Inspiring 2D game art?
by chris · in Torque Game Builder · 04/12/2005 (4:13 pm) · 12 replies
Hey!
In light of some of the "heavier" discussions taking place, I thought it'd be nice to start something a little more fun. So go ahead and post some links to the games you're inspired by in terms of artwork. Only if you want, though - no pressure :)
I had never heard of Metal Slug until today, but while looking through the sprite resources Hans had linked to (found here), I came across some of the animations used in the game.
I'm completely floored, and can only imagine the time it would take to create these.
Metal Slug 3 - there are three pages of animations here. I'm particularly impressed with the zombie blowing up :)
Has anyone played this game? I believe it was for the NeoGeo...
Anyways, I'd love to see the art that makes everyone else horny for 2D :P
Chris
In light of some of the "heavier" discussions taking place, I thought it'd be nice to start something a little more fun. So go ahead and post some links to the games you're inspired by in terms of artwork. Only if you want, though - no pressure :)
I had never heard of Metal Slug until today, but while looking through the sprite resources Hans had linked to (found here), I came across some of the animations used in the game.
I'm completely floored, and can only imagine the time it would take to create these.
Metal Slug 3 - there are three pages of animations here. I'm particularly impressed with the zombie blowing up :)
Has anyone played this game? I believe it was for the NeoGeo...
Anyways, I'd love to see the art that makes everyone else horny for 2D :P
Chris
About the author
#2
04/12/2005 (4:43 pm)
Actually, I saw Guilty Gear art for the first time today as well. Very cool stuff.
#3
For old school games, Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3) had some amazing pixel art. Beautifully drawn, and wonderfully colored.
Oooh, almost forgot pretty much all of the Neo Geo fighters (Art of Fighting, Samurai Showdown, etc).
04/12/2005 (5:55 pm)
Yes, the Metal Slug games are a fantastic example of wonderfully detailed art and animation, as is the Guilty Gear series. Street Fighter 3 is another good example. That game had an inordinate number of animation frames for everything from idle animations to even the simplest of attacks.For old school games, Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3) had some amazing pixel art. Beautifully drawn, and wonderfully colored.
Oooh, almost forgot pretty much all of the Neo Geo fighters (Art of Fighting, Samurai Showdown, etc).
#4
Warzard/Red Earth (huge gorgeous sprites)
Strider 1 and 2
Mike Tyson's Punch Out (good stuff for the time)
Asura Blade (Nice work for a no-name company)
Outrunners (some gorgeous background work)
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder (hell, the giant eagle in Golden Axe 1 was gorgeous too)
Sonic 2 (had the best color/character pixel art of any Sonic game, I feel)
Sooooo much stuff from SNK. They made that hardware look beautiful amongst newer technology after 10 years by their art. King of Fighters had some excellent fire/power animations/art, especially considering the limited pallete, and full opacity (Neo Geo couldn't do transparencies))
Capcom had tons.... Aliens VS Predator, Battle Circuit, Marvel VS Capcom, Darkstalkers (at the time, this game was mind blowing)
Warrior Blade / Rastan Saga 3
Spiderman the arcade game (for me, this is almost purely because of how they drew Spiderman. He looked cool. Hunched over a bit, and I liked the way he was animated.)
It's crazy, thinking about it... These developers did so much to get around the limitations of the technology. Now that we have almost all of the limitations lifted... no one wants to do 2D games. Not even big companies like Capcom will draw their art in 640x480+ mode. They're still using 10 year old sprites made for 384x224 screen resolution! Still to this day! The SAME EXACT art! They just filter and blur it now, so you can't see it as easily. A big 2D powerhouse like Capcom could have fired all of their 2D artists long ago, and we wouldn't know it. Except for the fact that they do backgrounds. But even those are 3D now.
Luckily, we have games like Guilty Gear. They show people that 2D is still being made, and high res 2D can be very nice. They don't exactly push the limits of 2D, however. And as far as Capcom is concerned, of course people won't be interested in 2D games if you use the same low res 10 year old art 26 times over... Here's to future influential 2D game artists! May we not be forced to only look to the past for inspiration.
