Pixel art
Pixel art is a form of digital art, it’s made using low pixel sizes so you can see the individual squares. It comes from early games as it was the only art style available as it kept file sizes small enough for computers and consoles of the time. Nowadays game developers still use it for stylistic reasons.
Platformer Art
I based my platformer on a game I coded in college, but it’s unfortunately lost. The game follows a little bird trying to gather seeds. I wanted it to appear somewhat fantastical so I didn’t base the bird on any particular species.
I wanted him to seem round and friendly, and a tad goofy. So I used colours associated with friendliness.
I created Walk, Jump, and Idle animations for the bird.
For the environment, I wanted to keep it bright and naturey.
So I started a mossy platform, to give the illusion of a swampy and wet forest environment. This is the main platform for the game.
To add something different to the environment I decided to create some cave assets this included a rock platform, on which I used jagged shapes on to contrast the rounded lines on the mossy platform. I also used cooler tones to contrast the warm greens of the mossy platform.
To make the cave more realistic I created edge blocks for it to blend into the environment more organically. I kept using the jagged edges from the original platform to make it more uniform.
Finally the collectable and obstacles.
The collectable is a seed. I decided to make it a food commonly eatten by birds to help make the game feel somewhat realistic.
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For the spikes I wanted it to look dangerous but not so overly threatening it would tale you out of the game’s aesthetic, I chose to go with simple wooden spikes to help with this. I also chose to make them uneven and jagged to make them feel more natural like they had be hap-hazardly placed there, rather than weirdly uniform in comparison to everything else in the game.
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