Challenges Archive

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Take a long, horizontal canvas and draw a sprite of a famous game character in the middle (like Mario, Lara Croft, Link, Samus, Gordon Freeman, Doomguy...etc). It doesn't have to look exactly like the original, but it have to be recognisable. Then draw the same character as a baby on the left and as elderly on the right. Try to make the age differences look most obvious as possible. You can draw the baby in diapers, with a pacifier, crawling or even sitting in in a stroller, and the elder with grey hair, arched back or and using a cane.

If you choose a child-like character (like Little Sister from Bioshock) draw it on the left and add an adult version and elder on the right, and if you choose an old lookong character (like Geralt of Rivia) add it on the right, and add baby and younger adult version on the left. Just follow the pattern of 3 stages in live of a game character, from a child to their old age, from left to right.


Canvas Size: Max 300x100 (horizontal).
Colours: Max 33 (including transparency).
Transparency: Required.
Animation: No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 3/20/2023 02:07  |    0
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The Fire Emblem Engage GBA 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 Fire Emblem Engage GBA forum thread for more information.
Posted by gawrone @ 3/20/2023 01:55  |    0
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This week we are having another quasi-random palette challenge.

Similarly to the Animals_14, all of the colors in this palette are named after flowers (names and hexes from here). FLOWERS is the topic of this week, and you are free to choose if it will be a sprite or scene. But, since the whole challenge is in managing a weird palette, you have to use at least half of the colors. Otherwise there would be a loophole of drawing 1bit image ;)   


Colors in alphabetical order:
 
Amaranth        #E52B50
Cherry blossom      #FFB7C5
Cornflower         #6495ED
Cyclamen         #F56FA1
Fuchsia         #FF00FF
Heliotrope         #DF73FF
Jasmine         #F8DE7E
Jonquil         #F4CA16
Lavender          #B57EDC
Lilac         #C8A2C8
Magnolia         #F2E8D7
Marigold         #EAA221
Mauve         #E0B0FF
Orchid         #DA70D6
Periwinkle         #CCCCFF
Rose             #FF007F
Vanilla         #F3E5AB
Wisteria         #C9A0DC


Flowers_18 palette:

https://i.imgur.com/W7z0ULx.gif



Canvas Size: Max 180x180
Colours: Min 9, Max 19 (18 from the palette + transparency)
Transparency: Optional.
Animation: No.

Bonus challenge: - draw one of the flowers from the colour name list.



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

Posted by gawrone @ 3/13/2023 00:54  |    0
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The Game Diet 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 Game Diet forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 3/13/2023 00:50  |    0
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"Fire Emblem" is a 30 years old Tactical RPG saga. The different episodes of this series have, therefore, been released on various platforms, but many consider the Gameboy Advance to be the best of them.


So, this week's challenge aims to answer the question :

“What would have happened if the last Fire Emblem had been released on the GBA ?”

To answer it, you will have to create 2 sprites of 1 of the characters, from the last opus, “Fire Emblem: Engage”, in the style of GBA Fire Emblem Games.

You can pick any character (not flying) and must stay true to its character design.

The two sprites should be a "Map Sprite" and an "In Battle Sprite", with size limits of 32x32 and 64x64 pixels respectively.
Note that units on the ground with different poses and armor sizes will not occupy the same space.

Useful links including list of characters and sprite examples.

Canvas Size - 100 x 100 (includes one 32x32 sprite and one 64x64 sprite)
Colors - Max 16 (15 + transparency)
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
 
This challenge was  creataed by LeMecha20



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 3/6/2023 01:21  |    3
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The Imbolc Landscape 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 Imbolc Landscape forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 3/6/2023 01:18  |    0
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This week we are making 4 items for a game, where the protagonist has a very specific diet. You need to make four 32x32px item spritess which make a coherent set, and consist:

1) An item that heals 10% of health.

2) An item that heals 50% of health.

3) An item that fully restores all players health.

