I just changed my entire game - by Mark Brown for Game maker's Toolkit GMTK

At first, I thought this video was going to be about upscaling pixel art. I rubbed my hands together and prepared to feast on a technical scaling treat. Instead, Mark talked about a principle/ethic/revelation that resonated with me.

Now of course there is a fourth solution, but I don't even want to think about that. And I mean it would work, but I don't even want to say it. Okay fine, I'll say it: I could get rid of all the pixel art and replace all of the graphics in the game with brand new 4K-ready artwork. But that...but that would be mad, wouldn't it?

So I replaced all of the pixel art in the game with brand new 4K-ready artwork. I took every sprite, tripled it in size, and then remade it using Photoshop's vector tools like the pen tool and the shapes. That's every button, every door, every decorative object, every magnet, every UI element.

Sometimes doing the tedious thing, the technical thing, the hard thing is the right thing to do for you and the project.

This has been applicable to many projects in my life. I'm actually going through it right now with a complete site redesign and new backend. 👀 It's not a traditionally "fun" task.1 It is tedious, technically challenging, and a learning curve. There's a deadline. But I feel a sort of liberation having picked a path and running down it.

And the funny thing is, in the end I probably spent more time trying to find a good compromise than I spent just remaking the art assets.

Sometimes you just have to go back, do it right, own it, and build a better baseline for the future.

Footnotes

  1. Although, I am having fun with it. ↩