Shun Kazakami is a veteran pixel artist (who worked in 90`s for consoles and Arcade) and Illustrator, with a lot of years of experience in creating art for  videogames, Illustrations, and character design, and currently he is working as a mangaka artist.


Q: What was your first encounter with pixel art?

Kazakami-San: I think my first encounter was Taito's Space Invaders. Next was Namco's Galaxian, which went a step further by giving characters multiple colors.

”Space Invaders 1978 & Galaxian 1982”              

This week we are making a melting chocolate animation. It can be a chocolate bar or a chocolate santa or even a chocolate house.

You have to use the Chocolate Ichor palette by Qirlfriend

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

(Signup for the secret santa is closing soon! More info here)

The Nerd, after his adventures with Pizzeria and Sushi-ya is trying his luck in the confectionery industry.

Design a pixel art logo for the Nerd Chocolate Factory.
 

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

(Signup for the secret santa is now open! More info here)

After much deliberation, the judges have finally come to a shocking conclusion... there are Pixelween winners this year too! And what perilously paranormal panoramas they have presented us.

This year the entries were judges by a team of  a team of moderators, amazing pixel artists, and veteran community members: Cyangmou, Fool, Irenaart, jok, Luca, Mirre, Reo, QueenKami, Theoden, Trigonomicon, vrine and Weerdmeester.

Without much further ado. Here are the winners of Pixelween 2025:

kumori

gawrone

Umbohr

4th: hby

5th: SeDiceBisonte

6th: Tipleloop

7th: Space-AgeWrangler

8th: kumori (again!)

9th: bluexel

10th: WolfGD

  11th: amberMechanic

The prizes this year are:

1st place: a printed Masters of Pixel art book volume of their choice, a €30 Steam gift card, and a software key.
2nd place: a €15 Steam gift card, a Masters of Pixel art e-book, and a software key.
3rd place: a €10 Steam gift card, a Masters of Pixel art e-book, and a software key.
4th and 5th place: a Masters of Pixel art e-book, and a software key.
6th - 9th (and possibly more): a software key, see info below.

From these, the highest placing winners get to choose first, and if a winner does not need a prize it will be moved on to the 10th place, and so on.

This year RankOne Global is sponsoring PixelJoint with Steam gift cards for the winners. RankOne is a community platform for gamers, streamers and enthusiasts. It lets you build a personal gaming profile where you track, rate and review all games you've played, discover new favorites and connect with other gamers. Here is Mirre's profile for example.
 

Please give a round of applause to everyone involved this year. We wouldn't have had these wonderful pieces of art without the creative participants, the moderators organising it all, the judges looking it all over, and everyone else cheering us on, leaving comments, and just admiring the art! Thank you all for making this event wonderful, this year as well. We're already looking forward to Pixelween 2026!

(Signup for the secret santa is now open! More info here)

Traditions, traditions, traditions.

3rd world most favourite food after pizza and sushi is chocolate (source "trust me bro").

This week you have to pixel a box of fancy 16px chocolates. Your box frame may be wide and ornamental or thin and simple, but each individual chocolate have to be separated and no larger than 16x16px (they don't have to be squares but sit on a square base). You cannot have two exactly the same chocolates. Each have to be different. And the minimal number of them is 9.
 

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

It's sign-up time for...

(21st ANNUAL)

• Only sign up if you're sure that you'll be to able to complete your gift, by checking the dates below. If you don't complete your gift you won't be able to join next year's Secret Santa and make someone very sad. Also you will miss the unique Secret Santa profile award.
   
• Provide some indication of your likes/dislikes: this is important! You can be as specific or broad as you like, but be aware this is all your Santa has to go by if they don't know you!

• If you have at least a few pieces in your PJ gallery, your Secret Santa will know you better.

• You'll receive your partner's name via private message (gallery PM). Consider turning on email notification for this in your profile settings!

• Start making your gift, you have over a month!

• Submit a gift box to the gallery (not the artwork!), and send your gift artwork in a message to Mirre. See the submission guide below.
• Here's a sample post if you are somehow still lost.  You can format however you want, however please include "I'm in!" or something similar in your post.
  