4) A poisonous item. Something that can empoison, hurt, kill, or disgust the player, and take some or all of their health. An oposite of the diet. Something that specific character cannot eat, or don't want to eat.

The chosen diet have to be specified in the description, but it can be something real or fictional. It can be a raw meat diet, lacto-uovo vegetarian, frutarian, keto, paleo, but you can also imagine a diet of a small rodent that cosnists only insects, or human body parts diet for a monster, or blood for a vampire, or energy for some cosmic being. You can even go into such fantasy as breatharian diet :) Just keep the set of analogue items in 3 levels of strength and 1 anti-food.

Example - the player is a vampire so the items are: a drop of blood, a vial of blood, a barrel of blood, a flask of holy water.


Canvas Size - Max 100 x 100 (includes four 32x32 sprites)
Colors - Max 9 (8 + transparency)
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
 



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

Posted by gawrone @ 2/27/2023 00:23  |    2
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The Famous ProWrestler Animal 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 Famous ProWrestler Animal forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 2/27/2023 00:10  |    5
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A northern hemisphere centered challenge, but hopefully everyone will find it interesting in some way.

This week we are pixelling a landscape of a time between winter and spring, so we need to see things like partially melted snows, sharp sun, and vegetation in state between long dead and almost brought to new life.

Canvas Size - Max 250x150 (horizontal).
Colors - Max 12.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 2/20/2023 08:02  |    0
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The Up, Up and Away 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 Up, Up and Away forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 2/20/2023 01:53  |    2
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This weeks challenge is going to be straight-forward.

Draw a sprite of a pro wrestler wearing an animal mask and a championship belt (so it have to include a shiny metal and a lot of muscle). You also have to use fishfighters8 palette.


https://lospec.com/palette-list/fishfighters8-32x.png


If you have no idea what this is about, Tiger Mask manga would be a good example.



We thank CELS for every single challenge idea used in this combo.



Canvas Size - max 100x100.
Colors - Max 9 (palette + transparency).
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 2/13/2023 01:28  |    7
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The Diminutive Dungeons 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 Diminutive Dungeons forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 2/13/2023 01:26  |    0
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This week, we would like you to make an animated top down game mockup, where the movement of the screen is upwards, just like in retro arcade games such as Raiden, Spy Hunter or SWIV. You need to draw at least a player controlled sprite in it, but you are not limited to any sort of theme, cars, planes, mechs, spacecraft, ships or lazer dinosaurs are all welcome.


Canvas Size - Exactly 100x160, vertical.
Colors - Max 16, only colors from AdigunPolack's palette below.


Transparency - No
Animation - Required



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by Gecimen @ 2/6/2023 03:29  |    4
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The RPG Tea Party 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 RPG Tea Party forum thread for more information.

Read the full post...

Posted by Gecimen @ 2/6/2023 03:30  |    0
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After the success with Tiny Towers and  Petite Panorama, we continue the series with Diminutive Dungeons.

Draw interesting, dwindling dungeons using a narrow either horizontal OR vertical canvas - your dungeons might go deep. Some inspirations for themes: fantasy adventure dungeon (like; Dragons & Dungeons, Darkest Dungeon, Dungeon Keeper), prison, underground tunnels and caves, sewers, basement, mines.
 


Canvas Size - Width: Minimum 64px, wider is allowed too. Height: Exactly 16px OR Width: Exactly 16px. Height: Minimum 64px, taller is allowed too.
Colors - 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.

Posted by gawrone @ 1/30/2023 00:40  |    2
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The Special Snowflake 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 Special Snowflake forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 1/30/2023 00:29  |    0
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It's time for another edition of RPG Party challenge. We had a number of those in the past and these are only 5 I could find: The RPG Party, RPG Party #2, The Monster RPG Party, Slime Family Gathering, RPG Band.

