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Forums - General Discussion - Are Retro Sprites Irreplaceable?

I think 2D pixelated sprites are as irreplaceable as 3D sprites are. For me it's of like looking at cartoons compared to computer animated movies. They both work in their own way. Pixelated graphics are beautiful when done right and are effective in making perfectly targeted jump or standing close to an edge. 3D graphics or more cartoony ones also help to often invoke another feeling. For example, Halo would never be the same had it been sprite based while Super Mario Bros wouldn't have been as iconic without it's graphics and accompanying music.



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I had something intelegent to say, but I forgot so here are some Fire Emblem animations:




Please let FE 2018 be 2D or at least have this level of animation.

Oh and here is a cool Rain World GDC talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVntwsrjNe4



Barkley said:

No they don't need to be retro pixel-art sprites, but games need to stop taking the easy way out and using 3d models instead of 2d art.

Rayman Origins and Legends show the effort that should be put into the graphics of 2d games. 2.5d is a mistake in almost all instances and is just done because it's quicker/cheaper.

Rayman Legends IS a 2,5d game though. The charactermodels themselves and the path are 3D and everything else is 2D.

And it looks absolutely gorgeous. The Ubi Art engine was created with the mission statement of: 'every frame should look like a handdrawn picture' and it really shows. Simultaneously they still have all the benefits of 3D, like dynamic lighting and easy terrain building for the level designers.



SuperNova said:
Barkley said:

No they don't need to be retro pixel-art sprites, but games need to stop taking the easy way out and using 3d models instead of 2d art.

Rayman Origins and Legends show the effort that should be put into the graphics of 2d games. 2.5d is a mistake in almost all instances and is just done because it's quicker/cheaper.

Rayman Legends IS a 2,5d game though. The charactermodels themselves and the path are 3D and everything else is 2D.

And it looks absolutely gorgeous. The Ubi Art engine was created with the mission statement of: 'every frame should look like a handdrawn picture' and it really shows. Simultaneously they still have all the benefits of 3D, like dynamic lighting and easy terrain building for the level designers.

Actually the vast majority of things in Legends is still 2d art, not models, including Rayman himself. There's only a few 3d elements, the bosses, some background dragons etc.

You can see in this behind-the-scenes video, they move the angle and you can see that everything in this particular scene is actually a 2d sprite.



Barkley said:
SuperNova said:

Rayman Legends IS a 2,5d game though. The charactermodels themselves and the path are 3D and everything else is 2D.

And it looks absolutely gorgeous. The Ubi Art engine was created with the mission statement of: 'every frame should look like a handdrawn picture' and it really shows. Simultaneously they still have all the benefits of 3D, like dynamic lighting and easy terrain building for the level designers.

Actually the vast majority of things in Legends is still 2d art, not models, including Rayman himself. There's only a few 3d elements, the bosses, some background dragons etc.

You can see in this behind-the-scenes video, they move the angle and you can see that everything in this particular scene is actually a 2d sprite.

I know. I was actually thinking of that exact same video. XD

At one point he disables the art layer and it's basically just the path, some interactable elements and Rayman himself left. I guess thats why I thought he was a 3D model? It's been a while since I watched it.



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Another World (the remaster looks pretty good too) will remain one of the best looking games, wait, did that use sprites?

I did some digging around and it looks like every visual element in Another World is a polygon, even the backgrounds.
However the remaster does indeed use bitmapped assets.

Let us not limit this discussion to bitmapped graphics vector graphics can also look pretty too.



Actually I don't want to undersell just how incredible Another World is, play it and look up how it works.



I love sprite art. I know a lot of people feel that the sprite art of modern games is being overdone, and want indies to move on from it, but I personally like the style that they go for with that. It's nice having modern ideas mixed with classic graphics. Then again, I'm also someone who enjoys the pixellated look of PS1 games.



VGPolyglot said:
I love sprite art. I know a lot of people feel that the sprite art of modern games is being overdone, and want indies to move on from it, but I personally like the style that they go for with that. It's nice having modern ideas mixed with classic graphics. Then again, I'm also someone who enjoys the pixellated look of PS1 games.

The low poly tide is coming, don't worry.



caffeinade said:
VGPolyglot said:
I love sprite art. I know a lot of people feel that the sprite art of modern games is being overdone, and want indies to move on from it, but I personally like the style that they go for with that. It's nice having modern ideas mixed with classic graphics. Then again, I'm also someone who enjoys the pixellated look of PS1 games.

The low poly tide is coming, don't worry.

I know a lot of people hate them, but the thought of that excites me



VGPolyglot said:
caffeinade said:

The low poly tide is coming, don't worry.

I know a lot of people hate them, but the thought of that excites me

The low poly models will use vertex colours, so no pixels will be present (besides rasterisation), sorry.