So, I’m making a snowflake sprite, but it’s not going particularly great. It’s really hard to fit a snowflake into a 32x32 pixel space. So I’ve kind of given up on making a distinct “snowflake”, and decided that it was ok if it just kind of looked frosty and cold and stuff. The only issue is that, while I think it looks good in the sprite editor, you can’t even tell what it is when it’s in the actual game world, which is a problem because I need the player to be able to think “hmm, that looks kinda frosty”. I was hoping that perhaps somebody could give me some advice on how to make it more clear when it’s smaller? (And perhaps tell me how to make it look more snowflake-like)
Sprite editor view
Well, firstly, I’d add some texture to the snowflake in the form of colours. Also, it looks like it’s in a snowglobe due to the weird bgr around it. Snowflakes don’t have that. The big thing here, however, is that you are using 16 bit pixels to draw the snowflake, making it harder to make it stand out.
The mixels. Pixels of differing sizes are making it difficult to add detail. Also, I suggest making this in Pixilart.com, there may be some special effects and features available to use there to make it look more frosty or icy.
So, the reason it has that background is that I’m actually intending for it to be a sort of “powerup” or something, so I wanted it to be circular and easily distinguishable as something special. But you do make a very good point about the 16 bit pixels thing, lol. I don’t like using the 32 bit ones as much because it makes it harder to make things look nice (because I’m really bad at pixel art).
The only different sized pixels are the ones that make up the outline, everything inside is the same size. Does that really make that much of a difference?
easy, make it simpler and more concise
don’t put in more details or textures. if it’s a background element for weather or smth, go even smaller and simpler. if it’s a symbol for something, its goal is to be simple enough and readable.