This time we are using characters from the tea party scene from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Draw exactly 4 sprites of characters including: Alice, Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse, while depicting each one of them as differnet RPG class archetype of your choosing. In addition to adding specific atributes, garments, items or weapons, please try to keep the characters somehow recognisable as those 4 from the book.
 

For those new to this type of challenge, or unfamilliar with the RPG genre I'm inluding a list of 15 example classes to choose from:

Warrior, Paladin, Barbarian, Archer, Wizard, Necromancer, Healer, Priest, Monk, Druid, Thief, Assassin, Rogue, Ranger, Bard, Beastmaster.

If you want to read some class descriptions or find something unique here is a link to more detailed article.

You are not limited to fantasy specific classes. You can go with Cyberpunk (Netrunner, Decker), Western (Gunslinger, Preacher), Space Opera (Jedi Knight, Space Marine), Postapocalyptic (Wasteland Raider, Nuclear Scientist), or any other genre in which we already have established RPG class archetypes or can have them created.

You can also use any weird class you've encountered in any game, or a classs you've created for your own game, or even invent a class specifically for this challenge, but if so, please describe what it is and what it does.

Canvas Size - Max 300 x 300.
Colours - Max 33. Including transparency.
Transparency - Required. Must be used to separate each sprite.
Animation - No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 1/23/2023 01:14  |    14
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The STEREOPIXELS 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 STEREOPIXELS forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 1/23/2023 01:08  |    0
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I'm aware that some of you were ambivalent about previous challenge, having both joy (of it being challenging) and pain (for lack of time for it), so this week we are going for something completely different - one of those low entry treshold (easy to make, hard to master) challlenges, which you can do in 10 minutes, but to compete with others you will have to put much more creativity into it.
 

The challenge is to draw a snowflake using only #ffffff white and transparency on 64x64 canvas.

I've provided a template to make it easier, but you don't have to use it, as long as your snowflake will have hexagonal symmetry (the template is wider so we can have clean, pixel art, 1:2 lines).


https://i.imgur.com/2pFusci.gif

Of course, as always, you are allowed to provide as many separate challenge entries as you like.



Canvas Size - exactly 64x64.
Colours - exactly 2 (#ffffff + transparency).
Transparency - required.
Animation - no.
 



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

Posted by gawrone @ 1/16/2023 03:12  |    2
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The CMYKaboom! 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 CMYKaboom! forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 1/16/2023 02:43  |    0
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Make a stereographic animated GIF of a scene, moving back and forth between two views of the scene to create a 3D effect, like this examples:

Example 1

Example 2


Canvas Size - Max 128 x 128.
Colors - Max 24.
Transparency - No.
Animation - required - (Min 2 frames Max 5 frames).

Challenge idea is a collaborative effort of eishiya and  Stickman



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

Posted by gawrone @ 1/9/2023 02:44  |    1
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The Clean Your SSD 2022 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 Clean Your SSD 2022 forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 1/9/2023 01:36  |    0
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New year's eve is behind us but we haven't got a pixel celebration yet.

Fireworks can look beautiful, but not everyone loves them. Excessive amounts launched in dense populated areas can lead to unnecessary stress and trauma in animals, so if you have decided to skip fireworks this year, you can pixel them now, and have that box checked.

Animate firework explosions in the sky, by using 4 CMYK colours only, while black have to be used as background.

Canvas Size - max 223x223.
Colours - max 4 (CMYK, black have to be used as background).
Transparency - no.
Animation - required.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 1/2/2023 02:58  |    0
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The Football Hero 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 Football Hero forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 1/2/2023 01:28  |    0
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Challengewise, the end of this pixel year was pretty darn exciting. After scary Pixelween and cheerful Secret Santa we are covered by splendid art, but we are not over yet. We still have the last annual event to go through so take a short, well deserved rest, and grab your mice, tablets or other tools.

You are going to either finish any unfinished and yet unsubmitted challenge entry from 2022 or make a new entry for a challenge from 2022 you wanted to participate in, but couldn't.

