After much consideration, I have reached the conclusion that all modern game using pixelart will have to be removed. Also, the indie game makers responsible for said games will have to have their existence revoked, by the means of very large missiles. Allow me to elaborate. As an example, let's take a look at thefreebundle.com, a site that showcase some of the best free indie games out there. The site has is a total of 60 games at the time of writing. I have taken a look at the visual style of all 60 games:

18 of the games are in 3D:
Nitronic Rush, Cube 2: Saurbraten, Uberleben, Armagetron Advanced, Vicinity, The Silver Lining, Red Eclipse, Antibody, CyberMedic, Perspective, SavageXR, One Late Night, SCP – Containment Breach, Super Tux Cart, Of Guards and Thiefes, Zineth, The Last Starfighter, Boson X

But, let's ignore those. Instead, let us look at the majority of the games that are using 2D graphic. There is a total of 42 2D-games. Out of these 42 games, 35 are using pixelart:

Ascension, Celestial Mechanica, Abobo Big's Adventure, Under the Garden, Blitz Meet, A Nation of Wind, Mad Father, Ninja Senki, Burn & Turn, Alter Ego, Mayhem Triple, DeadBuild, Totally Tiny Arcade, Mr. Rescue, Momodora II, The Black Heart, Labyrinthine Dreams, Megaman Unlimited, Streemerz, Major Maox, The Indie Game Legend, Fighting Street, Weathered, Black Crow: The Madness Begins, Don't Move, The Crooked Man, The Tapping Dead, You Have to Win the Game, The Witch's House, The Battle for Wesnoth, Space Quest 2 Remake, Lyle in Cube Sector, Super Smash Land, Imscared, Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch

Only 7 out of the 42 2D games has dared using something other than pixelart:
Dead Colony, The Well, Ghoulish Hijinks, Dungelot, Magic Rampage, Bear Surfin Mega Wave, Dirty Split

In itself, pixelart is fine. It has its own charm, as does photos, clay-art, pen drawing, etc. The problem is that pixelart is used constantly - or in above statistic, 83 % of the time. Pixelart has outstayed its welcome. Its retro-value has worn thin. Pixelart has become an uninspired cliché that indie-makers use when they don't care about their games visuals.

As examples on how pixelart has ended up as the all-times-low of visual expression, take a look at TREASURE ADVENTURE GAME and SPELUNKY -- both games that were originally in pixelart, but had a HD remake with "real" graphic.

An yes, there are pixelart games that amazes me, such as You Have to Win The Game. But these are the exceptions. Also, I'm generally a bit tired of retro-games. There is is something a bit depressing about the constant re-cycling of whatever a pushing-forty player experienced in his childhood.

If we could just move past this silly pixelart phase, 2D really has a lot to offer. There is some really raw and gritty artwork in and [url=http://www.gog.com/game/the_cat_lady]The Cat Lady. and [url=http://www.gog.com/game/zafehouse_diaries]ZafeHouse Diaries uses real humans and locations. uses hand drawn artwork. [url=http://www.gog.com/game/long_live_the_queen]Long Live The Queen sticks to the manga drawing style. Broken Age has crayon-inspired artwork reminiscent the art seen in picture books. Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail has some really ugly and nasty drawings, but it fits the game perfectly. The Swapper created the entire game using clay. Blazblue Clamity Trigger has some really impressive and clear 2D sprites. Papers Please has some really clear, digital style. Dust an Elysian Tail is just awesome.

In conclusion, games using pixelart and creators thereoff will have to go. Sorry, but they are poluting the gaming scene, and that won't do. Off with their heads.

This is an awesome idea. I seem to have missed the part where you were going to give them money to hire an artist. I'll reread to see if I'll find it though.

I find vector art far uglier than pixel art. Maybe it's an age thing.

I don't like this spirit of compromise. Vectrex or nothing.

I do agree to an extent that it tends to be a cheap excuse for having weak graphics, but certain games look amazing, for example Scott Pilgrim vs the World (which sadly is not on PC at all)

Pixel art is amazing when done right, but as you have said: it has become a bad indie cliche.

Well, the thing about free games is.... they are free. Really dont have much ground to stand on to say free developers are making too many pixelated games, when they have no budget. Theres a potential point there somewhere, but you spent way too much of your argument on free games, the developers who literally owe you nothing ;)

I'm all for complaining about bad pixel art on paid games, but on free ones? No, I'm not expecting any standards from a free game. If it is awesome, good. If it is crap, no money lost.

I don't care about the graphics of the game as long as it is fun for me.

Funnily enough I was thinking about the abundance of pixelart games that are now available a little while back. I still believe that it is a viable graphic style to use in games, but unfortunately a lot of games, many of them very average, use it and consequently I find myself associating pixelart games with cheap, uninspired experiences with clunky gameplay being sold as a retro 'feature' rather than being classed as a design flaw. Maybe retro sells, maybe it's just easier to design games with that style. Either way, it is getting rather tired and overused now, and I hope developers move on to a new game fad and leave this graphic style to games that actually merit it and do it justice in some way.

Yeah pixel art is overused but that's not a reason to "ban" it. As you say, hand drawn backgrounds can be spectacular, as can other hand drawn elements . However that takes hiring someone with real, physical artistic skill, which costs a lot of money unless the person starting the project is the one with the skill.

Pixel art is cheap and easy to manipulate and doesn't require someone be very good at drawing with their hands. It still takes artistic skill to get right (and many people get it very wrong) but the required skill isn't quite as in demand.


tl;dr so long as it's cheap and relatively easy, games on a low low budget will continue to use it. That said, if you have a decent budget and are using pixel art for purely nostalgic reasons, you'd better be damn sure you do a very good job that's a cut above almost everything else.

You're saying we have an age of extremely low-poly 3D games coming?

Vector art is typically less detailed because it's harder to express certain things as a vector formula, but on the bright side it scales infinitely, so the same art will work regardless of the size of the screen and still look sharp.

It's like anything else, it can look good or it can look like shit, but it's primarily the artist's responsibility to make sure it looks good.

Personally I wish Primordia was not pixelated and actually HD 2D like Street Fighter 2 HD and Final Fantasy 1 and 4 PSP.

Here's a screenshot from The Samaritan Paradox, a recent commercial indie game with 320 x 240 VGA graphics.
These graphics were made by one person (as was almost all of the game except for the music**, voice work and some rotoscoping) and I find these graphics absolutely wonderful and worth my money. The goat is animated, even!

My point? It really depends on the individual game's quality and the buyer's preference. Not all pixel art is equal. 'The Dig' by Lucas Arts had perhaps the most beautiful VGA backgrounds ever and that is pixel art, too.
I'm having a bit trouble adapting to the super low res in 'The Last Door' though (playing the first chapter for free) but that is because I feel most comfortable with 320 x 240, it doesn't mean the graphics are crap. Buy what you like, let other people buy what they like, I'd say.

**EDIT: just checked and saw that 6 of the 28 music tracks are made by the game's creator, Petter Ljungqvist. That guy is a renaissance multitalent, I'm telling you!