      "Count me in!
      I like:
      hating fun, being a curmudgeon and getting free stuff!!!!
      I do NOT like:
       chocolate, childrens' smiles, and also Christmas (which probably makes things a bit awkward, really, but oh well)
      Thanks! P.S. no spiders"

 

Submission Guide

 

Important!!! Follow these submission instructions carefully, to not spoil any surprises:

• When you've finished your gift, first choose Submit Pixel Art from the main site and upload your gift wrap (see Gift Wrap section below) as the preview (small) image and do not upload anything else. The description should only say “Secret Santa” and should not include the name of the person you’re gifting, at least until the official reveal.
• Note: For the Secret Santa purposes, you can upload the template gift wraps below. Still, custom wraps rock!
• Now, send your real gift to Mirre by PM or email. You can use imgur.com, or if you can't, you can send it in a DM to her on Discord or to linnaeahl@gmail.com. We will edit and change your pixel art submission with the real one, so we can reveal all presents at the same time. Please don't post your gift anywhere else before December 27th, that would spoil the surprise.

 

Dates

• November 7th ~ November 20th - Sign-ups in these weeks only! Send this post to your friends, share on Twitter or Bluesky and post in your Discords. If there's anyone you'd love to get a gift from, send them this thread!
• November 21st - A PM with your partner's name will be sent out to you; keep it a secret and start early!
• November 21st ~ December 24th - You have nearly a month to make and hand in a beautiful pixel present!
• December 17th - if not already all done, you need to send Mirre a WIP of what you are making by this date, to show that you're working on something. 
• December 24th - Last day to send in your gift!
• December 27th - PRESENTS !!!

Feel free to ask questions under this post, or PM Mirre if you're confused about anything or have any questions to ask after consulting the FAQ below.

 

Santa's Help Desk

What kind of gift do I make?
Anything you want, just so long as it involves pixel art. Tailor it to your partner's listed interests, or towards them and their work if you are familiar. Any subject you think will be well received is fair game. You can make them a mockup, animation, sprites; you name it! If you're worried about time, don't overly complicate things, relax and do what you do best.

But I'm quite likely to be embroiled in some sort of ~festive revelry~ around the end of December; can I still take part?
You can send your gift in as early as you like. The 24th is the deadline, but submissions will be accepted from the time you receive your partner's name via PM, up until the 24th. It's not fun to try and rush this stuff leading up to Christmas, getting it done with time to spare is highly recommended.

I'm not going to manage finishing my present in time, will I still be banned from next year's Secret Santa?
WIPs will be OK temporarily... It's better to have your WIP under the tree than nothing, but please finish quickly afterwards to avoid consequences. If you know you won't be able to finish, for whatever reason, let Mirre know ASAP so that something else can be sorted out for your partner.

I think making a present for so-and-so would be really fun, I wish I was their Santa!
If you finish your present early, you're more than welcome to make gifts for multiple people. Spread the holiday cheer! But concentrate on your partner first.

 

Gift Wrap!

You can use one of these generic gift wraps as the preview icon of your gallery submission:

Alternatively: Make a custom wrapping for your gift; in this way you can have a bit of fun teasing the contents within. Just submit this in your gallery as the preview image. So it should be max 100x100 px. Here are a few examples from previous years... with a link to their gifts, for ideas. (you can't use these! come up with your own!)

by Wolfenoctis

by Jeremy

by Drazelic

 

 

Still awake? Read everything? Great!! If you sign up below before or on the 25th of November, you'll be added to this list. After you submit your gift, we'll mark you on our list with a little  

The winners are Ashadorn, velvetChaika, Incognito2074 and CoconutsForest.

The 20th century begins now, and it will be divided into decades. The first theme is the 1900s: Art Nouveau, automobiles and aeroplanes, discoveries in atomic physics, ballet, and the end of the Belle Époque!

The link to the canvas: https://maetheria.com/

https://i.ibb.co/Pvv07CB5/maetheria-79-cropped.png

We have to honour PJ traditions. We were stealing from Mirre 2 years ago, and from Trigonomicon last year. We will steal from Weerdmeester this year, because we can (and because we owe Weerdmeester a half of year of amazing challenges).

Pick any Weerdmeester's animated artwork (it can be an animated preview for an nonanimated piece) and use it as a base for your own challenge entry. It can be a tribute, a continuation, your version of it, a study with a twist, the same but with your style elements, or a similar piece that emulates Weerdmeester's style.

Link your chosen piece. You can also add a description explaining why or how your artwork is inspired or corresponds to what you have chosen.