To refresh your memory and make your choice go to Weekly Challenges and check the ALL CHALLENGES column on the right. The first challenge of the 2022 was "The Wide West". Please make sure you write in the description which challenge you chose and make sure you follow it's rules and limitations.

You are not limited to one challenge only. If you can't decide which missed challenge you want to refill, choose no more and just make separate entries for different challenges ;)
 



Canvas Size - see the corresponding challenge
Colours - see the corresponding challenge
Transparency - see the corresponding challenge
Animation - see the corresponding challenge


 



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 12/26/2022 03:47  |    3
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The Sledding 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 Sledding forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 12/26/2022 03:09  |    0
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This week we do a folloup to a sport event, most are familiar with. Choose a football player (male or female) who is your hero, who you admire, who you like, or (if you are not a football fan, but still want to participate), one you think will look good in pixel art. It can be an active player, a retired one, or a historic figure. If you are really not into real people, you can choose a fictional character, but it have to be a football player (like Captain Tsubasa Oozora), not someone once seen standing next to a ball.

You are allowed to choose if you want it to be a portrait, or an action scene. Follow the apropriate canvas specs. You also have freedom in colour choice but you have to choose 11 colours, becasue that is the rule.

 

Canvas Size - 80x60 (vertical) for portrait or 100x60 (horizontal or vertical) for action scene.
Colors - exactly 11 (of course).
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 12/19/2022 03:11  |    0
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The Red Planet Day 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 Red Planet Day forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 12/12/2022 01:53  |    0
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This time we are animating downhill sledding action. This is a slightly northern-hemisphere-centric, wintertime challenge (even if not many see any snow these times) so if you feel excluded, you can slide the sled on sand dunes, or go with a ponton sliding down on a huge water slide in waterpark, or even a some sort of a cart downhill ride?


The idea is that we want to see a character/charatcers sitting/lying/standing on some sort of a vehicle which is moving fast downhill. But we don't want to see the movement of the vehicle itself, but only the character and the suroundings (background, foreground - parallax animation very welcome). So animate things like clothing, hair or fur, trees passed by. Slight movements of the vehicle (like vibrating, bouncing, flattenig due to speed) are acceptable, but don't make it the main focus of the animation. Keep the vehicle in in the same position of the canvas.

Use the Quested Mountain Palette by polyphrog

https://lospec.com/palette-list/quested-mountain-8x.png



Canvas Size - Max 130x100 (horizontal).
Colors - Max 12 (use the provided palette).
Transparency - No.
Animation - Required.
 



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 12/5/2022 02:53  |    2
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The Autumn Leaves 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 Autumn Leaves forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 12/5/2022 01:47  |    0
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Red Planet Day is observed annually on November 28, so we are going to observe it in pixel art.

Use our canvas, and add 8 colours of your choosing (as the number of planets in our system), and your imagination.

You are free to make a photorealistic, actual mars, but you can also make a very "artistic" interpretation with beautiful, exaggerated canyons, or in a style of a cute video game. It can be scientifically factual and contemporary, but also very fictional like including near or very, very far future colonisation, or fantastic alien live. It even don't have be literally a "red planet", you can go with green (after terraforming) or blue (filled with oceans, as some scientist suggest mars were in the past), or you can imagine mars going through a fire volcanic phase or ice globe phase or entirely urbanised by super technically advanced civilisation billion years in the future. Just make it obvious somehow that this is still a Mars we are looking at.


