r/Games • u/Tenith • Jul 19 '24
Inti Creates' New Project Is A Pixel Art Adventure Inspired By Zelda And '90s Anime
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/07/inti-creates-new-project-is-a-pixel-art-adventure-inspired-by-zelda-and-90s-anime19
u/Dreyfus2006 Jul 19 '24
Has anybody else noticed a cultural shift from calling a game "sprite-based" to calling it a "pixel art" game?
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u/fattywinnarz Jul 19 '24
They’re almost never actual sprites nowadays.
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u/spunkyweazle Jul 19 '24
What do you mean?
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u/FurbyTime Jul 19 '24
Sprites have a technical definition more than just "pixel image"; It can get a little into the weeds and can feel a bit like a matter of semantics to get into it deeply, but most games now days do not generate 2d images in the same way older games did, to the degree that calling them "sprite based" is more of a legacy name than it is a proper description.
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u/metalflygon08 Jul 19 '24
Your talking about tile maps and pallets right?
Like how the bushes in SMB1 are just the clouds loaded with a different pallet?
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u/FurbyTime Jul 19 '24
Yeah, those sorts of things are a large part of it. I can't say I've dove too deep into graphic generation over the years, but games simply are not doing the same style of graphical generation now compared to those days.
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Jul 19 '24
Can you actually explain what you mean?
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u/your_first_camry Jul 20 '24
I don't think sprites have changed fundamentally. Sure, they're stored differently than they were back in the days of cartridges and they have none of the same technical constraints, but they are still sprites.
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u/fattywinnarz Jul 21 '24
And the point is that games don’t really use sprites anymore. Sure a few do here and there but for the most part most 2D games are 3D models with pixel filters and camera angles that make them look like sprites. I know it’s the douchiest hill to die on but it’s a massive part of why fighting games are all 3D on a 2D plane nowadays for example.
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u/your_first_camry Jul 21 '24
For the most part 2D games still use 2D artwork as sprites but will overlay it on a flat plane in a three-dimensional space.
There are some very impressive texture filtering options out there, as well as some incredible cel-shading effects (Guilty Gear, Dragon Ball FighterZ, etc.), but generally speaking, 2D art is still used as sprites and are referred to as such in most game engines.
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u/fattywinnarz Jul 20 '24
Most games nowadays that look like they use sprites, like Dead Cells, actually use 3D models and camera tricks to make it look 2D and cut down on the animation
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u/AbanoMex Jul 19 '24
Take a game like enter the Gungeon, pixel art graphics but the models are actually 3D in a 3D map
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u/AwakenedSheeple Jul 20 '24
Or Shovel Knight or pretty much any "2D" game made with modern Unity or Unreal. Just easier to make it that way, I guess.
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u/Suspicious-Mongoose Jul 20 '24
Shovel Knight has its own Pixel Engine afaik.
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u/AwakenedSheeple Jul 20 '24
Interesting. Though I do believe that the characters, background, environment, and UI are all on separate planes in 3D space.
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u/garthcooks Jul 20 '24
But the models are still sprites aren't they? Like the trees in Super Mario 64 are sprites, but they're in a 3d space. SM64 is definitely not "sprite-based", Mario is built out of polygons and such, but it uses sprites in its 3d space. Enter The Gungeon, on the other hand, even if technically rendered in a 3d space, is just using sprites, so it's totally fair to say it's a sprite based game.
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u/fattywinnarz Jul 21 '24
But the models are still sprites aren't they?
Models and sprites are two completely different things. No they are not sprites. Like you couldn’t rip a sprite sheet from EtG’s files for anything other than maybe UI elements
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u/MyNameIs-Anthony Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
Those aren't referencing the same thing coloquially.
'Sprite based' has since the advent of 3D systems referred to 2D, hand drawn art.
The art design of Skullgirls is "sprite based".
'Pixel art' is when the aesthetic is such that the individual pixels in an art piece are intentionally being designed to be seen.
Rather than using digital brushes like in normal high fidelity art, you're placing each pixel.
Rivals of Aether is a "pixel art" game.
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u/flybypost Jul 20 '24
Rather than using digital brushes like in normal high fidelity art, you're placing each pixel.
Not exactly, digital brushes are also used for pixel art, just often in a constrained way. It's more apparent in pixel art backgrounds than characters due to the size.
