“What About Japan Inspires You?”

Be Bamboo My Friend
Japan is a great source of inspiration for creatives, geeks, gamers and dreamers (among others!). When I first got my Playstation, I could see that there was a difference between Japanese and Western games. The Western games I played, including Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, were all very fun and had me playing for hours. But it was games like Final Fantasy VII and Tekken 2 that I started to get really immersed into. I felt connected to the characters and in tune with their back-stories, and noticed how relevant narrative was in gaming. Graphically, Japanese games seemed to concentrate a lot more on small background details in order to define the setting of the game. The graphics in FFVII didn’t push the limits of the hardware by any means, but as a player you could tell that each background detail had been individually placed in order to tell a story about its location. And while the game-world was set in a fantasy location, to me it had a unique feel which set it apart from games based on Western fantasy.

The insight into Japanese gaming led to a little insight into Japanese culture. Which over the years has become an understanding of Japanese culture, and a real appreciation for how it has affected Japanese games, films and other media. One of my sincerest dreams is to visit there- I’ve already planned out a few of the locations I would visit including the Square Enix store which sells Final Fantasy merchandise, the Studio Ghibli museum and the island of Izu Oshima which is famous for its volcano suicides and played a huge role in the Japanese novel Ring. For me, I think creating a game set in a Japan-inspired location is a way of bringing the locations and culture a little closer. Games create a virtual reality which the player immerses themselves into by taking control of a character within that virtual world.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been scribbling down little character ideas as and when they come to me, but as I’m still not sure how the game will look or feel, I never settled for anything. Because my game setting was inspired by Japan, I looked to Japanese character design in games and manga for a design solution.

I tried to think what a Japanese character might look like, and chose a female protagonist based on the slightly feminine game concept. The Chibi style is simply a Japanese drawing technique which doesn’t involve placing a lot of detail, so for initial designs I thought it was very appropriate.
However, in a real lightbulb moment of inspiration, I realised that this was no appropriate at all. I would like to keep a female protagonist as the main playable character in my game- as a developer I would like to reach out to female players. It occurred to me that the main character should be an outsider, someone who is unfamiliar with the environment, the customs of the people and their lifestyle. This makes the character more relatable to the player, who is also immersing themselves into the unfamiliar setting. The thoughts and feelings of the character should reflect the feelings of a tourist, slightly confused and nervous, but willing to step into an unknown world. It’s also one step closer for anyone who has ever wanted to experience what it’s like to visit Japan ^_^

Be Like Bamboo (TEDxTokyo 2011 slides)

View more presentations from garr

At the beginning of his Lessons From Bamboo presentation, Garr Reynolds asks “What about Japan inspires you?” I discovered this slideshow on another blog, and immediately felt peaceful while scrolling through the amazing photography. This is just one side of Japan, in contrast to its big city lights, but its one which I hope to represent as well as I possibly can, down to the smallest detail.

You can watch the video of the presentation here, which makes explains a nice little metaphor about bamboo!

be flexible, tough, adaptable and able to recover with even more strength, like bamboo.

Learning Agreement

For the Extended Major Project, I will be creating a 2D side-scrolling platform game inspired by the Japanese tradition of Hanami. Around the end of March every year year, it is customary for the Japanese to spend time outside enjoying Sakura or Cherry Blossoms, which bloom and fall within the space of one or two weeks. This period is a social time, where people gather to celebrate in parks and along streets where the cherry blossoms bloom. However, I was inspired by the return to normality which must occur at the end of these celebrations. Does the world feel calm again once the festivities end? Is there a sense of emptiness or loneliness when people return indoors, and the blossoms fall from the trees?

My game will be set in a Japanese themed world, just after a Hanami style celebration. The outside world will be vacant of people, but full of drifting blossoms. The object of the game will be to collect blossoms in order to progress through a series of levels. Levels will be unlocked when the player collects a certain amount of blossoms, and progression will be achieved by finding the pathway. Each level will have its own unique theme and colour-scheme, based around typical Japanese artefacts.

2D platform games prove ever popular with players of all ages. Recent releases such as Limbo, Super Meat Boy and Rayman Origins have all received critical acclaim while portraying the genre uniquely in each case. While each game adheres to the characteristics which result in this genre classification, differences in objectives, physics and visuals set each game apart. I also aim to produce a unique game in this way, with its own game rules and visual style.