Of course the sky is also your canvas and you can fill it with moons, stars, nebulae, apocalyptical asteroid explosions, spaceships or gigatnic celestial beings, or science fiction megastructures sticking out from the planet surface. But if this is not somethig you want to do, or have no time this week, you can submitt a transparent version with a planet circle only (delete the black sky part of the canvas).



https://i.imgur.com/aOxdYpT.gif



Canvas Size - Exactly 300x300 (use the provided file).
Colors - Max 11 (black and red from our canvas + 8 of your own, and transparency, but only if you decide to skip the sky).
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 11/28/2022 02:07  |    0
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The PJ Stamps 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 PJ Stamps forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 11/28/2022 01:18  |    0
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This week's challenge is simple. Draw 3 sprites of different autumnal leaves using the Autumn Glow palette made by Sonnenstein. Leaves have to differ by colour and shape.

https://lospec.com/palette-list/autumn-glow

https://lospec.com/palette-list/autumn-glow-8x.png


Canvas Size - Max 200x200.
Colors - Max 21, only colors from the provided palette + transparency.
Transparency - Yes.
Animation - No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 11/21/2022 08:51  |    1
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The Walk. Casually. 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 Walk. Casually. forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 11/21/2022 01:35  |    0
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This week we are creating a collection of postal stamps representative for our Pixel Joint community and our love for pixel art.

You can choose any  theme you like, whenever it is related to pixel art, or not. Beautiful landscapes, famous painting reproductions, architectural landmarks, classic video games, cute animals, historical figure portraits (Pixel Nerd included) - all are very welcome. Just remember to make sure it is a Pixel Joint stamp by adding some form of a logo or writing at least the "PJ" letters. If you want to add the price of the stamp, use the imaginary pixel currency (for example 10px).

We will be using mail24 palette created by Hyohnoo.




And for the canvas you can choose one from the examples or create your own by using the provided frame tilesset of 16x16 tiles (so the canvas dimensions have to be a multiple of 16px).
 

 
 


 
 

Canvas Size - Any as long as it is a multiple of 16 and uses the provided frame tileset.
Colors - Max 25, only colors from the provided palette + transparency.
Transparency - Only in the stamp borders.
Animation - No.
 



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

Posted by gawrone @ 11/14/2022 03:15  |    1
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The Take Five 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 Take Five forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 11/14/2022 02:16  |    2
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This week, we ask you to create a side view casual walking animation for a character. It can be your original character or your own interpretation of an existing character from a game, movie, book etc. You are not limited to humans - robots, animals or any sort of entity which has legs is ok (yes, an AT-AT is ok, too).

Canvas Size - Max 100x100 px.
Colors - Max 9 only colors from the palette below + transparency

Transparency - Required.
Animation - Required.



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

Posted by Gecimen @ 11/7/2022 01:03  |    3
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The PIXELWEEN 2022: Glitch 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 PIXELWEEN 2022: Glitch forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by Gecimen @ 11/7/2022 01:03  |    0
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This week we want you to draw 5 or more 16x16px icons of game items. What kind of items or game genre are entirely up to your imagination. The icons themselves have to be 16x16, but how big will be your canvas and what will you do to the rest of it, to present your icons, is not our bussines.



Canvas Size - open, (depends on how many 16x16px icons you will draw, and how you arrange them).
Colors - Max 20, use Mazzical 20 Palette by yedamameday.

https://i.imgur.com/SsFXABK.gif

Transparency - No.
Animation - No.



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

Posted by gawrone @ 10/31/2022 10:13  |    1
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The Pixelween 2022: GAME OVER 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 Pixelween 2022: GAME OVER forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 10/31/2022 01:07  |    0
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Pixelween is over, thanks for taking part! Results will be in SOON!

In the meanwhile we'll have a BONUS CHALLENGE for you, feel free to join whether you took part in Pixelween or not.

The theme is: Glitch. Error or crash in your game.

Technical requirements for this week:

Canvas Size - exactly 160 (horizontal) x 90 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 16, use Vampire-16 palette by polyphrog:

Transparency - No.
Animation - No.



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

Posted by Hapiel @ 10/24/2022 03:17  |    2
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The Pixelween 2022: BOSS 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 Pixelween 2022: BOSS forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 10/24/2022 00:30  |    0
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4th week out of four Pixelween 2022 challenges, a contest with prizes, starts now.

