot/animal, boy/girl, alien/human, firecreature/watercreature, etc...

Canvas Size- Max 100 x 100.
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.