All weekly challenges until October 25 are part of Pixelween, a contest with prizes. Read the announcement for more information.

You will be drawing a scene of the start of your very own horror story, using one of the following prompts:

• Outside, all alone
• Teens having fun
• Everything is quiet
• An unfamiliar place

You are free to interpret these themes in any way you like. Stereotypical horror/halloween tropes and characters are allowed but not required. Please clarify in the description of your entry which prompt you've used.

Next week there will be 4 new prompts for part 2 of your story, so don't worry about planning ahead too much.

Technical requirements for this week:

Canvas Size - exactly 130 (horizontal) x 80 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 16
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

We're exicited to hear who will be joining, let us know in the comments with an "I'm in"!

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

It's time to vote for the latest pixel art challenge: Be Like Mike.

VOTE NOW!

The RGx Water pixel art challenge is complete and we have three new champions. This week's challenge awards go to the following pieces:



Thanks so much to all who took the time to vote and participate in the challenge! Check out the RGx Water forum thread for more information.

Pixelween has awoken from its slumber, and it promises rewards for those who endure its horrors!

This year, you will be crafting the storyboard of your own horror film over the course of four consecutive weekly challenges. Each challenge will be one more part of your film, and all the scenes together shall be your Pixelween entry. Call forth your darkest nightmares!

Rules
To be eligible for the Pixelween prizes, you must submit to at least 2 of the 4 weeklies. As long as at least two of your submissions are on time, you are  allowed (but not required) to submit more up until October 25, the final deadline. Having a full storyboard is not required to win, but the fates favor a finished film.
The winning storyboards will be chosen from all eligible entries by a jury of select PixelJoint members, perhaps with the help of some dark attendants who for now remain in the shadows...
The weeklies also function as normal weeklies, with the usual prizes. Your success in the weeklies does not influence your chances in Pixelween judging.

Every week there will be specifications about theme and color use, and for every scene the canvas size will be 130x80.

Prizes:

• 1st place will receive a printed Masters of Pixel art book volume of your choice, and a software key.
• 2nd place will receive a 30$ steam gift card, a Master of Pixel art ebook, and a software key.
• 3rd place will receive a 20$ steam gift card, a Master of Pixel art ebook, and a software key.
• 4th and 5th place will receive a Master of Pixel art ebook, and a software key.
• 6th - 9th (and possibly more) place will receive a software key, see info below.

There are 3 Aseprite, 3 Pyxel Edit, and 3 Pro Motion keys, which will be divided among the top 9 entrants. The highest placing winners get to choose first, and if a winner does not need a software license it will be moved on to the 10th place, and so on.

Challenge winner Quiara wants you to create a Punch Out sprite.

One of the most iconic games of the 8-bit era was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! The character animations in that game were fairly impressive for its day... but what would its cast look like in 2020?

Create a sprite of a fighter facing forward, following the restrictions below. As a bonus challenge you can try and match the style of the original fighters.

For some inspiration, here are a bunch of original character animations.

The sprites need to use the NES palette:

Canvas Size - Min: 30x80, max: 64x130 (when using minimum sizes, the sprite needs to touch all walls of the canvas)
Colors - Max 7, 6 from the palette + transparency.
Transparency - Yes, required.
Animation - Optional.

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

It's time to vote for the latest pixel art challenge: RGx Water.

VOTE NOW!

The It's evolving II pixel art challenge is complete and we have three new champions. This week's challenge awards go to the following pieces:



Thanks so much to all who took the time to vote and participate in the challenge! Check out the It's evolving II forum thread for more information.

Something stirs in the bowels of Pixel Joint. Something long thought dead.

In the darkness, the faint glow of pixels glimmers.

On September 28th, these unknown pixels shall break free, spilling their horrors out into the world. Bind them, and you may be rewarded.

Draw a scene which involves water. For example: a calm lake, a gardener watering their plants or a mockup of an underwater level, anything goes as long as there is some water visible.

The twist: there are no "blue" values allowed. You can use any colors between [0,0,0] and [255,255,0], but make sure that each color has 0 for the blue component!  If using hex codes, colors will be #XXXX00.  (This also means no gray, white, or magenta, as all include some value in the blue channel).

Canvas Size - Max 128x96 (any orientation)
Colors - Max 16, all having 0 for the blue component.
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 time to vote for the latest pixel art challenge: It's evolving II.

VOTE NOW!

The Tiny Sprites II pixel art challenge is complete and we have three new champions. This week's challenge awards go to the following pieces:



Thanks so much to all who took the time to vote and participate in the challenge! Check out the Tiny Sprites II forum thread for more information.

Seeinng the succes of the Discord Pokemon collab, it's about time that we too do another pokemon related event!

There are a lot of specific rules this week, so read on carefully, and feel free to ask questions.

You are challenged to make 3 original creature designs, also called fakemons. While they can look like they fit in with the Pokemon world, the designs have to be 100% original! The 3 creatures must follow each other up, one could evolve into the next. For some examples, check out these sprites, especially in the top rows there are a lot of series of 3 in there.

For each individual creature you can work with a maximum of 4 colors: Black, white, and one of the color pairs from the pallete (one row). You could do all 3 creatures with the same palette, or optionally have 3 different palette creatures, but within the 56x56 square you must work with one of the 9 given palettes!

The template must be used, but you are welcome to modify the borders and border style as you see fit, but only using the colors that are already in use.

You can try and adhere to the Pokemon style, or go as crazy as you like, it's all up to you!

The template:

The list of palettes (every row is a seperate palette):

Canvas Size - Exactly 182x68 (56x56 per creature)
Colors - Max 8 (Max 4 per creature, from one row of the palette. No mixing of palettes)
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

For extra inspiration, here is a link to the original It's Evolving challenge

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

It's time to vote for the latest pixel art challenge: Tiny Sprites II.

VOTE NOW!

The Grey Dinos pixel art challenge is complete and we have three new champions. This week's challenge awards go to the following pieces:



Thanks so much to all who took the time to vote and participate in the challenge! Check out the Grey Dinos forum thread for more information.