04/12/2005 (10:18 pm)
Here are a few that come to mind that had an influence on my work:Warzard/Red Earth (huge gorgeous sprites)
Strider 1 and 2
Mike Tyson's Punch Out (good stuff for the time)
Asura Blade (Nice work for a no-name company)
Outrunners (some gorgeous background work)
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder (hell, the giant eagle in Golden Axe 1 was gorgeous too)
Sonic 2 (had the best color/character pixel art of any Sonic game, I feel)
Sooooo much stuff from SNK. They made that hardware look beautiful amongst newer technology after 10 years by their art. King of Fighters had some excellent fire/power animations/art, especially considering the limited pallete, and full opacity (Neo Geo couldn't do transparencies))
Capcom had tons.... Aliens VS Predator, Battle Circuit, Marvel VS Capcom, Darkstalkers (at the time, this game was mind blowing)
Warrior Blade / Rastan Saga 3
Spiderman the arcade game (for me, this is almost purely because of how they drew Spiderman. He looked cool. Hunched over a bit, and I liked the way he was animated.)
It's crazy, thinking about it... These developers did so much to get around the limitations of the technology. Now that we have almost all of the limitations lifted... no one wants to do 2D games. Not even big companies like Capcom will draw their art in 640x480+ mode. They're still using 10 year old sprites made for 384x224 screen resolution! Still to this day! The SAME EXACT art! They just filter and blur it now, so you can't see it as easily. A big 2D powerhouse like Capcom could have fired all of their 2D artists long ago, and we wouldn't know it. Except for the fact that they do backgrounds. But even those are 3D now.
Luckily, we have games like Guilty Gear. They show people that 2D is still being made, and high res 2D can be very nice. They don't exactly push the limits of 2D, however. And as far as Capcom is concerned, of course people won't be interested in 2D games if you use the same low res 10 year old art 26 times over... Here's to future influential 2D game artists! May we not be forced to only look to the past for inspiration.
#5
I hear ya! I've been preaching this for months now. Hopefully we can make it happen!
04/12/2005 (10:31 pm)
Quote:
It's crazy, thinking about it... These developers did so much to get around the limitations of the technology. Now that we have almost all of the limitations lifted... no one wants to do 2D games.
I hear ya! I've been preaching this for months now. Hopefully we can make it happen!
#6
04/12/2005 (11:57 pm)
Metal Slug has a wonderful style and beautiful art. I particularly like the backgrounds, but my thumbs get so tired hammering the buttons all the time ;-)
#7
If I get time I'll do a pixel art resources thread.
04/13/2005 (11:33 am)
Ms is great. check out http://www.spriteart.com some good tutorials on it.If I get time I'll do a pixel art resources thread.
#8
08/29/2005 (6:07 pm)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night probably has my favorite 2d graphics- superbly animated, very rich colors. Prince of Persia and Aladdin on SNES were good looking, too.
#9
08/29/2005 (6:52 pm)
I thought BlackThorne was pretty cool.
#10
08/29/2005 (9:15 pm)
@Jake: I don't think I've played the SNES version of Aladdin (made by Capcom), but I've played the Genesis verison (made by Sega) and from what I hear the SNES version can't compare. Check it out of you're able! Really interesting animation on the main character.
#11
If you want some truly incredible 2D art, try and track down screenshots or video for Astal by Sega. It came out on the Saturn and was largely overlooked by most people, but I'd probably argue that it is one of the most beautiful games ever made, 2D or otherwise. They used watercolor artwork that was scanned for most of the background art, and it was one of the first games to map large 2D art to polygons so that you had amazing effects like the main character being able to rip trees out of the background art and toss them as projectiles. I'm still tempted to try to find a Saturn and this game on ebay.
09/20/2005 (3:51 pm)
I think one of my favorites (in terms of background art) was Rocket Knight Adventures by Konami for the Genesis. They built these beautiful landscapes with awesome color use (it was the first time I'd seen clouds drawn in those purple pastels, and yet they worked brilliantly). Definately worth checking out.If you want some truly incredible 2D art, try and track down screenshots or video for Astal by Sega. It came out on the Saturn and was largely overlooked by most people, but I'd probably argue that it is one of the most beautiful games ever made, 2D or otherwise. They used watercolor artwork that was scanned for most of the background art, and it was one of the first games to map large 2D art to polygons so that you had amazing effects like the main character being able to rip trees out of the background art and toss them as projectiles. I'm still tempted to try to find a Saturn and this game on ebay.
#12
Simple but entertaining. I like that kind of stuff
09/20/2005 (4:37 pm)
www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/ count'm ~60 beautiful 2D games. Simple but entertaining. I like that kind of stuff
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake
MS is an amazingly fun and wonderful run 'n gun.
I'm a huge fan of the art style in Dark Stalkers (Vampire Savior) and Guilty Gear.