#Johan Vinet

[hardcoregamer]

Talking Lunark with Johan Vinet

Somewhere on a distant planet is humanity’s new home, ruled over by a government that doesn’t seem so bad unless you catch its attention.  Leo had the bad fortune to be the prime suspect in a bombing and is now on the run, first to get away and eventually to learn the secrets of his planet’s past.  He’s going through all this, however, in a platformer sub-genre that’s only got a small handful of games despite its pedigree, not to mention an art style that uses a low resolution to present its world.  Lunark is the kind of game that leaves one wondering how it all came together, and sole developer Johan Vinet was kind enough to answer a small pile of questions about its creation.

Check it out!

[2d-platformer-dw]

Pixel Artist - 3

Johan Vinet

"why it smooth what"

Johan Vinet is an indie game developer and digital artist, founder of Canari Games

Image 1 - I like the green/purple contrast which highlights the playable area helps player ease of use and also makes the environment seem more alien/foreign. The background animations also help make the world feel more alive and energetic. The player animations are also extremely smooth and perhaps even slightly overanimated which is rally pleasant to see

Image 2 - The separated movement of the arm, torso and head seem more lifelike than if they were in sync, and the stretching of the hand really help to sell the illusion of movement without overanimating or keeping the objects static. I also really like the combination of a creen shake with the rocks also moving, however I feel like the leaves could also move lightly too

Image 3 - The looped [extremely smoothly animated] rolling clouds and steady upwards camera movement alongside the anime-esque little pointy things [technical term yes] really help sell the illusion of speed and pace. The steady colour gradient from yellow to purple [the objectively best gradient] also helps draw attention to the clouds and ships rather than the sky or moon. I don't really have much to say about the starships except that they are anaimated extremely smoothly and I have no faults with any aspect of this image

[2dplatformerng]

Pixel Art Research

Above is a screenshot from the website Army of Trolls. The website offers great resources for research on pixel art for games and art in general. Army of Trolls is helpful in particular as its filled with community made art from all sorts of themes or styles.

Octavi Navarro is similar to Army of Trolls in the sense that it contains dedicated art alongside art made for games although all the art on this website that I've seen follows a similar art style because it seems to be from one person and or team not a community centered thing.

Johan Vinet on tumblr made a game called castaway he is really good inspiration for me as he seems to have a slightly more simple art style like what I'm doing as well as the fact it was for an indie game similar to what we're aiming to create.

The art above from pixel art gallery is a good resource to look at when creating my game as like my game its has a mythical theme if I look back on this piece for inspiration it will likely be for the forest scene in the background.

[lh2dplatformer]

Research on pixel art styles

Very nice intro to the website

This pixel art was made for a Youtube banner. Everything stands out with a black outline which I do like, and there is also a lot going on. Despite that, you can still see what is happening as there are some bold and bright colours.

Something I don't like however, is the persons chin. Looks too blocky and masculine for that type of character

Octavi creates scenes with different stories. Although they are still images they still manage to have personality and can tell a story.

This can obviously present a war situation, it can also be assumed that there is lots of chaos and everything is going wrong for the soldiers as many have parachuted in the air, there is a crashing plane and there are other planes in the background, presumably fighter planes

This scene represents a Lunar base,

Just from the image alone, we can assume for some its a busy day as there is an astronaut working outside performing some maintenance on the base. There is also someone inside a room which appears to be a control room, it is possible that he is the one launching the rockets in the background.

However, you can see some people sleeping and maybe potentially a couple standing together.

Something that stands out about his art is that the eyes of the characters are simply just black dots, and they have very long and skinny legs.

This website has a collection of retro games which all have a unique art style.

In this game, you can't really see any black outlines, however there is obviously a lot going on. A lot of the stuff in the image is to represent light such as the red laser balls and the green laser beam, this can be seen by the white inside them which shows light.

This is not art I would try to recreate, as there is too much going on and the lack of black outlines.

Here, we can see a very dark colour palette, which can be shown by the dark silver pipes, the green and purple characters, green sludge or sewer waste and yellow bricks. This is NOT a style I would follow as I do not like art of retro games

Johan Vinet made a game called "Cast Away"

The art is bold, bright and is defined by black outlines. The game also appears to be made in 16x16.

This is THE art style I would like to recreate, this appeals to me because it looks defined and simple.

However, if I were going for a more grime game, I would still have defined black outlines, but I would obviously go for a darker colour palette.

