Pixel art guide

Pixel art is mostly about constraint. Good sprites come from clear shapes and a tight palette, not from being able to draw.

Recommended software

• Aseprite: what most people use. Paid, but cheap, and the animation tools are worth it.
• Piskel: free, open source, runs in the browser.
• LibreSprite: free, open source fork of Aseprite.

Canvas sizing

Start small:

• 16×16: inventory icons, runes, tiny sprites.
• 32×32: character portraits, weapons, detailed tiles.

A small canvas forces you to work on the silhouette, which is the thing people actually read. Fine detail disappears in game anyway.

Palettes and lighting

1. Keep the palette small. Eight to sixteen colours per sprite set. Reusing the same palette across items is what makes a set look like a set.
2. Pick a light source and keep it. Usually top-left. If it moves between sprites, the whole sheet looks wrong and it's hard to say why.
3. Outline in something dark. It keeps the sprite readable against whatever tile it's standing on.

Exporting for projects

Export PNGs at 1x, their real size. Scale them up in CSS with image-rendering: pixelated; or in your engine's import settings, so they stay sharp instead of going blurry.