#the art is just amazing and the animations are stunning and perfectly cartoony!

[thatnununguy]

you can't begin to imagine what money I would pay to kiss yomiel ghost trick straight on the mouth

[saltyblazestudent]

The Video Game Industry

Video games have come a very long way. From humble beginnings as a simple interactive exhibit to an entirely new form of interactive storytelling and ways to experience adventures with friends. The video game industry has been ripe with change, controversary, technological strides, and amazing works of art and commentaries on society.

Key Terms-

DLC- Downloadable content available for a game offered for a small extra price after the full release of the game.

Micro Transactions- Payments made with real money to get in game currency used to buy in game content.

FPS/TPS- First person shooter/ third person shooter.

Cabinet Game- An arcade style video game built into a cabinet like structure.

Console- a gaming device that can be used at home by plugging it into a TV screen.

Sandbox environment- A game environment that allows the player to roam where every and do almost whatever they want.

Triple-A Games- games that are very popular, make great sales on release, and is usually annualized to release a new game every year or two.

 Historical developments-

The first video game was invented in 1958 by Physicist William Higginbotham and it was called Pong. The game was created was by Higginbotham as an interactive exhibit for the Brookhaven National Laboratory Group. The game was displayed on an analog computer and was based off tennis with players using two knobs to control two parallel bars bouncing a ball in between them. This simple concept was eventually ported to an arcade cabinet style and later an at home console game and led to the development of other cabinet style arcade games and at home video game consoles.  

The 1970’s was the decade that arcade style video games became mainstream. Even a year before Pong was ported to a cabinet there was Atari’s 1971 game Computer Space a simple joystick-controlled game where you control a small spaceship and the first Arcade Cabinet game. These successes paved the way for all sorts of companies to start developing some of their own games to be made into arcade cabinets and played for a few cents a play. One of the most famous arcade games is Pac-Man a Japanese game licensed and distributed in the U.S. by Midway games and released in 1980. This is a simple arcade style game in which the player uses a joystick to control a small yellow circle shaped character named Pac-Man. The goal of the game was to earn points by going through a maze eating small dots while Avoiding Blinky, Pinky ,Inky, and Clyde four ghost who chase you through the maze. This simple yet incredibly fun game led to many sequels spinoffs and even a Hanna Barbara cartoon series.

Pac-Man isn’t the only game or character to receive mainstream popularity. The Japanese company Nintendo had a game and a character that would truly become timeless, he was a short Italian plumber, that wore a red hat, overalls and a large mustache and had a very funny accent. His name was Mario and the first game he was featured in was a 1981 arcade game called Donkey Kong. This game had Mario trying to rescue Princess Peach from the giant gorilla Donkey Kong. The player would use a joystick and buttons to guide Mario up platforms and over barrels being thrown by Donkey Kong. Mario would later get another main role in Mario Bros which introduced Mario’s brother Luigi. Mario has since become the face of Nintendo and is their flagship Character and shows no signs of losing any popularity.

  It was popularity such as this that helped gaming companies make the next big leap from the arcades to peoples’ homes. These consoles usually had the same games you could play in an arcade preloaded onto them so you could play them as much you wanted for free at home. The first at home console was created in 1967 and was called simply the Brown Box and offered only six games ping pong, tennis, volleyball, hand ball, a chase game, and a light gun game. The Magnavox Odyssey was another early at home console that was so primitive to modern standards that it didn’t even have audio. These early 2-D arcade consoles eventually led to the rise of another technological breakthrough in the industry, 3-D gaming. These were not 3-D in the sense that the images appeared to be jumping out of the screen but more with the art style and how the games were graphically improved. For example in Super Mario Bros the character models are created from small colored squares called pixels. These pixels are colored and stacked into shaped to create a 2-D shape on the screen such as the image of Mario. Fast forward to the 3-D tech breakthrough and the number of pixels being used to create Mario increased dramatically, this meant the game developers could make much more detail character models that you could view from any angle. These advances in 3-D character modelling led to the development of one of the most famous consoles created, the Nintendo 64 was a huge leap forward for mainstream gaming and introduce help introduce the concept of a handheld controller with smaller buttons and a small joystick instead of a single joystick for controls. 

The N-64 also brought amazing games such as Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, James Bond: Goldeneye, and Mario Tennis. The popularity of the N-64 paved the way for other companies like Sony and Microsoft to hone in on the gaming console market with the release of the Sony PlayStation and the Microsoft X-BOX.

