Pixel art for game developers / by Daniel Silber.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Is the art for your video game taking too long to create? Learning to create Pixel Art may be the answer to your development troubles. Uncover the secrets to creating stunning graphics with Pixel Art for Game Developers. The premier how-to book on Pixel Art and Pixel Art software, it focuses on the universal principles of the craft.
The book provides an introduction to Pixel Art, its utility, foundational elements, and concepts such as light and shadow. It offers tutorials on creating animations and serves as a functional guide for the most common methodology in 2D game development.

Gamers love the retro feel of Pixel Art, and lucky for you it is easy to create. You'll love the tiny file sizes that will reduce compile times and help your game run faster. Providing you with the skills to create the characters and environments needed for 2D games, this book will help you:

This book has chapters dedicated to theory as well as step-by-step tutorials, both of which describe the process explicitly. Whether you are an artist, programmer, indie developer, or certified public accountant, after reading this book, you'll understand the steps necessary to create production-quality Pixel Art graphics.

Praise for the Book:Pixel Art and Pixel Art games are very popular and the technique is a great way for independent creators to create very good-looking games with limited resources. It's frankly shocking that there hasn't been a resource like this before ... a very timely book.--Chris Totten, George Mason University, Washington, DC, USA

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface: What the Crap Is Pixel Art? (p. xi)
• Acknowledgments (p. xvii)
• Chapter 1 Why Pixel Art? (p. 1)
• 1.1 Players Love Pixel Art (p. 1)
• 1.1.1 Sweet Nostalgia (p. 1)
• 1.1.2 Contemporary and Relevant (p. 2)
• 1.1.3 Pixel Art Is Iconic (p. 3)
• 1.2 It Makes Your Life Easier (p. 4)
• 1.2.1 Smaller File Sizes (p. 4)
• 1.2.2 Anyone Can Create Pixel Art (p. 5)
• 1.2.3 Spend Less Time Doing Boring Stuff (p. 5)
• 1.2.4 It Works Well on Very Small Screens (p. 6)
• 1.2.5 Pixel Art: It's Better than 3D (p. 7)
• 1.2.6 All Your Friends Are Doing It and It'll Make You Cool (p. 8)
• Chapter 2 Pixel Art: The Technology of Yesterday...Today! (p. 9)
• 2.1 Why Now? What's in It for You? (p. 9)
• 2.2 Who This Book Is For (p. 10)
• 2.2.1 Artists (p. 10)
• 2.2.2 Programmers (Fire Your Artist and Do It Yourself) (p. 10)
• 2.2.3 Pixel Hobbyists (p. 11)
• 2.2.4 Indie Developers (p. 11)
• 2.3 How to Use this Book? (p. 11)
• Chapter 3 Who Am I and Why Do I Know So Much about Pixel Art? (p. 13)
• Disclaimer(s) (p. 15)
• Chapter 4 Software: Set Up Your Working Environment (p. 17)
• 4.1 What Not to Use (p. 17)
• 4.2 My Software Recommendation (p. 18)
• 4.3 Other Options for Pixel Art Software (p. 18)
• 4.4 A Brief Glance at Craphicscale (p. 18)
• Chapter 5 Making Pixel Art: Doing Lines (p. 23)
• 5.1 Straight Lines (p. 23)
• 5.2 Diagonal Lines (p. 24)
• 5.3 Curved Lines (p. 25)
• 5.3.1 Avoid the Lone Wolf (p. 25)
• 5.3.2 Make Each Segment Length Progressively Longer or Shorter (p. 25)
• 5.3.3 Beware the Circle Tool (p. 26)
• 5.3.4 Make Love with the Cut and Paste Features (p. 27)
• 5.4 Line Width (p. 27)
• 5.5 Anti-Aliasing (p. 28)
• Exercise 5.1 Creating a Line Drawing Sprite (p. 29)
• Step 0 Download and Install GraphicsGale or Other Pixel Art Software (p. 30)
• Step 1 Create a New Project (p. 30)
• Step 2 Draw a Head and Face (p. 31)
