ClassX Video Lessons Youtube Channel Goodgis Reimagining Classic Nintendo Games – Pixel Art Challenge (ft. @Vimlark )
Welcome to an exciting journey where we dive into the world of classic Nintendo games and give them a modern twist through pixel art. This article explores the creative process of reimagining these beloved games, featuring a collaboration with the talented artist, Vimlark. Let’s embark on this artistic adventure and see how classic games can be revitalized with a fresh perspective.
As a fan of classic gaming, I have always been drawn to the charm of the Super Nintendo and N64 era. While modern games are impressive, there’s something magical about revisiting and reimagining the classics. A prime example is the Mother One 25th Anniversary Edition, which beautifully enhanced the original game’s art, breathing new life into it.
In this challenge, Vimlark and I decided to reimagine classic Nintendo games using our unique art styles. Instead of choosing our projects, we exchanged screenshots of our favorite games and set out to recreate them. This exercise was not about programming but rather creating a visual mock-up of how these games might look today.
The game Vimlark chose for me was Kid Icarus, a lesser-known gem from the NES era. Released in 1987, it follows the angelic protagonist, Pit, on a quest to collect sacred items and defeat Medusa. Drawing inspiration from Greek mythology, Kid Icarus offers a rich tapestry of references and lore.
Using Pixel Edit’s tiling tool, I began by blocking in details and experimenting with shading. The original game lacked a detailed background, so I added elements like clouds and a moon to enhance the Sky World setting. The challenge was to maintain consistency in style while adding charm and character to the piece.
The second challenge involved reimagining “Monkeys with Guns,” a game developed by Vimlark. This party game features monkeys in a chaotic, fun-filled environment. I faced challenges with shading and color choices, but ultimately aimed to create a vibrant and engaging scene.
Working with a small canvas, I experimented with textures and outlines to make the characters stand out. The goal was to capture the playful essence of the game while maintaining a cohesive art style. Despite the challenges, the final piece exuded character and charm.
Reimagining classic games through pixel art is a rewarding and creative endeavor. It allows us to pay homage to beloved titles while infusing them with modern artistic flair. This challenge not only tested our skills but also sparked new ideas and inspiration.
If you’re intrigued by this artistic journey, be sure to explore Vimlark’s side of the challenge, where he tackles games like EarthBound and Dewdrop Dynasty. Your feedback and suggestions for future challenges are always welcome, as we continue to explore the world of game development and art.
Special thanks to our supporters who make these creative projects possible. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures in the world of game development!
Engage in a hands-on pixel art workshop where you’ll reimagine a classic Nintendo game of your choice. Use tools like Pixel Edit to create a modern version of the game’s art. Focus on enhancing backgrounds and character details while maintaining the original charm. Share your creations with peers for feedback and inspiration.
Participate in a group discussion analyzing the artistic elements of classic Nintendo games. Discuss how these elements contribute to the game’s overall appeal and how they can be modernized. Use examples from the article, such as Kid Icarus and Monkeys with Guns, to guide your analysis.
Pair up with a fellow student and exchange screenshots of your favorite classic games. Reimagine each other’s chosen game using your unique art style. This activity encourages collaboration and offers a fresh perspective on classic game design, similar to the collaboration between the article’s author and Vimlark.
Explore the influence of mythology in game design by researching the mythological references in Kid Icarus. Create a presentation on how these elements are integrated into the game and propose new mythological themes that could be used in modern game design.
Organize an exhibition showcasing your pixel art reinterpretations of classic Nintendo games. Invite peers and instructors to view and critique your work. This exhibition will not only highlight your artistic skills but also celebrate the creativity involved in reimagining classic games.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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[Music] This video is brought to you by Squarespace. Some of you may know that I am more of a classic gamer. Now, don’t get me wrong, modern games are fantastic. Roblox can be fun every once in a while, but I really gravitate more towards the Super Nintendo and the N64. One of my dreams as a kid was to be able to go back and improve, remix, or reimagine these old games in a more modern style. One incredible example of this is the Mother One 25th Anniversary Edition, where they improved upon the art and made it look fantastic, breathing new life into an old game.
So, with that said, if you couldn’t tell by the name of the video, we’re going to be reimagining a classic Nintendo game. But I can’t do it alone, so I decided to challenge Vimlark as well. Now, one thing to clarify: we’re not going to be programming any games; this is purely just a mock-up of what we think the game would look like if we did it in our style.