Ghostly tricksters had different idea to confuse and scare you. This time they turn all their wicked deeds upside down, take away all the colours left in our vampiric palette, and leave all the colours they took before. You will be using all 8 colours previously voted out on discord, and none of the 8 colours we were using last week.

The topic of the 4th week is "Game Over", and that includes any possible way of ending a game, a run in a game, a main story in a game, or any other circumstances that makes you start over or load a save, or rage quit, or simply, turn off a finished game. You can make a mockup of your game in the moment of death of the player, or loosing all the lives, hearts, tries, etc, with a classic "game over" writing, or go for a more fancy death screen, or a still of a death animation. You can paint an end game screen, or a part of a clipshow expalining all the outcomes of player's choices, or a still of an ending game animation, or even ending credits with concept art showoff. There are countless ways of ending a video game and if none of known to you are satisfying you can even invent a new one. The one thing that have to be clear about it is that this is the end.

Technical requirements for this week:

Canvas Size - exactly 160 (horizontal) x 90 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 8 only colors from the palette below:
https://i.imgur.com/vN1rYaI.gif
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

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

Posted by gawrone @ 10/17/2022 00:45  |    0
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The Pixelween 2022: 1ST LEVEL 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 Pixelween 2022: 1ST LEVEL forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 10/17/2022 00:11  |    0
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Welcome to the third challenge out of four Pixelween 2022 challenges, a contest with prizes.

Malicious ghosts of the Halloween striked again and snatched another four colors of our vampiric palette.
 

This time, you will be focusing on a main/final boss of the game. It can be a gameplay screen of a boss fight, a mockup of a boss level, a boss introduction cutscene, a boss battle cinematic or a boss death scene still, in your original thriller video game. If you also participated last week's challenge, you are supposed to somehow continue the same game concept (of course change of ideas are welcome). If this is your first week, you can start with a fresh idea here.

Technical requirements for this week:

Canvas Size - exactly 160 (horizontal) x 90 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 8 only colors from the palette below:
https://i.imgur.com/iDvt9od.gif
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 10/10/2022 00:49  |    0
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The Pixelween 2022: SPLASH 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 Pixelween 2022: SPLASH forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 10/10/2022 00:44  |    0
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This is the second challenge out of four Pixelween 2022 challenges, a contest with prizes.

Those sneaky ghosts of Halloween have captured four belowed colors of our vampiric palette! (which were voted out by PJ discord users).

This week, you will be drawing a gameplay screen of the first level of your original thriller video game. If you also participated last week's challenge, you are supposed to somehow continue the same game concept (of course change of ideas are welcome). If this is your first week, you can start with a fresh idea here.

Technical requirements for this week:

Canvas Size - exactly 160 (horizontal) x 90 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 12 only colors from the palette 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.
Posted by gawrone @ 10/3/2022 00:48  |    9
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The Dream PC build 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 Dream PC build forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 10/3/2022 00:44  |    0
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All weekly challenges until October 23th are part of Pixelween 2022, a contest with prizes.

You will be drawing a splash screen for your own horror video game. Pick a name for your game and draw its logotype along with a thematic illustration and/or a character selection/creation interface (this may hint the genre of your game but don't feel limited by your choice here in the coming weeks).

In upcoming challenges you will be drawing more mockups for this game.

Technical requirements for this week:

Canvas Size - exactly 160 (horizontal) x 90 (vertical) pixels.
Colors - Max 16, use Vampire-16 palette by polyphrog:

Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

We're excited 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.
Posted by gawrone @ 9/26/2022 00:16  |    25
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The WARdobe 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 WARdobe forum thread for more information.

Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 9/19/2022 01:30  |    0
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We are going to build our own pixel personal computers this time, but you are allowed to interpret the title of this challenge however it it possible.