• Step 3 Draw the Body (p. 35)
• Chapter 6 Coloring inside the Lines (p. 43)
• 6.1 4-BIT Palette (p. 43)
• 6.2 Fill Tool (p. 44)
• 6.3 Creating Gradients (p. 47)
• 6.4 Palette Swapping (p. 51)
• 6.5 Palette Size and Time Consideration (p. 57)
• 6.6 Choosing Colors (p. 58)
• 6.7 Transparency (p. 64)
• Exercise 6.1 Coloring the Sprite (From Exercise 5.1) (p. 66)
• Chapter 7 Drawing Secrets Revealed: It's All Smoke and Mirrors (p. 71)
• 7.1 Shading (p. 71)
• 7.2 Cast Shadow (p. 74)
• 7.3 Shadow Direction (p. 76)
• 7.4 Atmospheric Perspective (p. 77)
• 7.5 Linear Perspective (p. 80)
• Exercise 7.1 Shading the Sprite (From Exercise 6.1) (p. 84)
• Chapter 8 Animating Pixels: The Shock and Horror of Being Flashed by a Pixel (p. 89)
• 8.1 Using the Program for Animation (p. 90)
• 8.2 Onion Skinning (p. 91)
• 8.3 Pixel Flashing (p. 93)
• 8.4 Core Animation Concepts (p. 95)
• 8.4.1 Anticipation and Follow-Through (p. 96)
• 8.4.2 Squash and Stretch (p. 98)
• 8.5 Game-Specific Concerns (p. 102)
• 8.6 Summary (p. 104)
• Exercise 8.1 Create an Idle Animation (From Exercise 7.1) (p. 104)
• Simplify the Sprite (Suggested but Optional) (p. 105)
• The Simplest Path (p. 106)
• Chapter 9 Tiled Backgrounds (p. 109)
• 9.1 Tile Sizes (p. 110)
• 9.2 Setting up the Tilemap Work Area (p. 111)
• 9.3 Textures that Repeat on You (p. 112)
• 9.4 Create a Tile Library (p. 118)
• 9.5 Dithering and other Patterns (p. 118)
• 9.5.1 How to Create Organic Dither (p. 118)
• 9.5.2 Patterned Dither (p. 119)
• Exercise 9.1 Creating a Top-Down Tile Set (p. 121)
• Step 1 Create a New Project, Get a History Lesson (p. 121)
• Step 2 Turn on Your Grid (p. 122)
• Step 3 Prepare Your Palette (p. 123)
• Step 4 Create Our First Tile (p. 129)
• Step 5 Create a Grass Variation-As well as a Blend Tile (p. 134)
• Step 6 It Isn't Easy Being Green-Moving on to Sand (p. 138)
• Step 7 Variation Elation for the Game's Duration (p. 149)
• Step 8 Rocking Out (p. 154)
• Step 9 Water (p. 162)
• Step 10 Put It All Together (p. 165)
• Exercise 9.2 Creating a Simple Side-View Tile Set (p. 167)
• Chapter 10 You're Doing It Wrong: Things to Avoid (p. 207)
• 10.1 Banding and "Super Pixels" (p. 207)
• 10.2 Too Much Anti-Alias (p. 209)
• 10.3 Poor Line Quality (p. 210)
• 10.4 Weak Palette Choices (p. 211)
• 10.5 Too Much Complexity (p. 212)
• 10.6 Flash Shading (p. 213)
• 10.7 No Texture (p. 214)
• Chapter 11 Interviews with Game Developers (p. 217)
• 11.1 An Interview with James Petruzzi of Discord Games (p. 217)
• 11.2 An Interview with Jochum Skoclund of Crackshell (p. 220)
• 11.3 An Interview with Dave Preston of Heart Machine (p. 223)
• Chapter 12 Resources (p. 227)
• 12.1 Online Resources (p. 227)
• 12.2 Books (p. 227)
• 12.3 Pixel Art Software (p. 228)
• Chapter 13 Afterword: Some Thoughts on Why I Wrote This Book (p. 231)
• Index (p. 233)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Dan Silberis a game developer who has been credited for Pixel Art on dozens of games with licenses, including Marvel, Nickelodeon, Pixar, and Disney. His work has appeared on games that span multiple platforms including PC, Nintendo DS, and GBA. In addition to working with Pixel Art, he is a programmer, musician, and accomplished 3D Artist--with work that has appeared in an exhibit in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. Dan owns the game development studio Interstellar Tortoise and has written several indie games.

If you want to know more about him, check out www.dansilber.com and www.interstellartortoise.com