Now, here’s a challenge: we don’t get to pick which game we want to work on. Instead, we both picked a screenshot of a classic game we really love and exchanged them. Not only that, but we’re both going to reimagine each other’s personal projects in our own art style. So, you’re going to see what the best version of “Monkeys with Guns” would look like.
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The classic game that Vimlark sent me is probably one that most of you out there have never played. It’s called Kid Icarus, and it was released on the NES in 1987. The game follows a protagonist named Pit, who is an angel trying to collect three sacred items to fight Medusa. The game is based on Greek mythology, so there are a lot of different references to that.
Now, there have only ever been three games in this series, but what most people probably know Pit from is Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Kid Icarus: Uprising, which was released on the 3DS. All in all, I was very excited with his pick because I used to play this quite a bit back in the day, though I was terrible at it. So, let’s see what we can do.
Getting started, this goes pretty fast. I’m using the Pixel Edit’s tiling tool to quickly block in the detail. The great thing is when I work on the shading on one block, it applies to the others. A lot of people ask why I use Pixel Edit, and this is one of the main reasons. I use so many tiles in my games, and it’s just easy to use.
You’ll notice I put this white outline; I believe I get rid of it later on, but you’ll actually see it return. I don’t normally use white outlines, but I thought it was a fun extra detail. [Music] I have to say, it’s actually very intimidating recording yourself doing these time lapses. I’ve done pixel art on stream many times and was less intimidated. I think the fact that you just know that everything you’re doing is being watched and you can’t talk about it or defend yourself is kind of scary.
Overall, I think it went pretty well, and I’m happy with how the piece turns out, as you will see. Here I’m working on the sky; this is one of the fun parts—adding the details to the sky in the background because the original game is really lacking that. It’s just a black background, but I do know from the lore of Kid Icarus that you’re actually in the Sky World at this point, so I wanted to add clouds and a moon and some other things, which I’m adding here.
Another important thing was making sure I pushed back the detail. You’ll notice I didn’t add shading on that back rock area, and that’s because as things get further away, they should have less detail. Now, this is the boss. I didn’t know what this boss was supposed to be until afterwards. Apparently, this is Medusa. If you guys know what Medusa looks like, that isn’t Medusa, so I’m not sure what happened to her.
I think the lore is that one of the goddesses turned her into this thing, but I didn’t realize it was Medusa. I probably would have played into that a little bit more with the snakes instead of it looking like green gum stuck to foam on the wall. But I don’t really like working on monsters a whole lot; I’m not a spooky guy by any means. I like making cute things, but this was an interesting challenge. I was trying to make it feel stylized and charming.
You’ll also notice that I was adding a little bit more detail and erasing them. I want to make sure I was consistent with my style; that’s really important when you’re working on these projects. You don’t want things that have way too much shading and things that don’t have enough, unless those things are in the background.
As you can tell, I’m going all out right now, trying to make this look redeemable. Everything in art is a process, and a lot of my pieces look terrible until the last few moments. Here, I realized that the angle was off on his face because you kind of got a quarter angle on Medusa, but you don’t have it on Pit.
I wanted to change it up and stylize his face. I think I actually stretched out his face a little bit more if I remember correctly. At this point, I’m just adding details, making him look cute and stylized. If you want things to look cartoony and stylized, then you have to exaggerate features.
In the end, I added the white outlines to make them stand out, which I thought was a nice detail. I added some arrows with the white, and yeah, just a few more details here, and that’s pretty much it. It was a fun challenge, and it definitely kept me on my toes. [Music] Overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Let me know in the comments what you would have changed or added, but that’s challenge one complete.
It’s time to move on to challenge two. Now, for my second challenge, I need to reimagine “Monkeys with Guns.” If you’ve never heard of that game, it’s actually a game being developed by Vimlark that he started about two years ago. I believe it’s a party game where you fight each other with monkeys, hats, and craziness. All in all, it looks like a super fun game, and I can’t wait for it to come out.
Now, for the second piece, I have to say I struggled a little bit more, and I think part of it was me making the canvas so small. I like to keep my canvases small because it makes it easier to manage and simplifies your artwork. I struggled because I was going for a very minor shading style, but I quickly abandoned that idea.