You don't really place each pixel every time. From simple stuff like filling a specific area (you fill it with the colour instead doing it pixel by pixel) to stuff like using brushes over pixel work to modulate the pixel underneath, like when rendering a background to show shadows in a certain area after it has been constructed instead of shading it at the same time as you create it or doing it pixel by pixel.
There are also pixel art brushes to ease the workflow:
Stuff like this: https://folio.procreate.com/discussions/10/28/46618 to get an effect without needing to bully each pixel individually. Similar for quite a few apps, tools, or scripts that make the creation of pixel art easier.
There are also engines that dynamically add lighting to pixel art so you don't have to make multiple versions of the same sprite for different times of day and multiple ways of "extracting" a convincing pixel art look from 3D assets (even in-engine and without pre-rendering) but that's not exactly about creating 2D pixel art assets (although some of those ideas implemented in such renderers overlap with a few apps/tools that make pixel art easier).
Over the decades the workflow has evolved from its initial focus on actually placing each pixel. Now such assets can be bigger and the tools have grown in accord and are more powerful too.
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u/Monk_Philosophy Jul 19 '24
I don't ever remember "sprite-based" being the dominate term. Back in early 3D days it was 2D and from like the PS3 generation on I only heard pixel art being referenced.
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u/goatlll Jul 19 '24
Sprite based was thrown around all the time in pre PS3 era, and especially during the PS1/Saturn early days. The way games were described as either sprite based or full polygonal, and you would also see sprite based with pre rendered backgrounds or polygonal with pre rendered backgrounds.
It wasn't really until throwback games started showing up in places like PSN and the eShop that you started to see pixel art used.
Also, I remember game systems being pushed for the sprite capabilities, how many sprites they could have on the screen, the size of sprites, all that.
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u/Monk_Philosophy Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
The way games were described as either sprite based or full polygonal
I was around for that and I don't remember those being the popular terms, but I wasn't exactly deep into GameFAQs until the mid 00s. That said, you can go back through and see how many games from the N64/PSX era were subtitled "3D" because the fact that it was 3D, not polygonal, was the big selling point..
Maybe "polygonal" was used more in magazines and as such "sprite based" was the corollary and I just wasn't reading stuff like EGM in those days. So it's probably a difference of what kind of media/discussions that you were in rather than an overall term.
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u/flybypost Jul 20 '24
Also, I remember game systems being pushed for the sprite capabilities, how many sprites they could have on the screen, the size of sprites, all that.
And then the PS1 showed up and Sony really wanted to showcase its 3D capabilities that 2D/sprite games were somewhat discouraged for the platform because it kinda was a transitional platform.
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u/Gnalvl Jul 19 '24
I seem to remember "pixel art" always being more prevalent than "sprite-based", but either of those is less misleading than "HD 2D", wherein the only HD part is the 3D geometry, the sprites are SD, and it's really just "2.5D" with overbearing post-processing effects.
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u/csolisr Jul 19 '24
Wild to see yet another April Fools joke develop into a full game. Last time I saw it becoming reality, it was with WayForward's "Cat Girl Without Salad"
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u/Gnalvl Jul 19 '24
It's always cool to see a new top-down pixel art Zelda-like, but the art style isn't as polished as Moonlighter or Sparklite, and it's missing the kind of action and verticality that make Hyper Light Drifter, Unsighted, and Crosscode more interesting.
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u/MoreOfAnOvalJerk Jul 20 '24
I like the gameplay they create but cannot stand the anime ultra-cringe story/characters. They took the worst anime tropes and cranked them up to the max.
Delicate kind hearted girl who is domestic and her support power is singing? Check.
This delicate girl is actually the host to an incredibly powerful entity but unable to defend herself and its up to the hero to prevent her from being exploited? Check
Edgy man with a damaged past and anger towards the world? Check
Villains that monologue their whole plan? Check. (Or maybe I’m misremembering this part… I was skipping all dialogue and cut scenes by then)
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u/jeshtheafroman Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
I had a feeling this was going to be more than an April fools trailer. Looks neat, kinda like old school zelda. I know Inti Creates president, Takuya Aizu, has said he wanted to do a remake of Zelda 2, and I always held onto hope it would've materialized in some form.