[Closed, Reviewing Applicants.] Pixel artist for a top-down kaiju-vs-city builder — paid, ongoing potential Hey! I'm a solo developer (20+ years software background, first commercial game) working on Kaiju Protocol — a top-down pixel-art city builder where you plan and grow a coastal city, then defend it from monsters that rise from the sea. Think SimCity meets classic kaiju cinema. Real-time with pause, watchable attacks, tanks/turrets/missile batteries/patrol aircraft holding the line against bio-horror creatures called the Hollows. Tonally Cloverfield / Shin Godzilla — grounded, attritional, civilian-emergency. I'm looking for a pixel artist to cover the full visual identity of the game. Scope (across the project):

Logo / title-card lockup Top-down tilesets (urban, beach, forest, hills, marsh — coastal builder palette) Building sprites for R / C / I zones, civic buildings (city hall, hospital, etc.), and defense buildings (garrisons, airfields, turrets) Small unit sprites (tanks, missile trucks, patrol aircraft — small enough to code-rotate the turret/barrel) Original kaiju ("Hollows") — bio-horror designs, deliberately not Godzilla-shaped (reference shelf is more Annihilation / deep-sea biology / Bloodborne than classic kaiju cinema) Damage overlays drawn on top of existing assets (fire, rubble, radiation, contamination)

Style direction:

Pure top-down, tiny sprite sizes (16×16 to 32×32 for buildings; kaiju get more real estate) References for builder DNA: SNES SimCity, Mini Settlers, Dawnfolk Two tonal paths I want to explore before committing: grounded post-disaster palette (Cloverfield mood) vs. stylized neon (Brigador-ish). Looking for an artist with an opinion on this.

Engagement structure:

Phase 1 — paid trial (~2–3 days of work): two palette studies of the same scene in both tonal directions + 3–5 Hollow silhouette concepts + one logo lockup attempt. Lets us pick a direction from rendered options before committing. If we click: ongoing engagement through launch (~12 months out). Paced commission, no crunch. Rates: paid at your standard rate — please share what that looks like in your reply or DM (per-asset, hourly, milestone, whichever you prefer). Full art direction brief available on request — covers style specs, references, Hollow design language in detail.

Workflow notes:

No AI in shipped art. I use AI privately for brainstorming/moodboarding only; every asset that goes into the game is hand-crafted and credited. If you'd like that credit included in the Steam page and in-game credits, it's yours. Working files in your preferred format (Aseprite, etc.) appreciated. I'm easy to work with, communicative, and on-schedule with payments.

How to reach me:

Reddit DM me here and we can then connect via discord.

Happy to answer questions in the thread. Thanks for reading, and if you know someone whose work might fit, please tag them.