You’ll see me fight with too much shading and too little shading. I wanted to try something different, and sure enough, I went for the same style. [Music] One of the biggest issues was the color for me. I ended up using a couple of different greens: a cool green on the vines and a warm green for the background.
Another hard part about this was that because I had such a small canvas, things got busy fast, especially without outlines. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the thickness, and I used white outlines based on the reference around the monkeys to make them stand out. It definitely was an issue I had to fix, and it took a little bit of finagling to figure it out.
Here, I’m messing around with texture, thinking maybe I’ll make the background even busier, but I quickly took a step back and simplified things. I wanted to make the chaotic swampy forest in the background. I think I did a little bit of shading on the outside of those silhouettes. [Music]
This crate was pretty tricky. Normally, I don’t have the black outline inside of the object; I only have it on the outside. Games like Mother 3 do that really well, but for this, I was very committed to using the black outline everywhere, which kind of breaks the consistency in some areas.
If you can see right there, the vines’ green just doesn’t go with the background. I ended up fixing it and messing around in Photoshop and Paint.NET to finalize the colors. So, do know that I did change some of it. Other than that, I feel like the piece had some character. I added different expressions to the monkeys, and of course, one monkey kicked the bucket here—unfortunately, sad monkey.
I also played around with not having the white outlines against the ground; it just looked really awkward and felt separate. The last part was adding these destructible pieces, and that was it. [Music] Let me know what you guys think. Would you ever want to see a version of “Monkeys with Guns” that looks like this?
If you like these final colors better than what I was working on, that’s it for challenge two. Oh boy, we did it! We reimagined two fantastic games. If you want to see the challenge that I gave Vimlark, make sure to check out his video when it comes out. The games I sent him were EarthBound on the Super Nintendo and Dewdrop Dynasty.
If you want to see his side of the story and his challenge, please go make sure to check it out and share some love. If you like this style of video, please make sure to give it a thumbs up. If there’s someone else that you’d like me to challenge, please put it in the comments down below, and we’ll see what happens.
Real quick, shout out to Rybrad, BuddyGames, Heath Sargent, and the rest of the fantastic Patreon supporters. You guys are amazing, and we couldn’t do these videos without you. Anyway, that’s it for me this week, and I’ll see you next time for another game dev adventure.
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
Pixel Art – A form of digital art where images are created and edited at the pixel level, often used in video games and characterized by its blocky appearance. – The artist meticulously crafted each character in pixel art, ensuring they captured the nostalgic feel of classic arcade games.
Classic Games – Video games that are considered timeless and have had a significant impact on the gaming industry, often recognized for their innovative gameplay and design. – Studying classic games can provide valuable insights into the evolution of game mechanics and storytelling techniques.
Creative Process – The series of steps and thought patterns involved in generating and developing new artistic ideas and concepts. – Understanding the creative process is essential for artists to effectively translate their visions into tangible works of art.
Artistic Adventure – An exploratory journey undertaken by an artist to discover new techniques, styles, or inspirations in their work. – The artist embarked on an artistic adventure, experimenting with various mediums to expand their creative horizons.
Game Development – The process of designing, creating, and releasing a video game, involving multiple disciplines such as programming, art, and sound design. – Collaboration between artists and programmers is crucial in game development to ensure a seamless integration of visuals and gameplay.
Visual Mock-up – A preliminary version of a design or artwork, used to visualize and test ideas before final production. – The team presented a visual mock-up of the game’s interface to gather feedback from stakeholders before proceeding with development.
Shading – The technique of depicting depth and dimension in art by varying the darkness and lightness of colors. – Mastering shading techniques can significantly enhance the realism and emotional impact of digital illustrations.
Textures – The perceived surface quality or feel of an object in art, often created through the use of patterns and colors to add depth and interest. – Applying realistic textures to 3D models can greatly improve the visual appeal and immersion of a game environment.
Cohesive Art – Art that is unified and consistent in style, theme, and execution, creating a harmonious and integrated whole. – The exhibition featured a collection of cohesive art pieces that collectively told a compelling narrative.
Modern Artistic Flair – A contemporary style or approach in art that incorporates current trends and innovative techniques to create fresh and dynamic works. – The designer’s modern artistic flair was evident in the vibrant and unconventional use of color in the latest game release.