Notable Artists-

           The gaming industry is filled with brilliant artist, studios, writers, programmers, and other types of creators that dedicate their time and effort to creating beautiful and stunning games for us to enjoy.

Shigeru Miyamoto- Creator of the Mario Franchise Japanese game developer Shigeru Miyamoto has one of the most creative and colorful imaginations in gaming. The worlds and characters he creates are colorful, cartoony, fun, and most of all memorable. Miyamoto claims to have been inspired by stories such as Alice In Wonderland in his design of the game world and the characters who inhabit it. Miyamoto has created characters such as Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Goombas, Toad, Yoshi, and countless others.

Rockstar Games- Rockstar Games is a company the develops and produces some of the most detailed and expansive Sandbox Environment Games that not only present the player with amazing film quality level story and script writing but also a massive world to experience it all in that feels very close to real life.

Rockstar has published numerous successful game franchises such as the Max Payne, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Bully and many others. Rockstar games are notorious for amazing sales records as well with Grand Theft Auto V  has made over $6 billion dollars in sales since its release in 2013 and Rockstar’s newest release of their Wild West epic Red Dead Redemption II making $725 million three days after the game was put out.

Recent Trends-

           Video Games like any other form of media is subject to trends and the consumers demanding video games that are new, exciting, and interesting. In the 90’s the trend was first person shooters which were popular with computer gamers. First Person shooters consist of putting the player in the first person view of the protagonist, this makes actions like shooting at enemies much easier and more immersive. Games that pioneered this “FPS” (First Person Shooter) genre were games like Wolfenstein, and Doom. The FPS trend evolved in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and was greatly influenced by the 1998 movie Saving Pvt Ryan. After the film’s release there was a huge spike in WWII themed FPS games. A couple of these games almost recreated the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Pvt. Ryan perfectly, allowing player to take part in one of the most famous battles of WWII. Trends in gaming have again evolved with the popularity of the “battle royale”(BR). The BR genre consists of dropping up to 100 players on an island or other large area and having the play area slowly shrink as the players fight for supplies, weapons, shelter, and to be the sole survivor.  Games like Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds and Fortnite popularized the genre and now larger annual game titles such as Battlefield and Call Of Duty have included BR game modes in their newest games.

Exemplary Examples-

An amazing and fairly recent example at how far gaming has come and shows just how amazing gaming can be as a mode of storytelling. Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption II is the sequel to the Highly praised Red Dead Redemption. After an eight year wait Red Dead fans flocked to stores to pick up the high anticipated sequel, and they were not disappointed. Red Dead II raked in not only over $725 million after only three days but also almost universal praise from the media. The game was in the news not only on gaming websites and magazines but also in the mainstream media. The game takes place in America during the year 1899 and has a strong Wild West theme to it. The game offers over sixty hours of gameplay just with the main story but adding in side activities and side missions to that play time can exponentially increase the play time for Red Dead II.

Red Dead II offers fun and in detail activities besides the main story missions, such as hunting. Hunting in Red Dead II consist of travelling to a location on the huge map where the animal your hunting is found for example if you want to hunt Alligators you must go to the swampy southern end of the map, if you want to hunt elk you must go to the snowy mountains in the north of the map. Once in the region of the animal you must rack it by looking for clues, once the animal is tracked you must decide the best weapon to take it down with-out damaging the skin. Animals skins that are intact and in better shape when you hunt them can be sold for more money or crafted into clothing for your character in game. This hunting mechanic is just one example of Red Dead II’s highly immersive world.

 Ownership-

           The video game industry lives on game developing companies that actually create the games. These companies like any other industry vary from small independent companies with a limited number of employees to large corporations and conglomerates that push out Triple-A games on a monthly basis.

An Example of a smaller independent developer is Tripwire Interactive. Tripwire specializes in FPS games especially “hyper-realistic” type FPS games like Red Orchestra and Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad. The Red Orchestra games were a welcome change to the type of gameplay offered from most WWII themed FPS games at the time. While other games feature fast gameplay with things like regenerating health and a Heads up Display (HUD) that displayed a mini map, health bar, and ammo count, Red Orchestra cut all that out. Tripwire focused on making a more realistic experience. This included mechanics such as realistic bullet ballistics with shots staring to arch over a certain distance, excluding a HUD feature altogether, and having the player venerable enough to be killed by a single bullet to add to the realism. These mechanics later carried on into other Tripwire games such as the Pacific Theatre WWII game Rising Storm and the Vietnam War game Rising Storm II.