The objective of this project is to provide a contemporary game based on more traditional methods of development. Backgrounds will be constructed from tile-sets, which were traditional used when technology was not advanced enough to handle large objects. 2D sprites will be used for characters and game objects, and frame-based animation will be used to make characters and objects move. I will be using a “pixel-art” graphical style for game elements and interfaces, inspired by traditional 8-bit styles. I will be looking to implement typical gameplay characteristics and functions specific to the “platformer” genre. The emphasis of this project will be on “play” and “player experience”, rather than in-depth narratives and complicated dialogue. While visuals are important in communicating the type of game being presented to the player, my main aim is to create an enjoyable game based on the way it is played.

I will produce all concept art for the game, which will mainly be based on hand-drawn sketches and digital paintings. The final game imagery will be created in pixel-art creation software Graphics Gale and Adobe Photoshop. My visual research will focus on found images of Japan, as well as common tile-sets and pixel-art techniques.

The game’s soundtrack and all sound effects will be provided by a separate individual or acquired from the internet. I will be using sites like freesound.org for royalty-free sound effects for the game.

All game elements will be brought together using Game Maker to create an executable for Windows. Within the software, I will be using Matt Thorson’s Grandma Engine, a physics template which has been designed for the development of 2D platformers. I will code all other aspects of the game using Game Maker’s GML (Game Maker Language).

Synopsis of Study- What I’m Doing And Why I’m Doing It

My learning agreement is nearly complete! The main bulk of the learning agreement consists of the Synopsis of Study, which briefly outlines what I’m doing in as much detail as you can fit into a brief statement. It’s helped me clarify some things which have either gone unmentioned or were simply missing- so here’s an informal breakdown.

Character Sprite concept & inspiration from Adventure Time with Finn & Jake: Memory of a Memory. It's nearly relevant.

What I’m doing
The plan is to create a contemporary 2D side-scrolling platform game. This is a very traditional genre, born from the limitations of early game design. My aim is to use the typical characteristics of this style of game to create something new and fun to old-school players who are familiar with the genre. The object of the game is to collect items and progress through levels, which is pretty much the objective of any 2D platformer if you think about it! Platformers usually follow a simple narrative which explains why the character is running from left to right picking up , and my plot is about revolves around the Japanese tradition of Hanami (for me details see the rest of the Blog).

Mario runs from left to right to collect coins and progresses through levels to find the Princess.

Why I’m doing it
The popularity of 2D platformers has wavered throughout the past couple of decades, but with the strong emergence of Indie game developers since about 2008 they’ve risen to popularity again. From a design perspective, it’s an incredibly easy genre to develop, which is probably why small teams of Indie devs picked it up again. There is now potential to incorporate stunning high-resolution graphics into these games, however the retro “pixel-art” style remains ever popular amongst developers and players. I too intend to use implement a retro graphical style into my game, because it’s such an important factor in the history of computer technologies. If you were to ask what made Super Mario Bros so good?” part of the reason would be that its low-res 2D graphics had a sort of “mysterious digital-world magic” to them. 2D platform games and pixel art are almost synonymous with retro. Mario’s original silhouette is still universally recognised by gamers.

You know who it is.

How I’m doing it
I’m going to draw all game assets myself, using a combination of Photoshop and pixel-art drawing program Graphics Gale. The game will be made in Yoyo Game’s Game Maker 8.1, which is almost the perfect tool for creating 2D games of any genre.
John Sandoval:

Game Maker can do anything.
It’s magic.

(from somewhere on The Archer Devlog!)

For a better insight into the game-making possibilities of Game Maker, see this post from a previous Blog. I initially chose to use Game Maker because it was free and very easy to pick-up. In the creation of games, I’m an asset artist before a coder, so it was important for me to use an engine which didn’t require years of programming knowledge to be able to use well. Since I wrote the post on my old Blog, I’ve bought the standard version of Game Maker, which has opened up even more possibilities.
During this project, to help me focus on asset creation rather than using up valuable time on coding, I’m going to use Matt Thorson’s Grandma Engine, which runs in GM and acts as an easily adaptable platformer basis.

To clarify, I’ve prepared a list of things the Grandma Engine does not have in common with the stereotypical grandma:
Old
Slow

To highlight the positive features of the engine, I also found it necessary to provide a list of the things the Grandma Engine does have in common with the stereotypical grandma:
Gives you candy

Other features of the Grandma Engine include a custom movement system (meaning it does not use the built-in Game Maker movement system), slopes, jump-through platforms, and an An Untitled Story-style room system.

