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Basically, just go crazy. 2bpp, 4bpp, and 8bpp graphics are aloud, but please state which one you are using and don't use over 8 palettes in 2bpp mode or in 4bpp mode unless you say you are changing colors mid scan line. (Basically, the graphics just need to work on real hardware.) Also, It is preferred if you try to use the 15bit color space, but it isn't the end of the world if you don't because in terms of color fidelity, it doesn't look too far off from 24 bit color.

Here's some artwork of a space-cloud thing I did. (It's 2bpp and the palette is on the top left)

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Here's another thing that I've had for awhile that I feel like posting. It's a female character that I felt I would put in a Contra-Style game, but I never even got to putting arms on. I think I'll get back to it some other day.

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Here is an animation from the game I'm working on. This is 20fps.

Err, I drew this guy a while ago. I think it fits the constraints just fine. Stylistically I think it looks more like an '80s era game, so maybe PC-Engine is a closer approximation.



I think for the most part the graphics of this game I did with a friend a few years ago qualify as well:

I'm curious, but what kind of game would the character be in? I'm in between and action/adventure plat former or a beat em up based on the kicking move. I remember you having another version of the character with teal hair where you said an interesting remark... I think the legs looked better in that version because they where a different thickness at different parts of the leg, but I don't know if you changed it because you want a more "cartoony" look.


I know you said stylistically, but I don't think it could be a PC-Engine game based on the color fidelity. Also, what was the game you made created with? I don't really have an interest in making computer games, but I'm just curious.

Now... Here's the first frame of an explosion I'm trying to draw.

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Does anyone know how to make good looking explosions? Mine look a little too much like popcorn.

By the way, I like how are of our graphics use completely different art styles, with psychopathicteen's looking a bit anime, mikejmoffitt's kind of reminding me of indie games that are supposed to look like old games (I've found that a lot of them don't really shade their sprites that much and almost look like 16-bit renditions of early NES games), and mine, which I'm trying (but failing) to give a somewhat serious tone but still making it a bit "cartoony".

I wrote a guide to making explosions based on the one I made for Thwaite. It's 2bpp but you could consider adapting it to higher bit depth.

I think it looks good, but maybe a bit too circular. I think it would work a bit better if the picture was more of a cluster of circles. It does look perfect for a firework though.

I guess that's a good thing, because the game is about repurposing fireworks as a makeshift missile defense system.

And is this what you meant by "don't really shade"? I took my NES sprite, disambiguated the clothing colors a bit, and darkened the outlines and undersides of things.

A lot of games I've seen either don't hardly shade anything, or when they do, they make the shade color so close to the regular one that you can't even tell. (Which wouldn't be very possible on the PC-Engine or Genesis because of only having 512 colors.) I was thinking about how Mario's sprite in SMB doesn't have any parts shaded on it unlike in SMB 3 where they used black.

I did some stuff to the runner that mikejmoffitt made. I ended up using a lot more colors, but you could always get rid of some of the middle shades for the same general idea.

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You might end up with higher contrast when you quantize the colors to suitable matches on the PCE palette, but there's nothing really preventing it from being on that platform.

The shading detail is well done, but I've always been more of a fan of two or three tone shading, similar to what the Street Fighter Alpha series does, compared to the smooth gradient type seen in Street Fighter 2. I guess in some circumstances people may refer to it as pillow shading, though that is only really a problem when the light source isn't well established or is dead center on the object.

Alright, after several days of "hard work", I finally made another explosion sprite and I wanted to know if everyone thinks this one looks better. (I can tell I'm going to have a "blast" animating this. )

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That actually looks really good!

Thank you! I personally think I'm a better artist than a programmer, but unfortunately, I like programing more than drawing. The problem I have with programming is that I'm too scared to write anything too inefficient, as I usually somewhat know how to do something but always ask for help to see if I'm doing it correctly. I'm also crazy about how my art looks, as I usually always try to make something look better but usually just end up messing it up. (I had to force myself to upload this to stop myself from working on it.) I'm a bit concerned about how long it would take me to draw whole levels (I don't really like repetitive tiles and would probably replace some every time the screen scrolled) if it took me about three days just to draw that.

I think you would want to boost the contrast a bit on the explosion, and also work on the edges to make them darker a bit.

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Any better? I'm trying not to make the explosion too dark, because it is going to be the first frame.

Edit: I got a cool idea to make BG3 look better if anyone wants to hear (It probably wont be worth it though, because it will take up about 1/4 of vram!) I was thinking you could use a 256x512 tile map and have every 8 tiles downwards have a different color palette. You would then use HDMA to change the y scrolling position to have the second line on the screen be the eighth on the tile map and the 3rd to be the 16th and so on. Eventually, the tile map would run out 32 pixels down the screen and at this point, you would use HDMA to change the tile map parameters to display a new tile map and you would set the y position to 0 again.