Caltrops - Game Development

Forum Overview :: Game Development

by Rafiki 05/10/2020, 1:41pm PDT

But that's ok, because nobody talked about it the first time.

That article makes me angry, and I think is a bit pompous and makes a whole lot of assumptions about people demanding everything maximize the latest and greatest technologies. He starts by saying it would take a lot of effort to explain why an image of Link's Awakening has better art than Bubsy, but I call bullshit. I think even a poorly-educated blue collar worker on furlough during coronavirus who likes the Transformers movies and hasn't read Sartre could intuitively understand there's a clarity to Link's Awakening compared to Bubsy. It's not that hard to see, and it doesn't take that long to explain. I did it in one word.

He also repeatedly brings up the fact that pixel art deliberately uses a limited color palette, suggesting that the unwashed masses demand everything in 1.07 billion colors or GTFO. I don't believe that's ever been true, and I think Cuphead handily disproves it considering the bosses and characters used a pretty limited set of colors per model and yet the artwork was pretty universally lauded.

I'll spot him the point about people tolerating or even praising shitty animation, because I didn't notice the problems with SF4 until he pointed them out in detail. Granted, I didn't really play much SF4, but the little I did play I didn't notice the animation problems. Although, in my defense, I'd say it wasn't because I have the attention to detail of a prole, but because I was busy being distracted by the characters bouncing around the screen as I played the actual game.

He can't even stay on topic in his own arguments. He quotes IGN saying about King of Fighters III, "While they look a bit pixelated, the character models look quite good." He then says, "This sprite is not 'quite good.' It’s among the best 2D animation ever made in a video game." IGN wasn't talking about the animation, they were talking about the character model, but he rebuts by referring to the animation! They're not the same thing, he's not refuting anything. He then posts a screenshot of what IGN says in their score summary of KOFIII's graphics: "The character models look pixelated at times, but are exceptionally animated." Emphasis mine. IGN actually agrees with him about the animation! How do you fuck up criticizing IGN?

Anyway, I mentioned visual clarity up above, and that's what pisses me off about pixelation. To me, it represents a lack of clarity. Regardless of it being a deliberate style, to me it makes images worse. Luckily, he explains exactly why when he takes two images from NES games and tries to draw a clearer image of what they represent. He states that the better artwork allows him to infer more information from the pixelated image. So in other words, it lacks information so you have to infer detail that isn't there. I hate this! Back in the day I tolerated it because it was just the limitation of the technology, but today we have the technology to just show me what you want to, so why in the fuck wouldn't you? Why make me do extra work and ruin my eyes trying to interpret what you want me to see? The very first image on that page is an image from his game that uses pixel art. In the shrunk down version, the pixelation is obscured and it looks like a pretty clear, crisp image. And it's striking enough that gee I wish I could see it bigger and admire it. But when you click on it, it expands into blocky coloring and jagged edges. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! My complaint isn't that it needs 85 million more colors or he needs to Star Wars Special Edition it by cramming more shit into the frame, just smooth out the image and make it clearer!

And speaking of visual clarity and Cuphead, Cuphead is also an offender with its film grain and color distortion. These weren't added to cartoons in ye olden tymes as part of the visual expression of cartoons, they were visual noise! They were unintentional distortions of the real image! Once again, we have the technology to eliminate this shit so why add it back in for *~nostalgia~*?! Why are people nostalgic for shit that sucks? Are boomers ripping the pipes out of their houses and shitting in a hole outside because they pine for the days when they didn't have indoor plumbing? I bet anti-vaxxers could get more sympathy from hipsters if one of them penned some weepy, wistful article about how they just want to cripple up their kids with polio because they yearn for the simpler times of their elders that technological advances have deprived them of.

If a game uses pixel art because it's made by a one-man team or a group of people with no particular art skills so they're just trying to make do with what they've got, that's ok! I will totally tolerate and be sympathetic to those circumstances. But if they actually have the skills and tools to make clear images, then death to pixel art.