The image shows the building blocks of the engine, which make up the solid platforms in a platform game! When the game is complete, these black blocks will be invisible to the player, replaced by more aesthetic visuals.
As for sounds, I will be looking to sites like freesound.org for sound effects. For background music, I’m going to keep an eye open for any willing composers, if not I will probably use a few royalty-free tracks.

And What Makes A Game “Good”?

Ultimately: It’s a matter of opinion.
I don’t think there’s any arguing this point. It’s also important to point out that a good game isn’t necessarily a successful game, and vice versa.

However, German board Game designer Wolfgang Kramer points out these criteria which must be considered when designing a game:

Originality

A new must be new, although this can simply be a new arrangement of old characteristics.

Freshness and replayability

“The more a game makes its players want to play again, the better the game.” The same game played twice should never be the same.

Surprise

Repetition in gaming results in a bored player.

Equal Opportunity

There should be an equal chance of winning or losing, and in the case of multiplayer games, each player should have equal chances.

No “Kingmaker” Effect

There should be no way for any player to determine the winner before the end of the game! (Obviously, this article was originally written in relation to board games, but can be applied to electronic gaming. This seems far less likely in single player digital games, but still applies.)

No early elimination

Every player should be involved in the game until it is nearly over.

Reasonable Waiting Times

“Nothing kills players’ interest as easily as long periods of inactivity while they wait”.

Creative Control

The player must have a certain amount of control over the progression of the game. This is related to the choices the play makes.

Uniformity

“The title, theme, format, and graphics of a game must give a unified impression.” This is think is vital.

Quality of Components

The value of a game is judged on its visual and functional quality.

Target Groups and the Consistency of Rules
Certain types of players expect certain things from the games they play, so if a goal is supposed to be reached through strategy, the player cannot arrive at that goal by luck.

Tension

The amount of tension should vary.

Learning and Mastering A Game

“It is an advantage for a game to start quickly and be easy to learn, and the clearer and simpler the rules, the better.”

Complexity and Influence

A short game should be simple and employ a short list of rules, whereas larger games are allowed to be more complex.

A good game will stay with us all our lives.
A good game makes us long to play it again.

From What Makes A Game Good? on thegamesjournal.com

So What Makes A Game?

What I’ve referred to as “week one” on this project was in actuality only two days and weekend, so this is still only really the first week of development. For simplicity’s sake I’m not going to start adjusting my weeks so that they begin on Thursdays as I don’t really think that’s going to help anyone. The little weekly headers are in correlation to the time-plan I’ve set myself in my Learning Agreement, which is something I’m hoping to have finished by the end of the week. Once we are all agreed, I can properly delve in.

So, I’m really still revolving my thoughts around last weeks goals, which were to research and refine ideas. I’ve already thrown out a few ideas about subject matter, but before I properly convert my theme into a game I want to make sure I’ve got a few questions answered about what a good game actually is. Unfortunately, no matter how deeply I look into this, there is no definite, resounding answer.

I’ve been especially enjoying this book Rules of Play recently. The book is designed to provide developers with an insight into the theory behind development choices and processes, without suggesting any sort of development framework to follow. The book begins by attempting to define the general term “game” by combining definitions provided by a selection of theorists. To reference a few…

Reduced to its formal essence, a game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context. A more conventional definition would say that a game is a context with rules among adversaries trying to win objectives.

~Clark C Abt

A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.

~Greg Costikyan

Games are an exercise of voluntary control systems, in which there is a context between powers, confined by rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome.

~Elliot Avedon & Brian Sutton Smith

The consensus is:

A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.

Simply put, a game is something which must be “played” in order to achieve the objective. The emphasis of the book is obviously on the rules which exist in games, that the developer and the player must follow. As human beings, we understand the things which happen to us in our daily lives because of the natural and unquestionable rules which surround us. If a game does not follow rules, or consistently breaks its own rules without reason, it will not feel natural to play. From a developer’s perspective, making a “good game” is to create a sound system and a consistent set of rules, preferably ones which aren’t in conflict with the desires of the player.

In the online extra for Indie Game The Movie which I posted about a couple of days ago, Super Meat Boy was complimented for its natural playability. The objective of the game is simply to get from starting point A to finishing point B without getting killed by the severe obstacles which lie in your path. Ultimately, a simple goal.

