Make your own EightBit avatar. Lovely use of texture.

This interesting animation by Lasse Gjertsen takes us through the life, death, and rebirth of a pixelated character. The video may seem a little long (about 12 minutes) but it is definitely worth viewing. 

Create a still life which includes devices that run on electricity. This may include (but not limited to):

radios
light bulbs
smoke alarms
electric toothbrushes
Van de Graaff generators

Here is an example of the idea from Cure.

Canvas size - Exactly 150 x 200. Either horizontal or vertical.
Colours - Max 12.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

Gecimen wants you to pick a letter from the alphabet (say, F) and illustrate any animal or fantasy creature (eg. dragon, worm, cat) that bends or spread its limbs/wings/tails etc... to resemble that particular letter.

Keep in mind that the creature should form the shape of the letter itself, rather than wrapping itself around an regular letter. Have a look here for some ideas.

Canvas size - Max 120 x 120.
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.

Pixel Joint member NobleValerian recently completed a side scrolling platform fan game titled A Thwomp Tale. Experience life as a Thwomp in the Mushroom Kingdom. All pixel art by Noble Valerian, who developed the platformer with YoYoGames' Game Maker 8.

You can play the game HERE.

You will need the YoYoGames plugin for your browser to play. Mozilla Firefox is recommended.

January 2011 featured pieces long in the making, luscious environments and stylish sprites. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.

The_Hovel by zi-double

How to challenge your dragon by Fool

Tank Vol.5 "Operation S.N.O.W." by 4tochkin

Star Wars by TheoVision

Sweet Sugar by TheoVision

Baum Isle by cure

The_Guardian by zi-double

Final Forest by cure

Buzz by Jinn

Vampires vs Werewolves by Badassbill

Pixel anything in one of the templates below. The only other requirement is the use of #ff66cc (pink).

Canvas Size - Use one of the templates below (the templates may be rotated):



Colours - Max 32. Must include this shade of pink - #ff66cc.
Transparency - Required. However, the transparency must only be used outside of the heart.
Animation - Optional.

For poor folk, cheapskates and anyone stuck with Paint.

mtPaint is a FREE multi-platform graphics editor which features layers and outputs gif and png8 formats. Site Description:
"mtPaint is a painting program which Mark Tyler developed from scratch so he could easily create pixel art and manipulate digital photos."

It uses the GTK toolkit (version 1 or 2) and runs on PC's via the GNU/Linux or Windows OS.

Create a mock-up screen of a first person perspective game. Just make sure it's clear that your perspective is from a first person viewpoint - so don't have your character stare directly at a wall!

Some examples are Dungeon Master, Waxworks and our own Stickman's Phantom Squad mock-up.

Canvas Size - Max 320 (width) x 200 (height).
Colours - Max 32.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

Last weekend Ivan Dixon (aka iSTVAN) competed in the Global Game Jam 2011,  a 48 hour game making competion themed "extinction." Ivan and programmer Conor O'kane produced an insect themed shoot 'em up called "The Last Flight of the Bumblebee" full of pixel arty goodness.

You can download it for PC and Mac here and watch the Youtube trailer here.

The game won "Best Graphics" and "Participants Favourite" at the Melbourne Game Jam.