An example of a larger and more corporate game developer that makes games similar to Tripwire. Dice Studios is a very well-known studio most famous for the production of the Battlefield franchise and more recently the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise. Dice is owned by Electronic Arts or EA a huge gaming development conglomeration that has many smaller game developers working for them. Dice has been making battlefield games since 2002 with the first title being a WWII FPS called Battlefield 1942. The game saw great success and EA recognized this and now has Dice pumping out Battlefield games almost every two years.

 Demographics-

           The demographics of gamers are actually a lot more diverse than one might believe. The usually stereotype is that gamers are either boys between the ages of 7-17 or young men in their twenties that live in their parents basement. There’s also a major stereotype that females do not like video games.

64% of the US general public play video games, The average age of the male gamer according to a Nielsen survey is 33 years old, according to the Entertainment Software Association the average age of female gamers is 37 years old. The countries that make the most from gaming revenue are The US bringing in an average of $25,426 million, Japan with $14,048 million, and China with a whopping $32,538 million.

 Controversaries-

           The gaming industry and its companies are not immune to controversary and culture movements.

The Grand Theft Auto Controversaries- Rockstar Game’s Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise is their most successful and most controversial franchise. The games are usually themed around crime and the main storylines have very graphic violence, drug use, and sexual content. The sandbox nature of the game also allows the player the opportunity to commit violence against non-enemy NPCs (non-playable characters) or go on shooting sprees until the cops kill you. GTA V came under harsh criticism for a playable scene In the story mode in which the player is forced to torture an FBI prisoner for information with anything from shock with a car battery, pulling teeth with plyers, or waterboarding. This scene especially got lots of media attention with many people asking the question if GTA games are to violent especially in today’s culture. Rockstar however uses this publicity and actually counts on it with each GTA release because it ultimately drives up their sales.

The Doom Controversary- On April 20 1999 two high school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered their high school armed with guns and homemade bombs. They killed twelve people that day and themselves, and in the subsequent investigation it was found that the boys were fans of one the first popular FPS games Doom. Doom is centered on very simple gameplay with an interesting story with the main character traveling to Mars and to Hell to fight demons. It was the demonic themes and violent gameplay that led some to believe that Doom was actually sending Satanic subliminal messages to players trying to corrupt them to violence.

          Sources

https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200810/physicshistory.cfm

http://pacman.com/en/pac-man-history

https://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/in-which-game-did-mario-make-his-first-appearance/

https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/19/415456813/the-legendary-mr-miyamoto-father-of-mario-and-donkey-kong

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/10/30/red-dead-redemption-2-sales-revealed-725-million-in-three-days/#79f7000455d7

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-red-dead-redemption-2-2018-9

https://www.tripwireinteractive.com/#/company/#top

https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/#video-gaming-industry-overview

[hollyplays]

The Roundup: July 2018

It’s been a shitty, shitty month. I’m getting evicted, we got into a car accident, the new insurance has my girlfriend confused for someone with a horrible speeding ticket record, and my little brother, who is learning to drive, has started hiding the car keys for some reason.

I have a tendency to hoard media. During my first year of college I was extremely depressed and contemplating suicide when I read a piece of advice- find something to look forward to, and you’ll never do it. So I started hoarding comics- I think I have 180 GBs of comics on my computer- and movies.

Well, at some point during July things got so bad I started burning through my movies. I’m not sure exactly how many I watched, but...it’s a lot. This is going to be long. 

(I have since stopped watching multiple movies a day, and gone back to semi normal movie watching habits.)

Tampopo: I think I technically watched this in June and forgot, but I love it. Tampopo is a “food western” about a group of food enthusiasts helping a young woman perfect her ramen restaurant. Tampopo has lots of smaller vignettes about how food affects our lives, and the result is lovely and comforting and meditative. Tampopo is excellent, and manages to have one of the best opening scenes to a movie I’ve ever seen.

The Exterminating Angel: This was my first movie by Luis Bunuel, and I loved it. This kind of supernaturalish, surreal horror really really works for me. Plus, the rich suffer, which is always nice. This movie is really wonderful, plus the behind-the-scenes stuff on the blu-ray was super interesting. Apparently to make the actors more uncomfortable in the scene, Bunuel would rub honey all over their arms. Nasty.

The Fisher King: My second Gilliam movie. Better than Jabberwocky, but I still wouldn’t call it good. Robin Williams was excellent as always, but I felt like Jeff Bridges was playing half a character. It had some touching scenes, but overall kind of forgettable. I don’t think I’ll be seeking out Gilliam anymore.