[km-2dpixelart]

Researching pixel art

Army of Trolls -

Website created under the influence (and is the portfolio) of artist Gary J Lucken.

This is a website that is made up of a few sections:

Gary, (G) has worked on many games such as Kynseed, which released in 2022, doing the character/creature designs and animations.

Octavi Navarro (arts and games) -

Indie studio that makes games and art.

As you can see, its art section is made up of 'scenes' and there are 61 scenes.

9 games have been made/are in progress of being made.

Derek Yu -

Site that helps people learn pixel art.

It has three tutorials for making pixel art:

Helps teach how to shade sprites, use anti aliasing etc. Shows examples of reworked pixel art before and afters.

Johan Vinet -

Pixel artist that learned it on an Atari 1040STF (with 16 colors). Also a game developer and founder.

Has worked on the 2013 game 'Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW!' as an animator.

[ss-2dplatformer]

Researching Pixel Art by other Creators

There will four pieces of research that will be detailed within this blog post: Army of Trolls, Octavi Navarro, Derek Yu, and Johan Vinet.

Army of Trolls:

They have made a variety of games, such as Scram Kitty, Sweatshop, Jack Move and Kynseed. They all seem to have their own unique artstyle while all being created by the same team. This helps make all of their creations a different feel and not as though you're looking at a variant of something you've seen before

Octavi Navarro:

Their art style is seemingly more detailed while having the characters themselves be far away from the perspective of the viewer, meaning that they can put less detail into the characters while still having them look as though they were very detailed. On the contrary, their backgrounds are filled with detail with things, creating an interesting contrast between the two that somehow also works.

Derek Yu:

His page had more of a pixel art gallery, than anything. It shows off how games used to look in the late 90's to early 2000's when 3D graphics hadn't fully taken off yet, so it was down to developers and artists to master the 2D space. It shows a variety of art styles, all masterfully capturing the feeling they were aiming to achieve.

Johan Vinet:

He seems to have his own way of crafting 2D games, managing to emulate the style you'd expect to see from RPG's originating from the late 1990's almost perfectly while also giving off a similar vibe to games such as Stardew Valley.

[bg2dplatformer]

Research on Artsits

Week 1:

Army Of Trolls:

Armt of trolls is the portfolio of london born, videogame obsessed artist Gary J Lucken. Working from his Studio in Poole, Dorset, UK, surrounded by Japanese toys and piles of old 2D videogames.

There is a lot going on in their work and it is very crowded they use shadows and gradient to make the photo look 3D and they don't use black outlines

They also use an isometric view point for their work.

Octavi Navarro / Pixels huh:

They develop approachable, narrative video games crafted with tons of love

Octavi Navarro is a pixel artist and developer who worked on games like Thimbleweed Park and Photographs.

Susanna Granell takes care of the studio's business side, social media, and writing. She loves coffee.

Their most distinctive feature is our unique visual style, combined with original and risky narrative stories that resonate with players.

Octavi uses layering, shadows and gradient to give a perspective of looking underneath the ground or a race track. They also use no black outlines on their work

Derek Yu-Spelunky:

Yu has designed and co-designed several award-winning games, most famously Spelunky, Aquaria, and Eternal Daughter.He is also notable as a blogger and custodian of the influential TIGSource blog/community about independent video games.

Speluncky is a 2008 2D platform game The player has to explore and dodge traps as they progress.

Most of these games are from the 90s and early 2000s. 3d graphics were still crude and before indie game developers truly picked up the mantle.

Derek uses some black outlines however not everything is outlined in black and instead is a gradient of what the colour of the object is

Batman (Famicom/NES). Sunsoft, 1990.

Johan Vinet:

They worked on game Animations for Adventure time and Flinthook.

They learned pixel art on an Atari 1040STF with 16 colors.

Castaway is a family friendly, short and charming action-adventure game.

"Embark on an action-packed adventure in Castaway, diving players into a pixelated and retro universe. Assume the role of Martin, whose spaceship crash-landed on an uncharted island where his faithful pet was taken by hostile creatures. Retrieve your weapons and venture out to rescue your kidnapped companion in this endearing and unexpectedly dynamic world. Beat the 3 bosses in the concise and delightful "Story Mode" to unlock the thrilling and addictive "Survivor Mode." Ascend a 50-floor tower, with each level presenting increasingly challenging trials!"

Johan uses black outlines on all their objects and characters, they use power ups and their game cast away is like an escape and fight game.

