This is what we like. Nothing is set in stone. We’re still in the exploration phase, and we want to figure this out together with the artist.
Think Advanced Wars. Strong, simple silhouettes. Cartoon proportions. Bold, high-contrast colors. Anime-inspired faces. Exaggerated personality. Clean linework. Strategic shading. Doesn’t need to be a finished piece of artwork like the one below, of course.
Characters should be quirky and memorable. Some examples of characters we’ll have: Salaryman, Supermarket Clerk, Doctor, Scientist, etc. Also, enemies are not always people: animals, mechs, aliens, spirits, etc.
We’ll also need concept art for backgrounds.
Actual in-game pixel art can be based on your own concept or on the one provided by a dedicated concept artist (which will depend on what people we’ll be able to find). Each character will have multiple animations: idle, attacks that chain into combos, taking damage, victory pose, losing pose, etc. Characters will be around 64-90px high base size (bosses can be bigger, minions can be smaller).
An example of detalization and colorfulness we think can work well.
Example of visual diversity between characters we want.
Great characters and animations by © SOHEI
Amazing memorable characters by Yogurt
Backgrounds will have slightly more subdued colors than the characters to ensure sufficient contrast. At the same time, backgrounds are imperative and should contain interesting details and animations.
Backgrounds need to be 240x135px (including safe space). We’ll provide a spec detailing where UI elements will be, which parts are visible at different screen sizes, and so on.
Too detailed, but a good example of element-rich enviroment: not just buildings and a road, but cars, people, piggies, signs, etc.
The main inspiration is classic fighting games: Street Fighter 2, Last Blade, KoF, Garou, Real Bout, and SamSho, but brighter. We’re not looking for a copy of Ryu, but if you can be inspired by classic characters to create the art and animations based on our description, that’d be amazing.