System
A group of interacting, interrelated, or independent elements forming a complex whole.
Here, the system is the strange setting and world of Super Meat Boy, including its inhabitants. The way it looks and the way all the elements interact with each other create the “system”.
Player
The player is introduced to the system by being allowed to move within it, and interact with it. The player is represented by the main character Meat Boy.
Artificial
The game world in this case only exists within an artificial space, and has no correlation to reality. The player can expect the unexpected.
Conflict
The underlying conflict of Super Meat Boy is between the playable character and nemesis Dr Fetus over possession of female character Bandage Girl. I did mention this is a very strange game. It’s the typical “girl gets captured, girl must be rescued” scenario.
Rules
The rules are touched on briefly by the developers, who discuss the aspect of wall-jumping. The unique game physics are part of the rules which all game elements must adhere to, as well as the outcomes of various actions etc. Every action has a specific reaction.
Quantifiable Outcome
To put it simply, either the player wins or loses. Meat Boy may die on his quest, or he may reach his goal in every level and eventual re-acquire his kidnapped girlfriend.

Super Meat Boy is incredibly challenging to play, but consistency within the game allows the player to really get to grips with the gameplay mechanics and methods of play. By mastering control of the game, the player will eventually recognise its systems and rules in order to advance.

Hanami

If my last post has left you going “Wait…Hanami…What?” (and I hope it has!) then here is a little insight into Hanami. I can’t remember quite how I discovered it, but as I often have Otaku tendencies it managed to come up in some routine internet browsing recently. I love all things Japanese. Originally introduced through video games and cartoons, I’ve extended my knowledge of Japanese culture to pretty much every aspect, and I even speak a little bit too ^_^. I’d love to visit some day, and experience the culture and lifestyle first-hand.

Hanami literally means flower viewing, but generally refers to watching cherry blossoms or ume blossoms. It has become a custom in Japan, where cherry blossoms bloom and fall within a short one or two week period around the end of March or early April. People go outside for parties and picnics, simply to enjoy the short period when the blossoms are on the trees. Japan-Guide.com states:

Hanami can be just a stroll in the park, but it traditionally also involves a picnic party under the blooming trees. Hanami parties have been held in Japan for many centuries, and today are held in public and private gardens and parks across the country. Famous cherry blossom spots can get very crowded, and the best picnic spots are fought after.

After reading about this for a while, I started to wonder what happens at the end of Hanami, if there is such a thing as the end. My imagination immediately flashed up images of parks and streets void of people, where everyone has simply retreated back inside. I imagined a world where the blossoms just drifted on the wind and sat on the ground before eventually completely disappearing. At first, I assumed it might be quite a calm and peaceful scene, but after thinking about it a little more I thought “perhaps it would be lonely.”

I’ve never been to Japan, but I’ve seen enough photos to realise how beautiful it can be. This sense of beauty comes across well in anime set in Japan, where backgrounds are typically exaggerated. In 5 centimetres per Second, the falling blossoms are compared to falling snow, and are placed floating around ordinary objects to make them appear nice than they really are!

I think this kind of imagery would work well within a game, immediately any object can be stylised with the addition of a slightly pink hue and an array of blossoms! There are plenty of other typical Japanese objects which could be applied to give any game world a far-Eastern feel, without having to recreate actual Japan.
This video is a compilation of photos after a man’s one year stay in Japan. It helps give a good, personal sense of what makes Japan different to anywhere else in the world, and with a little help from the music suggests an sense of calmness and serenity. There’s a huge difference between Japan’s big cities and rural areas, but these are often brought closer together with the help of things like Sakura blossoms in urban areas.

I don’t think Japan is really a lonely place, which is why it might be so poignant to portray it as deserted and eerily quiet. The objective of a game set in such a place would probably be dispel its loneliness…

EMP First Thoughts

Clues about my intentions for the Extended Major Project may have cropped up somewhere in the preceding posts! We were given the official briefing for the EMP at uni yesterday, so now the clock is counting down to that fateful day in mid May when my latest creation will appear to the world.
My thoughts have turned recently to questions like “what makes a game?” and more importantly, “what makes a good game?“. I read a lot of books on game theory over Christmas and I’ve been left in one of those states of existential pondering… I’ve been asking myself “what makes a good game developer??” which has a lot to do with why I decided to write seven posts on some really awesome ones.

