Do you dislike pixel art in indie games?

I personally love pixel art and can't get enough of it bad or good. Bad because even bad pixel art seems to have it's charm if it's in a game. For example, Star Command compared to FTL.

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Both have a charming appeal to me. FTL isn't exactly what I'd consider "bad" pixel art, more like, spartan bare bones. Bad might be McPixel, but I also enjoy that game's "art".

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I suppose at this point, I can consider myself an Indie Dev (I've been putting together what I'm currently working on for the past year+ and started up programming in general around 2 to 2 and a half years ago). Unless you need to have released a game instead of having had worked on one for years -_-;;

During development of what I'm currently working on, I've had to struggle with determining whether I wanted to go high resolution 2D art or pixel art. The engine I'm putting together is made in a way where I can swap between the two if I choose to but I'm currently leaning heavily towards using pixel art because it's just a whole lot less work. I can draw things in 2D, but I feel like it'll take muuuuuch less time to bust out pixel art assets than it would for me to draw everything in standard 2D. In the end, I love to draw in both standard and pixel art but the time/resource limit I've got is forcing my hand.

It's easy to look at all the indie titles that are using pixel art and just call it lazy or a cop out or whatever else, but if the alternative is to not have the game exist, it's an easy call to make and one I'm comfortable making myself. I'd love to have played To The Moon in Source engine with voice acting and other high production values but I'm also happy to have been able to play it at all. The graphics and the controls were pretty bad, but the story and idea behind the game were amazing enough that it was a fantastic gaming experience and I'm sure the team behind it are proud of their work, pixel art and all -_-;; I dunno where I'm going with this, it's close to 4AM.

I'm not tired of pixel art. I do not dislike pixel art in indie games. I think any game should use any art/music/whatever to be released and I will like or dislike a game based on the experience rather than any one choice made by the devs =P

It's important to distinguish between what I would call Programmer "art", pixel art, and pixel art.

The first is made by necessity. Where this is used, the visuals should be overshadowed by other elements. It's much easier to throw together a 3-frame walking animation in pixels than it is to individually draw the frames, and more of them, ensuring that they animate correctly. Less dots=less variables=easier animation. From a design perspective, sprites lend themselves well to well-defined hitboxes etc. allowing the player to better comprehend what's happening on screen and to keep track of the player and enemies. Also, polygons and textures and lighting etc. are hard, man.

The second is where the visuals are made to be appealing, and a solid aesthetic is used. A modicum of artistic talent is required to pull it off well, but the results are crisp and pleasing. At a certain point, they can become indistinguishable from hand drawn art.

The third is a mistaken attempt at art, where the developer in question uses the pixel aesthetic without proper understanding of how to use it effectively.

I for one am a big fan of good pixel art, and if it hasn't been mentioned you should take a look at pixeljoint.com. I do however agree that developers need to let go of their love for the NES before the over-saturation reaches critical mass.

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Art is art, if it looks good it looks good. Personally, I think Gateways looked ugly as sin. But that isn't a jab at pixel art, there's a lot of good stuff out there.

don't hate it, no. But it doesn't fill me with some nostalgia or anything of the type as I wasn't even playing games back when that was relevant. It is getting a little repetitive though, mostly as people simply can't seem to make their own unique style, or just something more complicated than early NES Mario sprites.

Now THAT is pixel art I can appreciate, but we never see this kind of detail in games. Even just as background, they never reach that level. So in short, no, I don't hate it. I also don't enjoy it.

I like sprite/pixel art a lot. But I wish they was more variety in how they looked.

Whenever I see someone going for a 16 bit/8 bit look, it seems like they go for the same kind of look. Maybe its just me, but there was a wider arrange of pixel art variety back in the nes/snes days compared to the indie games of now.

If the artist is good then it doesn't matter, if they are mediocre its better to do pixel art, fan art looking design is a huge turn off.

I like the intricate, extremely detailed pixel art that was around late in the 16bit era. Tons of "fake" lighting highlights and shadows, palette gradients, and intricate little details in every sprite and background.

If the game is really good though I'll play a simplistic looking pixel art indie game. It's not a knock against the game if they at least try an interesting color palette or character design.