You can draw a technical scheme or a realistic drawing of all the components you would like to have in your PC in all the right places. You can imagine how PC intestines would look like in near future, or entirely science fiction, using alien technology. You can create a fantastic computer using a steampunk, dieselpunk, clockpunk, stonepunk, atompunk, elfpunk... or whatever else punk there is. Or maybe go for Rube Goldberg machine kind of thing with dominoes, and hamster wheels? Or you love your current computer setup or are satisfied with it enouigh to call it your dream PC and you will just draw what you have on your desk right now? And finally, if some painterly, abstract or dreamy impression of a PC interior is your thing, go for it!

All you need is a 100x90px PC case (vertical or horizontal - you choose, it is your build) and max 64 colours, becasue dreams are supposed to be colourful. Animation is not necessary, but If you want to add some blinking LED lights, rotating gears or a cobweb weaving spider, you are allowed to.

Canvas Size - exactly 100x90 or 90x100 - you choose.
Colours - max 64.
Transparency - no.
Animation - optional.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 9/12/2022 01:16  |    0
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The The Sequel We Never Got 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 The Sequel We Never Got forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 9/12/2022 00:40  |    0
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This week we want you to make an animated furniture enemy.

Choose one item like a closet, chair, dresser, table, bookshelf, coat hanger or a desk (by the rule of cool we will accept also a large home appliance equipment like a fridge, washing mashine or a stove), and create a cool, "gamey" sprite design of it and animate it as an enemy in a game.

The animation needs to be something typical we can recognise like idle, walk, run, hit or fire a projectile, and it needs to have at least 8 frames. If it will be something like super fast hit, try adding few frames of a windup or/and a cooldown. If your walk, run or jump design demands to have less frames in a cycle, add another cycle with a variation.

 

Canvas Size - exactly 80x80.
Colours - max 9 (8+ transparency).
Transparency - required.
Animation - required.


 



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

Posted by gawrone @ 9/5/2022 02:03  |    2
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The Flooding of the Nile 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 Flooding of the Nile forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 9/5/2022 01:26  |    0
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This week we want you to make a mockup of a game sequel that never happened.

You can interpret it literally, and imagine a nonexistent sequel, or take a sequel that was made, but overlooked for a variety of reasons (atrocious 3D, or simply a terrible game).

If you are going for 1:1 continuation with same type/genre/style of the game, try to mimic the artstyle or other essential characteristics, but invent your own assets, or add some other form of orginality to it, so it will definitely look like a sequel, not an addon or mission pack for the same game.

But if you feel very corageous, go wild and turn a platformer into an FPS, an RTS into a board game or a farming simulator into a Soulslike.

Canvas Size - max 640x360.
Colours - max 256.
Transparency - no.
Animation - optional.



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

Posted by gawrone @ 8/29/2022 05:51  |    0
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The Vegetation Osteology 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 Vegetation Osteology forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 8/22/2022 04:17  |    0
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In dominating culture we are used to divide the year into four seasons, but this is not an universal experience. In ancient Egypt there were only 3 seasons: Inundation/Flood (which was a good thing), Emergence/Growth and Low Water/Harvest. Today, 15th august the celebration of the Flood of the Nile starts, and becasue of that we will depict 3 Egyptian seasons.

Draw an isometric scene from egyptian life including architecture or agriculture, animals, crops, people etc. 3 times - in 3 different egyptian seasons.

If for example you will choose a house, draw the same house during each egyptian season.

Canvas: Exactly 300x100 horizontal (100x100 for each season).
Colours: Max 32.
Transparency: Optional.
Animation: Optional.
 



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

Posted by gawrone @ 8/15/2022 08:50  |    5
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The Cloudscapes 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 Cloudscapes forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 8/15/2022 04:02  |    0
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Let's imagine a paralel world where vegetation has skeletons.

