In an age where high-definition visuals dominate the gaming landscape and the onslaught of 3D is just over the horizon, the simple pixel has been surprisingly enduring. Originally born out of necessity—because games were incapable of rendering more detailed graphics—manipulating pixels has since become an art form in its own right. So why do many developers, artists, and gamers prefer pixels when more realistic, detailed art styles are available? Is it simply a matter of nostalgia, or is there something inherently appealing about pixel art?

Ars spoke to some of the field's independent artists and developers to find out.

An army of pixels

"I think it’s all down to nostalgia. A lot of the people commissioning this type of art grew up playing 2D games so it’s in their hearts, a love for pixels," artist Gary J. Lucken, better known by the pseudonym Army of Trolls, told Ars. "I also think it’s more timeless than 3D graphics, 3D seems to get better and better whereas pixel art is much more reliant on the artist: what looks great in pixels now looked great back in the '80s arcades, it’s timeless... I also think people love busy, detailed images, especially the isometric cities. There's something appealing about the grid-like structure and all the ‘Where’s Waldo’ style detail you can cram into the pixel art."

Evil Dead RPG mockup by Army of Trolls

Lucken dabbled in pixel art as a child, starting with a Commodore 64 before moving on to the Amiga and Atari ST. Eventually his hobby became more serious when he met a number of like-minded artists on the Pixelation forums, and he has since created gorgeously detailed pixels for clients like Edge magazine, the BBC, Honda, Disney, and more. He cites classic arcade games like Bubble Bobble, Tapper, and Donkey Kong as his influences, as well Super Nintendo titles like Secret of Mana.

"I do a lot of isometric cities, but I think... I enjoy pixel art more in its purest form, a few colors, simple small sprites," Lucken explained. "Even better if they are animated well."

More than nostalgia

While the nostalgic aspect is clearly a large part of the appeal when it comes to pixel art, developer Adam Saltsman—also known as Adam Atomic and the creator of games like Canabalt and Gravity Hook—believes that there is something else at work as well.

"I won't argue that pixels don't evoke a heartwarming sense of nostalgia, because they totally do, but I don't think that's why they're effective," Saltsman told Ars. "Pixel art is the king of communication and abstraction, which are the twin hearts of game art. My favorite example is fruit powerups from early NES games. Games were limited to 3 colors and 8x8 or 16x16 icons to try and convey a lot of information, and frequently you'd be confronted with items that were clearly positive and helpful; not enemies, not traps. However, you had no idea what they were supposed to be!

"The same thing was true for various enemies: the first sine wave enemies from the Gradius games we always just called 'those hamburger things.' I love that you can bring some of your own interpretation to a pixel art representation while it simultaneously communicates the purpose of the thing quite clearly."

A screenshot from Canabalt by Semi Secret Software.

And like Lucken, Saltsman cites his major inspirations as being a combination of both classic arcade games and fellow artists.

"Metal Slug X bears a lot of responsibility here," he told Ars. "They had a Neo Geo machine running X just up the street from where I lived in college, and we dumped a fair amount of quarters into that thing. A lot of pixel artists know and love the Slug, but that had a pretty overwhelming influence over me for a long time. There's this Swedish guy, Arne Niklas Jansson, who sometimes goes by Prometheus on the Web, who isn't exactly a pixel artist but who has been a huge influence on me as well. After that I could just go down the list: Paul Robertson's animations are second-to-none, and Kenneth Fejer has just about perfected clear, communicative, efficient pixels. I learned a lot of what I know from the Pixelation forums, which are full of thoughtful, helpful, talented folks: Helm, Sven, Fool, Nathan DC, Jad, Big Brother, etc., not to mention the pixelers who were rocking it before my time: Stoven, Henk and so on. So many amazing, helpful talents out there!"

Old style, new audience

The appeal of pixel art and simpler, 8-bit style games was so great for Richard Grillotti and Miles Tilmann that the two decided to form a studio devoted solely to creating those types of experiences: Pixeljam Games. The studio has released a number of popular browser-based games including Dino Run and Gamma Bros., as well as titles like Cream Wolf and Turbo Granny, which were licensed for Adultswim.com.

"I began to play around with fullscreen abstract pixel animations in the mid- to late-'90s, once I discovered how fun it was to zoom into any image in Photoshop and see pixels huge and colorful filling the screen, I wanted to explore them some more in an art context," Grillotti told Ars. "I began making abstract pixel animations and the name Pixeljam came to mind. I registered the domain name and displayed them on pixeljam.com... Eventually, once Miles and I began to dabble with the idea of making video games in pixel style, it seemed natural to just make pixeljam.com the home for those as well."

The Birth of Pixel Venus by Richard Grillotti

Surprisingly, Grillotti explained that despite the retro theme that's prevalent throughout all of Pixeljam's games, it turns out that they actually appeal to a fairly young audience.

"We know there's a lot of nostalgia involved in people's enjoyment of games of this style, but we've also discovered that young kids really dig it too," he told Ars. "That was a surprise. We thought they'd be like 'Why are these graphics so crappy?' but it turns out that they really get into it. Most of the fans of Dino Run are quite young. I think it's in part because the style is somehow inherently cool looking and the 8-bit sounds are also quite fun to listen to."

"I think the style definitely has something to it beyond nostalgia," agreed Tilmann. "The nostalgia factor helped bring it back into mainstream consciousness, but now that it's here I think people can see beyond the novelty. There really is something liberating about being able to represent your game objects with as little information as possible."

So while nostalgia clearly has something to do with pixel art's longevity, it's far from the only contributing factor. The minimalist approach allows developers to create simpler, easier-to-understand games that are a far cry from the increasingly more complex games that seem to dominate the market. And as Saltsman explained, the combination of these two factors is largely the reason that pixel art has been so enduring.

"Pixel art is the most communicative and most abstract art form easily available to games, and it comes with bonus nostalgia points."