Badlands: I try not to judge directors on their first movie, but Badlands really comes out in Malick’s favor. This is as wonderful a movie about a serial killer as I’m likely to ever see. It’s like a landscape painting with characters. It manages to never be slow or drag despite long flowing scenes. I’m still thinking about Badlands more than a month later, and that says a lot.

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine: This is a really interesting game. WWTLW has one of the most unique mechanics I’ve ever seen in a video game, and the process of watching your stories grow and evolve is so, so cool. I wish the overworld map wasn’t so barren, and that the sprinting mechanic wasn’t such a pain, but beyond that this game is excellent. The writing here is top-notch.

Eraserhead: I’d technically seen this before, but I was half asleep so I’m counting it. Eraserhead is obviously good- it’s film history for a reason- but on a second viewing I’m struck by just how impressive the visual storytelling is. The dialogue in this movie could fit on half a page, but there’s still so so much to it. You need to see this at least once.

Frances Ha: “Frustrating, but enjoyable” seems to be Baumbach’s general ouvre, and Frances Ha is no exception. Still, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Frances is likable, even when she’s fucking up, which is more than I can say for her life partner Sophie. For as much time as Frances spends making mistakes, it’s really lovely and warm to see things come together for her in the end. Worth a watch, especially at an hour and fifteen minutes.

The Thin Red Line: Jesus christ, this movie is so long. It’s two hours and forty minutes long, and nothing of worth happens after the forty minute mark. It’s a war movie that manages to be beautiful and haunting, which would be impressive if it didn’t just fucking drag. I might watch this again and just turn it off at two hours, honestly.

Days of Heaven: I wanted this to be better than Thin Red Line and it was. Days of Heaven brings Malick’s landscape painter sensibility to labor in the 20th century, and the result is genuinely fantastic. The visuals here are stunning, even if the story is a little lacking- my biggest frustration is that most of the story events take place in the third act, like Days of Heaven is the first part in a series of novels that doesn’t exist.

Fat Girl: I get what this movie was trying to do. I understand the metaphor for how dangerous it is to be a woman. I get it, and I can respect it, but fuck do I hate this movie. I just don’t wanna watch 2 hours of a young fat girl getting shit on by her family, interspersed with rape scenes. I’m not interested in that, no matter how pretty it’s shot.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower: I watched this as a palate cleanser after Fat Girl, and it served that purpose just fine. It’s an okay movie on it’s own, but in the shadow of the rest of Ghibli it kind of pales. The animation and visuals are as phenomenal as ever, but the story is a little all over the place. Definitely still enjoyable, but sort of middling.

Sounds of Summer by Ten Toes Spumoni: If we’re Facebook friends, you’ve probably already seen me talk about this album. It’s been on repeat around here pretty much since it came out. Ten Toes Spumoni is a good friend of mine, and I genuinely believed nothing he made would top Journal of Hypnosis, but Sounds of Summer blows it out of the fuckin water. Throw a few bucks his way, because he deserves it.

Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette: This is a standup comedy act that isn’t particularly funny. It’s amazing, and full of toothed commentary on the world and LGBT issues, but it isn’t funny. It’s heavy, and hard to watch, and worth the trouble. I think this is one of the few things I gave 5 stars this month, and it deserves it.

Wizard of Legend: A big part of watching movies for me this month has been finding the perfect roguelike to play while I watch movies. I eventually settled on Gungeon, but Wizard of Legend was a strong contender too. It’s roguelike elements are really enjoyable, and finding the perfect combination of spells is fun, but resources are a little too scarce for my liking.

My Own Private Idaho: I loved this movie more than I expected to, and I knew I’d like it. My Own Private Idaho offers an exceptionally gay take on modern Shakespeare, and River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves are absolutely phenomenal here. The interview segments are a little hard to watch, but the rest of the movie is beautiful and sad and lovely. One of my favorites in a long time.

Coco: Similar to Witch’s Flower, I thought this was fine. The music is wonderful, and the animation is beautiful, but the story is a little lacking, especially towards the third act. I think Pixar forgot how to write villains that aren’t just ‘good guy’s been bad the whole time’. Hell, even Incredibles 2 did it.Those complaints aside, Coco is really enjoyable and well worth your time.

The Spirit of the Beehive: A meditation on childhood, the Spanish civil war, early film, and Frankenstein. I enjoyed thinking about this movie later more than I actually enjoyed watching it, I think. It’s a little slow, but the third act picks up and wraps the story up nicely. Definitely watch Huellas De Un Espiritu if you watch it, it adds a lot of context which helps the movie out.

