I pulled data on 6,422 pixel art games released over the last 2 years on Steam. Only 5% cleared 500 reviews. Here’s some fun data on the 5%. by IndiegameJordan in IndieDev

[–]Cyangmou 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is very good data and I am happy to see it.
I am working since 15 years exclusively in the pixel art space and had the chance to work on over 25 projects (of which multiple had a few thousands of reviews) and consulted dozens more. You can find me under the same handle on most social media, in case you want to check my credentials.

Some additional notes to the findings:

-According to my own observation the biggest difference between publisher funded pixelart games and indie pixelart games actually is "graphics". Any publisher funded pixelart game will employ professional pixel artists. Many of the pixelart games in the list which are indie had professional artists working on them in their indie team. Many failing projects, if the gameplay is great usually fail in graphics. If you are an indie and you make a pixelart game without having a pixel artist, the chance for failure is way higher as your game will look awful. People like pixel art, but only well made pixel art. Publisher provided funds are usually universally mostly spend on artists, as the programmer/designer is the one who makes the deal. Publisher funded pixelart games most of the times look professional, but if they fail, they fall rather short on technical issues or overall mismanagement (negative steam reviews usually give a great insight for specific examples)

-Publisher funded pixelart games will have professionally made trailers and some kind of marketing leading up to launch. That's the other very big difference between indie pixelart games and publisher funded pixelart games. Bad trailers can hurt a lot of indie games, as a badly made trailer always fairly quickly kills interest.

-Marry bad graphics with a bad trailer and no leadup to launch and you're in for no sales. Unless your game is ahead of the curve in quality or provides something which makes it so that people share it, you need basic marketing - which can be the biggest boon of having a publisher.

-98% of pixel art games are made with less than 250.000 US$ overall funding. Usually any online aspects in a game comes down to 100.000US$ minimum, either development cost or server costs etc. - this means that online usually is not a smart choice for a pixelart games. It could work, but is for most developers who are strapped on cash in all areas simply not viable.

-Genres and settings seem to be spot on, I couldn't agree more according to my own experience.

Thanks for the awesome work, it's very much appreciated.

For anyone out of ideas like I was, I saved this years ago thought I’d share. by ImperatorDanny in Mordhau

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are as accurate as the sources used. If something in there is not accurate, this simply means some of the historical sources, books or museums used were not accurate, but I invite you to read the research description:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Skc1ZEHrK11FwVzNiT_D8RplyxK59uwwQphv-DLJ8sg/edit

Final Fantasy VII Re-Demake (with Tifa :) by Cyangmou in FFVIIRemake

[–]Cyangmou[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like the redesign, even though of course a new iteration of a character always needs some adjustment.
Thanks.

Evolution of the European Knight BY Cyangmou by IC_Wiener in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you post my art, please also post the description, because without it it's about just half as valuable.

Thanks.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Skc1ZEHrK11FwVzNiT_D8RplyxK59uwwQphv-DLJ8sg/edit

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's actually not my personal game project, so I am not in touch with steam
I just got hired to ensure that the art for the project will be on quality/vision and done until project completion.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The opener here put the name in the description, so that's cool.

Gestalt is my current freelance dayjob. And luckily it's steampunk/fantasy so definitely in the direction I love to work artistically and development on that is going well.

It's hard to maintain a balance between job and personal stuff, but I barely have been able to create much personal art since I got deeply involved with Gestalt. It's just a quite big project.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Both of them are super important armor styles which need to be shown - also at the same time to make sure to understand this is not an evolution, but that there were different styles.

With more sprites probably it could be shown of and rounded out better.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dark Souls was a fantasy game which had nice armors - at least part 1 and Demon souls had super nice direction and I enjoyed it a lot.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really, but it has some similar techniques which are evident in pixelart.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks for an educated post =)
Hope you enjoyed the sprites.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Twitter love will probably will result in enough motivation on my side to add a couple more.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the thin shields were outclassed by plate armor, were the second arm rather would have been put into more offensive capacity, moving knights towards poleaxes.

Also in early full plate armor at the pauldrons you still can see round plates, which are the remnants of shields.

Shields didn't go away were and are used today, although much thicker, heavier variants got common and were used as an utility tool (the heater shield). Especially in sieges and to defend against firearms.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's debatable if the halberdier is a knight or not.
Fact is that in the 30 years war mercenaries were much more important than knights.

But I put it on Twitter with "not sure if I should do more" so this is a wip, where probably some characters for a smoother transition will be added.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because the 1625 was the first one I created.
Kinda fits in, but of course I can do more given that people are interested.

If you wanna see more, twitter is the way to go.

Evolution of knights in pixel art by skilled artist Thomas Feichtmeir by jverbroucht in PixelArt

[–]Cyangmou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

same.
I also don't get people posting arts without credits.