So I guess the theme underlying all else throughout this project is:
How can I use characteristics from “good” existing games to create a brilliant, contemporary, unique new game?

The aim is to create something new, but which echoes games past. The final outcome will emerge in the form of a 2D platformer, so already it has (or should have!) echoes of the great platformers of the early Nintendo years…
This kinda sums up my thought patterns so far:

In answer to my questions about good game developers, the release of Indie Game The Movie is on the horizon, and this little online extra was released a couple of days ago. Unfortunately I can’t embed the video for privacy reasons(or something), so watch it at the link below. I think this immediately separates the exceptional from the ordinary:
Indie Game The Movie Online Extra

It feels to me better than Mario, which was in my mind the perfect way for a platformer to feel. It feels like Mario, but in a lot of ways a lot of aspects in it feel better. It feels faster, it feels like I have more control, especially in the air. I feel like I have complete control over the character. And that’s number one with a platformer.

The movement code for meatboy is nothing that isn’t nature. And it’s totally just scripted, fixed, duct-taped stuff, but there’s so much of it, and it’s so often that it actually feels pretty good. I think it’s just because I complain.

You can’t make a platformer and when somebody dies they say:
“aww, the fucking game feels stupid”
“aww, it killed me because the button feels dumb”

Advice accepted. That’s going straight onto my list of goals!
For this project, I’m revolving my research and development around a theme rather than a genre or aspect of gaming. Before, I vaguely asked “how can I make a game which simulates a strange experience?” This time, I’m saying “let’s make a game about the Japanese custom of Hanami.” All I have to do to create the game is apply the characteristics I discover from researching good platformers and combine this with some sort of objective, eg. “collect all the cherry blossoms that fall post-Hanami.” And then obviously there’s the complicated technical and arty parts to work on, but that’s what the next 18 weeks are for…

EMP Countdown 7- Last Words…

Nitrome

Nitrome is a London-based games development company who specialise in free pixel-art browser games for the casual player. They release short games frequently, designed to provide short bursts of play. As a result, the company has ended up with an archive of over 100 individual games each utilising graphical style slightly differently, and showcasing a huge range of game types. To quote weird, artsy indie dev Pippinbarr;

even within pixelly looks there are different approaches.

So what’s helpful about a company like Nitrome is it’s insight into all these styles which they’ve showcased over the last few years, from the very refined contemporary look to the rough, jagged classic look. I’ve picked out these specific game for their divers approaches to pixel art:

Nitrome Must Die - The 100th Game

This style is probably most common amongst Nitrome games. Foreground sprites are set apart from the background with black outlines, while irrelevant background objects are less-contrasting in comparison. The level is made up of tiles and blocky objects which are strictly aligned to a grid.

Steamlands

This isn’t the greatest example of isometric pixel art, but it is simple enough to see what is going on! The isometric approach is often applied to game backgrounds and is a popular choice for the artist eboy. The map here is laid out at a 45 degree angle, so that the player always sees three faces of any block as opposed to the one you would normally see when playing a 2D game.

The Bucket

In contrast, this style looks a lot more classic that the outlined style. Objects are made of basic shapes, with no outline. Detail is avoided to avoid shapes becoming lost within each other, and the bright colours used contrast each other to determine separate objects.

Super Treadmill

This example uses the traditional non-outlined approach, although in this case the artist has added unusual vertical lines to the imagery. At first I thought they may have been put there to represent scanlines, except that they run the wrong way… So to me they just give a corrugated card effect.

Looking at a broader perspective, Nitrome have a job page which describes their perfect game artist. For me, this acts as a pretty good check-list for qualities I feel I should have.

By the end of the project, I hope I can say that I fit the criteria quite well! I’ll be keeping track of my progress.

EMP Countdown 6 – 2 More Days…

Interestingly enough, over 50% of my chosen Indie heroes are Canadian. Today I’m broadening my world a little by focusing on Daisuke Amaya, the Japanese creative genius behind Cave Story.

Cave Story has been brought to the attention of the masses in the last year, gaining a make-over for the Wiiware and Steam versions of the game, and a complete conversion to 3D for the upcoming 3DS release. But years before all of this, Cave Story was a simple 2D shooter which gained appreciation from a small cult audience. It was this audience who created an English translation patch for the game, gradually spreading the phenomenon worldwide.