Simon Of The Desert: Short movies are nice when you’re watching three a day, so I really appreciated Simon Del Desierto’s 45 minute runtime. It’s both less surreal and funnier than I expected- Simon Del Desierto feels more like Monty Python than Jabberwocky did. Highly recommended.

Cronos: A little disappointing, I’m not gonna lie. I’m a huge Del Toro fan, so I was really excited to watch his first movie, but it left me lukewarm. He describes it as a vampire film, but it takes a long time to find it’s legs. Worth the watch just for Ron Perlman and the scene where a little girl breaks his nose.

The Devil’s Backbone: This is what I wanted Cronos to be. A Del Toro twist on gothic romance and ghost story, Devil’s Backbone is as unsettling as it is charming. The kids in this movie are exceptional actors, and the script sells their childhood so, so well.

The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins: I didn’t expect too much from the graphic novel of TAZ’s first arc, but it really surprised me. Carey Pietsch’s art is just cartoony enough to bely the adult humor in the series, and the characters have been deftly adapted. The first arc in the podcast suffers a lot from ‘pregen syndrome’, where Taako and Merle weren’t super fleshed out, but the graphic novel rights the ship really well.

Black Girl: At 59 minutes, Black Girl is well worth your time mostly for how angry it’ll make you. Black Girl tells the story of a Senegalese woman who is deceived into becoming a house maid for a rich French woman, and the sheer amount of bullshit she puts up with before losing it makes her a saint in my eyes. I enjoyed this movie a lot, and I’m excited to see more African cinema.

A Hat In Time: I’ve played the shit out of this game and it never gets old. A Hat in Time is as charming as charming gets, and it perfectly recreates the feeling of playing Mario Sunshine for the first time. Only, you know, Hat in Time is fun.

Pony Island: Pony Island is one of those games that’s just a little too short- not because it feels rushed, but because I wished there was more when it ended. It’s a little cheesy in places, and the dialogue is a little slow, but the puzzles are perfectly scaled and the sense of humor is really great.

Styx: Shards of Darkness: This game might be good. I don’t know. The main character’s dialogue was so shitty I only played about 40 minutes of it. Imagine the mechanic in Jak & Daxter where Daxter makes fun of you when you die, but they got the writers from Family Guy really drunk and had them write it and never told them no.

[sidescrollertylermorgan]

Wednesday week 2 home study Games

Shovel Knight: The art style for Shovel knights is very complex from the characters to the backgrounds the design as colouring is all extensively done although I think its a bit overdone it fits the the king of feel they were going for so the design isn't bad in any way.

However I’m not the biggest fan of the animation for the main character and the other knights as I think there movement looks clunky and doesn't feel smooth but on the other hand the animation for the building, cannons etc are all very well done.

Terraria: Terraria art style is a mix between very simply to extremely complex for example the npc characters are very simple looking all having the body structure only having different hair and colours etc compared to the many bosses of terraria being insanely detailed and filling up most of the screen at all times.

The animation of terraria is amazingly done. most effects are just unique concepts that are really cool to watch while also making you feel like you could destroy anything with the power of your weapons. I also like how the armour and weapons all have a different look to them making to it feel satisfying to obtain.

  Limbo: I'm not really a fan of limbos art style as i feel that they could of added a bit more to make the atmosphere more eerie instead of having it blank shades of white however i do like the character designs as they are very threatening and actually look scary.

There is not much animation in limbo but when there is they do a good job of it to the character animations climbing to the world effects lights breaking etc it all flows very well not feeling jagid.

Badland: The art style of badland very well done. i really liek the contrast from the main parts of the game being in full black and white while the background is fluxuating  with colour and vibrancy.

the animation in Badland is very well done as it all looks very realistic and flows very well within the game when bashing with other objects and dying in the game.

Celeste:  Celeste’s Art style is just amazing. the vibrance in every different level in the simplicity in the characters contrasting to the complexity's to the games design and mechanics makes the art perfect.

The animation for the game is also really well done every effect and movement has a feeling to it of power fear anxiety it while also looking visually great as well.

Inside: The art style for Inside is dull and dark this is what they were going for because they wanted to create a certain eerie mood while playing and watching so it works for the game but I'm personally not a fan as i don't see much is going on 

the animation for the game looked smooth but once again I didn't see anything special as not much really happened not giving me much to work off for the animation side of the game.

hyper light drifter: The art for the game looks stunning as everything is done down to a t making it looks really satisfying to the eye its just a beautiful sight to look at. 

the animation looks very polishes as they are very smooth and make you feel powerful when they happen. however sometimes they can over do the effects making it seem to much.