Week 2:

Michael Myers:

They use low resolution canvases to construct his characters and objects and shows that they are still recognizable without a black outline.

He also makes it seem easy to create something on 8 bit when he still is able to make it look great.

Don Bluth:

Don uses a sketch to begin with and then once he is happy with his design he then goes over it in thicker pencil. He also uses a lot of curves and not a lot of straight lines.

don uses lines to begin working on his character to make sure it is aligned.

Mary Blair:

Mary uses plain colours and adds to them as she creates her character. she worked on many films like peter pan and cinderella and would create the shape and colour design for them.

Mary created children's books with her art work. she used a lot of different colours and used them to make her characters and the area around them more vibrant and stand out.

Mary even created the colour scheme for the new attraction "its a small world" .

Super Meat Boy:

I like the use of the caves in the hell stage and the design of all the levels, the designers for this game used black outlines for their characters and their characters were very similar and didn't contain too much detail.

most of their characters would be solid block colours and still look very good, as the levels where built around the characters design, the levels worked well.

Castle Crashers:

The game designers designed the characters to look like knights to fit the theme of knights fighting enemies. I like the character design as its not too detailed but it used more than one main colour.

This game uses a black outline for their characters as well as using a coloured outline after the black outline.

Minit:

The game uses only two colours for the background and all the characters all the characters use a pallet of light grey and white to give them definition. I like how the character designers use just white and black as it shows a good game can be created without using loads of different colours

The game also uses in game dialogue to show the story of the game to the player.

[em2dplatformer]

Pixel Art: The Basics

By playing pixel art games, I can get a better idea of what type of styles can be achieved and what styles I want to use for my game.

Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss

3-D WorldRunner

A Boy and His Blob

We can also get a better idea of how to make pixel sprites by researching other pixel artists.

Army Of Trolls:

Army Of Trolls is the site of Gary J Lucken's portfolio where his designs for games, YouTube and festival banners and commissions. His work features very bright and bold colours and focuses on 2D settings such as his London Games Fest art and his GDC 2018 brochure art. Specifically, his settings our done in the isometric pixel art style.

Octavi Navarro:

Octavi Navarro Art & Games is a studio based in Barcelona. Octavi Navarro himself is a pixel artist and game developer who creates narrative driven games. A lot of his colour palettes are more muted and he uses a lot of clean angles in the settings of his art pieces. His art also has a strong use of dynamic lighting with the use of spotlights and smaller light sources that blend nicely in the environment. These unique light sources also create strong shadows across some of his pieces.

Derek Yu:

Derek Yu is the creator of many popular games such as Spelunky, and Aquaria. He has a site called 'Make Games With Derek' where he has tutorials on how to do pixel art as well as examples of his own and other's work.

Both Spelunky and Aquaria have pixel artstyles, making them good examples to look at.

Spelunky is mostly underground and so has a limited colour palette. This, however, does not stop the game from being colourful. From gold ore scattered about to brightly coloured enemies and characters, Spelunky is made visually engaging by its use of colour.

Aquaria is a lot less pixel-based. It takes place underwater, meaning its much more visually cluttered than Spelunky. The colours are still bright, but a more dynamic use of lighting makes the colours have more depth.

Johan Vinet:

Johan Vinet is a pixel artist who recently released a mini-game called Castaway. Castaway is a pixel game with bright graphics, smooth animation and a fun mixture of puzzles and action.

After testing out some pixel art games and doing my own research on other pixel artists, I moved onto making my own character in pixel art form.

64x64:

I personally really like the level of detail that 64x64 allows me to put into the sprite. This, however, comes at the cost of time which means 64x64 will likely be unsustainable for this project (1 1/2 roughly).

32x32:

I first did not like 32x32 but as I kept at drawing my character I began to prefer this to the 64x64 version. The 32x32 both is detailed enough to keep my character distinguishable but also can be done a lot quicker than the 64x64 version (15 minutes).

16x16:

16x16 is too small for my character. Because of her limited colour palette and her requiring an outline to be distinguishable, this option is not viable. The time save was also not worth it (5 minutes).

8x8:

Definitely not using 8x8. My character is requires some form of gradient as well as enough room for an outline to be distinguishable. Animating this would also be a very difficult task. (45 seconds max).

4x4:

4x4 becomes a colour palette rather than a sprite. 4x4 is mostly used just to find the main key colours of a character. This doesn't effect my character particularly as, due to her limited colour palette, all of her colours (even the gradient and outlines) fit cohesively on the 4x4 canvas. (15 seconds).