And this all happened way before the whole retro pixel-art movement really took off (in the Western world at least!). The chosen graphical style was an echo of the game’s genre and functions- ultimately the player is required to traverse a 2D world acquiring weapon upgrades in order to shoot and gain experience from anything in the way, very reminiscent of early Metroid games. There is a story to follow, and if the player wishes, gameplay can be quite linear. However, if the player decides to backtrack at certain times, progress can twist and turn and secrets can be revealed. It has an exploration undertone which adds a layer of enjoyability to the game.

From these you can see how Cave Story adheres to traditional development, therefore appealing to the player’s sense of nostalgia….
1. Indoor shots contain the player in a small space, surrounded by a black screen.
2. Outdoor shots show a full-screen world. Text boxes showing dialogue appear at the bottom of the screen. If a non-playable character is speaking, then quite often a character portrait would appear next to the text. Noticeable in this example: the HUD disappears while a message is displayed.
3. Powerups appear as capsules and health pickups appear as hearts. It’s just tradition. The HUD here allows the player to scroll through each weapon, and also displays weapon progress and player health stats.
4. The inventory menu allows the player to scroll through carried items and weapons, displaying information on each.

Rumour has it that Cave Story took years for Amaya to finish as he took on every production role personally. The game was then released as PC freeware, which I think is because Amaya creates for love not money. As fortune would have it, his game went to gain huge commercial success… And it’s success is probably due to its nature. It is a very traditionally made game, with all the features of a traditional side-scrolling shooter, however it surprises the player with unpredictable additions, which occur if the player chooses to play non-linearly.

Links for Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya:
Amaya’s Online Development Log
English Cave Story Fan Site
Official Japanese Cave Story Website
Cave Story+ on Steam

EMP Countdown 5! 3 More Days…

Apologies for the inconsistent post titles, I can’t ever remember what I used before and nothing seems to sound right.

Day #5: Jonathan Lavigne (& a bit of Paul Robertson too)

Jonathan Lavigne or Pixeltao is a devoted developer/pixel artist who is responsible for the great look of several awesome games. Despite my fondness for exciting, experimental, rule-breaking, risky indie developments, I love Lavigne’s game making rhetoric. On his blog he says:

I love every aspect of the process involved in making video games: pixel art, coding, game design and drawing. I don’t have any pretentions about being original or experimental. What I’m really into is creating simple, fun and well designed games.

Ninja Senki was the first of Lavigne’s games I came to discover, drawn in by its strikingly colourful pixel-art and and subtle retro-references. Just as he describes, there’s nothing unpredictable about this game- the player really knows what to expect. It’s just a rehash which plays like a multitude of enjoyable games. Which makes it successful!

Lavigne’s next big creation was Wizorb, another retro rehash. Wizorb just takes elements from all over the place, from classic RPGs to action and adventure games, and combines them with a classic “block breaking” style main campaign. Lavigne points his potential players towards games they may have played in their past such as Breakout and Arkanoid. Personally, I had a clone of something like this on an early Windows PC! The twist on this clone is that there is a story plot set in a fantasy world, and as well as playing in this breakout style, the player can use items they’ve gained whilst playing to purchase new skills etc. which breaks away from the arcade-style high score objective. In my opinion, by remaking a collection of old games and merging them together, Lavigne has actually created something quite new and exciting.

Lavigne’s biggest success has to be his work on Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Videogame, where his ability to clone really comes to light. The game takes the style of a Streets of Rage style beat ’em up, including many of the same gaming cliches which are common amongst this genre. The game is the perfect accompaniment to the comic series and the motion picture, which use a lot of retro videogaming themes and throw in references all over the place. The game includes the character art and animation of Paul Robertson, an anime inspired pixel-artist with some… strange tastes. Robertson uses frame-based animation to create his 2D game-sprite like animations, however the game itself is not made in a completely traditional way, evident in elements such as the large non-tiled background images.

One of Robertson’s few animations non-obscene animations, depicting the film Attack The Block. Most of Robertson’s images/animations either directly or indirectly reference retro videogames in some way!

Links For Jonathan Lavigne:
Official Pixeltao Blog
About Scott Pilgrim on the PixelDrip Gallery

Links For Paul Robertson:
Paul Robertson on Livejournal
Scott Pilgrim Sprites on Game Set Watch