Guacameele:  Guacameele’s art style is very colourful and had its own unique designs too them from just watching the game you can be hooked by everything going on with the bright colours it just looks like a fun time.

The animation seems to be very smooth and flow well with the game the kicks and punches also feel powerful and the objects have a realistic kind of feel to them.

Castle Crashers: the art style for Castle Crashers is cartoony and looks like a fun time the characters are designed in a way to be remembered and look unique. At times the game can become a bit crowded and you could lose yourself as a bunch of effects play but other than that the art is very well done.

The Animation also has a very cartoony feel as it is exaggerated and makes you feel like your on top of the world. The style just works perfectly for the game and the animation is amazingly done feeling smooth and not clunky.

Super Meat Boy: The art style for super meat boy is simplistic for good reasons the character for example he's just a red square with 2 curved arms that makes him easy to be recognised. sadly the game can sometimes feel dull for its simple design but its what it was going for.

The animation for Super Meat Boy is very solid as it flows very well making it an enjoyable game as the mechanics work with the animation well leaving the game to be an enjoyable experience instead of a clunky slow game.

[gwgamesterm1]

Pixel Artist Research

Paul Robertson:

Robertson is an animator mostly known for his pixel art work and animation style, he's worked on a variety of projects like Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game, Rick and Morty, Gravity Falls and much more.

One way to distinguish he work is that it generally resembles a drug trip on a screen. It's always heavily characterised, bizarre and at times grotesque with an incredible range coloured that jump out at you.

His animation style is also quite interesting, everything has very fluid motion and at times it's even weightless, which in combination with the often large, bulbous creatures, or the lanky, long limbed characters just adds to the weird, cartoony aesthetic.

As much as I appreciate the skill and talent that goes into Robertson's work, I'm not the biggest fan of it. The way everything is drawn and the use of colour is very late 90's and I never particularly liked that in the first place, I prefer artwork that is somewhat more realistic, or at least a lot less saturated with colour.

Waneella:

Waneella is an artist that seems to specialise in creating impossibly detailed city and urban scenes using a Pixel artstyle, they're somewhat of a rarity in the pixel art space as they're as photorealistic and lifelike as a pixel art can get.

It's amazing to me how she turned what in concept would be a rather dull scene into stunning piece of artwork. Most of her pieces seem to be based right around sunset or dusk, giving them rather dim lighting which allows the artificial neon lights that often decorate the scenes the chance to pop.

Ultimately, I really love her work. I already enjoy east asian influences and the compact, lived in environments encapsulate that perfectly. The use of colour is also something I enjoy, nothing seems to stick out like a sore thumb unless it was meant to, the scenes are completely cohesive.

Army of Trolls:

JunkBoy - Markus Toivonen:

It was actually a bit difficult to find reliable information on JunkBoy, other than he is Mojang's Art Developer who designs all of the textures in their game Minecraft.

From what I've been able to find, his artstyle varies wildly from the very simple pixelated texture work in minecraft, to his seemingly Japanese inspired game screens. It's really difficult for me to judge his work when it's so varied, but it definitely indicates his skill.

The use of colour in pixel art is actually one of the key factors that determines whether I like it or not, and i think JunkBoy is very good at making the different colour schemes match their respective artstyles and I don't think you'd be able to tell which style he specializes in because they all are equally well done

Pixels Huh - Octavi Navarro:

Navarro is, of course, a pixel artists who has worked on the video games Photographs, Timbleweed Park and Super Barista.

This is another great example of how versatile pixel art can be as a medium, it varies completely from the other artist on this list and I would argue it is just as detailed as Waneella's work. Most of the pieces have a limited range of colour, which I think adds to the fantastical nature that is created by the subjects.

I dont have much to as about Narvarro's work except for the fact that I think its excellent. It somehow tilts in the direction of extremely detailed while keeping that distinct less detailed feel that pixel art is known for.

Evaluation:

I believe when most people think of pixel art, they think of things like Mario, Sonic and other classic video games where it was first used, which is a shame because it is way more than that. I'm honestly impressed with the variety that you can find with a little looking around.

My favourite type of pixel art is still the kind that you have to take a minute to realise it is actually pixel art, it shows such skill and patience to methodically go through a canvas and place the pixels in their perfect place.