After choosing the type of resolution for my character, I decided to upgrade the sprite itself. I wanted to give my sprite a more dynamic pose that felt more alive than the previous one. I also wanted to add some darker colours to the parts of the character that were further back for more depth.

[444names]

Names generated from the English Wikipedia article on "List of card games by number of cards" and Swedish forenames

Aderkisagen Akorn Akosaige Albiecen Alemia Alian Alianis Alivest Allisef Allopf Almat Alvalin Alvint Alvische Amils Ampton Amusa Andiebe Anilineie Arotte Arwes Assigroken Auempts Auetterla...

Backla Bader Bagnes Bagnettly Barwenel Basmille Bassa Batempton Battlay Battly Bauen Bavalla Baśkairicia Baśkat Belic Belist Belliands Bender Benten Beribbers Bezzo Biden Bielfrein Binack Bined Bines Blarlese Blebzehn Bohma Boschan Bosti Botion Brictinnaps Briáš Brufen Brufor Brummes Brumpus Canscolt Carida Caridgenes Caringro Carneo Cartscrilgo Carté Casolle Castikopf Cegyptiat Cerschamuss Chneebzehn Clack Cladrentron Cobbm Coelician Coelkopf Coeppen Coinchelly Cointa Colein Coleo Colian Colle Cosevircf Couble Creeps Creid Crejassice Cummarock Cupsevera Cupton Dantiquelia Dewilmell Dorman Dourspacks Dreier Drier Drilla Dugol Ebbern Edditchnats Edmarln Educk Edwatex Egyptiqui Eiera Eliantre Elicia Elindrock Elisagge Elivira Elkout Ellan Elleonjapus Ellus Ellykke Elman Elvid Elvingam Emalman Embinettla Emionken Emmer Emptor Ernfaral Estra Felivalleie Fenusquet Ferierneo Fickopf Finat Finwest Fiver Fivolo Flusserock Flustraleia Foury Fredvia Freincegon Freinee Frekor Frence Frock Frognel Froke Frossed Froßtaigres Fünfan Fünfara Fünfarimia Gailderian Gairid Gairingersp Gamed Gamesepp Grock Groyalte Gusabrús Gustailma Gustik Haill Haiser Harwes Haucuck Heackjalia Heara Hemil Hinddriss Hingkna Huctont Hufenes Hugininer Husseln Iiiii Ilmajappe Inock Irasmedvia Isabla Isager Isettexann Jamptscar Joelielix Joepe Joeppeddree Johan Joken Jonquad Jossigras Julicern Julie Julindern Jultern Jultorschna Jundanie Junilm Junion Kaisel Katte Kenessie Kinchräus Kinisef Klayed Kleie Knachint Knappe Knappelin Knapsh Knort Koppe Koublacks Kourrufoo Kqcjalla Könils Labluck Labludvik Layeddrock Layedurra Leißiggus Leonjachara Leted Lexanache Licia Linet Lointurkise Loiupts Loker Lokerrut Loole Looltiona Lours Loury Lovallisen Lovarvia Lovige Lowelle Lowen Ludvige Ludvigrohn Lykketten Lykkeving Majker Malibbm Malip Malmelice Malviseve Mandan Mannesta Marjaccopp Marjokern Marjoles Marnsictio Marock Maroßtara Matte Mauemps Mauer Maxelippel Mayed Medral Mella Melle Metarl Milma Milmencen Mincharo Mineselly Mingrockopf Minnapolle Minuckjack Mizelle Moden Modlie Mohan Musqui Neduginucut Nicego Nionquemkop Nisarjapsh Nocks Noepshippa Novigne Offen Ofinnapp Ohmaxi Olian Ortarock Otter Penscor Peras Periáš Phathamerl Piernelto Piers Piersp Piquera Piquers Piquodlie Pityranion Plachufelva Plackenzel Placker Polan Préungrin Quithemed Quithemilma Quity Quitz Rakelion Ralbieb Rcarikopf Rcastly Rimon Roccourré Rockeln Roggo Rufenry Rufens Rufoolout Sabet Sabridan Sagerattor Saggus Sakqcv Sakqj Sakqjt Saliande Saliebu Samed Samedrikto Sarinch Scard Scaro Scastla Schal Schalle Schamerlip Scheebezzo Schilgo Schnee Schustrummy Scolebzehne Scolebzer Scoloke Scopf Screiern Sedugus Seebbm Seminock Serry Setaria Shelly Shenuck Siggo Sight Sigro Simelsarl Simirattly Simmy Sirilmeja Skack Skägge Skærvir Skærvira Smuck Smuctikopf Smuelip Sobbm Solinga Solton Spack Sperkisage Stage Stardsef Starock Starra Stava Stiloppa Stiquel Storté Strabe Styrida Suitenver Suity Suitz Sverfellie Svers Sväng Svängon Svängruus Swiced Taigridge Tapus Tarish Tarjacol Tarlout Taron Tarry Tartarwen Theadril Theebur Thenry Thred Tinel Tonapse Tongknas Tonkert Trakqjt Trast Troggo Turspie Tuvanisa Tyriand Ulieburkack Ultord Unddra Vides Vigerkacon Vignelieln Vilderklack Villiva Vilma Vindria Viner Vinet Viniet Virician Walmajke Walman Wankenvers Wellabel Wenel Wenunzehne Wesern Wicer Willeo Willick Wilsaras Wimian Wimoh Zhucti Zwalbiet