This week's task is to draw a skeleton (or some form of a cross-section where bones are visible) of a plant or fungus. There are no boundaries in style. It can be a sprite, a scene or a "portrait". It can be very cartoonish or hiperrealistic, and it can be anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, but it needs to have at least a skull and a spine. Limbs are diserable, but not necessary if you will go for something like a snake liana for example. For your bones you can take inspiration from animals existing in real world or fiction, or invent your own, but the owner of the skeleton needs to at least somehow resemble something from our Plantae or Fungi Kingdoms (this limitation is only to exclude hacking the challenge like drawing a human and saying "in my fictional world this is a plant"). Go for something like a flower with arms and legs, a mushroom with strange shaped skull, a tree with large chest, and have fun.

The mandatory palette is Forest-16 by Eclipse89
 

https://lospec.com/palette-list/forest-16-32x.png

Canvas: Max 200x200.
Colours: Max 16 + transparency (use the palette).
Transparency: Optional.
Animation: No.

 



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 8/8/2022 04:19  |    2
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The The Inflation Challenge 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 The Inflation Challenge forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 8/8/2022 03:31  |    0
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This week we want you to depict a scene or landscape where clouds take up 3/4 (75%) of the canvas. 

This means (for example) if your canvas is 100x100, 100x75 must be dedicated to clouds. It can be a scene depicting a landscape, a side scrolling game, a character shot etc. Go wild, the rest is up to you PJers!

Canvas: Max 300px width. Height unlimited.
Colours: Max 18
Transparency: No.
Animation: No.
 



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

Posted by vrine @ 8/1/2022 03:11  |    9
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The Beat-o-mons! 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 Beat-o-mons! forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by vrine @ 8/1/2022 03:03  |    1
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We as pixel artists have a very small rate of influence on world economics, but we can interpret our surrounding reality and express it in pixel art.

Let's imagine a game protagonist suffering the effects of inflation, and let's help them by making coin powerups, or money bills, or - if you find yourself very inspired and creative - any other physical means of payment, historical or fictional.

It need to be recognisable as a game powerup/collectible item; it needs to be recognisable as a physical currency, and it need to be at least delicately animated, whenever it is just levitating, spinning, shining, or dissaperaing after being picked up.

 

Canvas: Exactly 32x32.

Colours: Max 7 (including transparency).

Transparency: Required.

Animation: Required.



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 7/25/2022 00:58  |    0
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The Illuminated Initials 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 Illuminated Initials forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by gawrone @ 7/25/2022 00:29  |    0
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This week, we want you to draw a Pokemon or Yu-gi-oh like playing card for a musician of your choice, within the template below. The portrait needs to fit in the upper rectangle. Make sure it has stats, too! You can play with the card design but please stay within the image borders.

Canvas: Exactly 86x120


Colours: Max 16
Transparency: Optional, only outside card borders (for example corners).
Animation: No



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by Gecimen @ 7/18/2022 03:23  |    0
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The It takes 2 to Necromance! 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 takes 2 to Necromance! forum thread for more information.
Read the full post...

Posted by Gecimen @ 7/18/2022 03:22  |    0
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Today we celebrate the second anniversary of PJ discord. A lot of time had passed and many characters were typed. For the current challenge we will go back in time, long before we could type, to medieval iluminated initials.
 


Choose one letter from the alphabet and paint an initial using colours from the Rich14 Palette that Christoballs has made from illuminated manuscripts:


 



We also share this example of a person counting pixels, just to be sure we are on the same page:



The medieval period is our inspiration, but we are not limited to it. If you want to use a letter from an other alphabet than latin, go for it. If you are not interested in medieval aesthetics or themes, you can go with gothic horror, cyberpunk, anime, postapocalyptic, superhero comic books, stone age or whatever your imagination will surprise us with. Just remember that there have to be one large, recognisable letter and it have to be wildly decorated with a character or characters, animals, monsters, flowers, skulls, computers, clockwork mechanisms, elemental magic spells... and the list goes on ad infinitum.
 



Canvas: Exactly 100x100.
Colours: Max 14 (use the provided palette).
Transparency: No.
Animation: No.

 



The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Posted by gawrone @ 7/11/2022 02:51  |    4

This Week's Pixel Art

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