[agentkratos2]

Johan Vinet-Research

Johan Vinet (tumblr.com)

[chazboy666]

Johan Vinet

[tga-ines-soares]

Johan Vinet Johan vinet learned pixel art on an Atari 1040STF with 16 colors. Somebody told him they added a few ones since. He's worked or he is still working on the following games. Adventure Time Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! Animation by Wayforward), Halfway Characters, Animation, Portrait, Game logo by Robotality, Extreme Exorcism Art & Animation by Golden Ruby Games, Demons VS Fairyland iOS Characters & Animation by Storm Alligator, Hyper Light Drifter Contribution by HeartMachine ,Kraut Buster Animation by NGDEVTeam and Flinthook  Animation and Sound Design by Tribute Games.

[metallicmadness34]

Examples of pixel art

Army of trolls

Army of Trolls is a collection of Pixel art creatures, hugely influenced by videogames, pop culture, comics and music.

Octavi Navarro is a pixel art and games studio that specializes in narrative games that resonate with players.

Derek Yu

Derek Yu is a pixel art gallery of mostly retro pixel games around the 90s and early 2000s during what is considered to be the golden age of pixel art

Johan Vinet

Johan Vinet is a pixel artist who has contributed in many games such as Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! and Extreme Exorcism, he has even made a game of his own called LUNARK.

[ethos0706]

Pixel art research

To start my research for making a 2D pixel art platformer, I first need to study some pixel art from various different artists.

To start I researched Army of Trolls, and the first thing I noticed when looking at their art was the strikingly saturated colours and unique outlines on all the characters on screen. However the vision of my game features a more grungy and desaturated aesthetic, so I don't think ill draw to much inspiration from this piece of art.

Next I researched Octavi Navarro, specifically their scene "The Philsosophers" which makes use of slightly desaturated colours to portray this sunset/dreamlike feeling that feels very comforting. I feel like I could make use of techniques like this in my game; specifically in background art.

Next I had a look through Derek Yu's pixel art gallery and found this image of Final Fantasy VI, I love its usage of desaturated colours and gross yet thorough detail to portray a truly demonic and unsettling creature. while I probably wont make my game this detailed (for my mental sake mostly) I will try to use colours similar to this to portray a feeling of isolation and loneliness.

Finally I studied Johan Vinet and multiple GIFs and images of his game Lunark, this game uses lots of bright and saturated colours like bright green skies and city buildings with a rich purple hue. However i must comment on the beautiful animation work in this game, it looks almost rotoscoped with how detailed it is! with tiny micro-movements and aspects not usually paid attention to in animation, it truly is something special and I fully intend to take notes for my game animation wise.

[theblackbodyofmyworks]

Johan Vinet

While I would likely struggle to add one of his animations in here, I can tell you right now that he's got a good sense of flow in his animation, if I have to describe it, everything feels very fluid, like it's a free-flowing stream of water that can defy gravity, it's REALLY nice, if a bit exaggerated. Nice choice of colours as well.

[2dplatformerthingforcollege]

Johan Vinet

Johan Vinet is yet another pixel artist, his work is very saturated and contrast-y, using colours on the opposite side of the colour wheel together and making it work well. I am a very big fan of this artstyle and his work, All of his animations are very smooth and he has done a great job in managing to show exactly what he wants with such a low resolution.