The best pixel art tools to create your own game

The six best options for creating your own pixel art, from great free tools to powerful professional software.

Like yourself pixel art has evolved into a popular art form, and not just a testament to technical limitations, so have the tools developers use to create them. Some stick to old favourites, others use freeware, and others opt for highly available software. if you sign up with pixel art busy or looking for new software to improve your game, the decisions can be daunting.

Most artists will tell you that a tool is a tool and you can create good art with any tool you choose to learn. But if you need help finding the tool that best suits your grip, here are a few that come highly recommended. And for inspiration check out the great art archive at PixelJoint and this great collection of pixel art-Tutorials on.

Appreciate

Price: $15 or free if assembled by yourself

Available on: Windows / OS X / Linux

Aseprite was specifically designed for pixel art developed. It's not free, but $15 isn't a bad price if you're looking for a long-term solution. However, you can get Aseprite for free if you are willing to compile the source code yourself.

It is one of the most recommended programs for pixel art, And for a good reason. Aseprite has all the standard features you need to build pixel art need, packed in a user-friendly interface. Onion skinning, the ability to see the frames in an animation before and after the one you're working on, is a given for animation. Aseprite can also export entire sprite sheets and GIFs, also expected features for pixel-specific work.

Aseprite has many fans, but for some it's an acquired taste. The program itself is low resolution. For some, a pixelated pixel editing interface might be like putting on the right music to focus on creating. For others, it's an unnecessary distraction.

Jay Tholen, creator and artist of the point-and-click adventure game Dropsy, switched from Microsoft Paint to Aseprite and hasn't changed since. “Back then, I tended to stick to a 'safe' palette. If I made a piece and then decided that a color didn't work, I would either brute force it with a paint bucket or just leave it bugging me for eternity. For Hypnospace Outlaw, I used the color reduction capabilities in Aseprite to give 3D art a vintage, web-safe, dithered look.”

See Aseprite's Twitter page for examples of artwork created with the tool.

Pyxel Edit

Price: $9 (or free beta build)

Available on: Windows / OS X

Pyxel Edit is another reliable and cheap option. You can pick up the release copy for $9 or download the beta build for free. Be warned, the free build will no longer receive updates or support. For that you have to buy yourself. However, even the paid version is slow to update and not the focus of the sole developer. If you're a feature freak, be prepared to be content with Pyxel Edit as it exists now.

Pyxel Edit works fine for static pixel art and for animating sprites, but some of its features give it a strong tendency toward creating tilesets. You can import an existing tileset or mockup and Pyxel Edit will automatically convert it into usable tiles. One particularly good workflow feature is tile references, which allow you to edit a tile and update every instance of that tile. You no longer have to manually go through and laboriously replace tiles after an edit. If you plan to create tilesets for your environments or levels, a good tile editor can make a big difference in your workflow when it comes to iterating the level design. You can see examples of art created with Pyxel Edit on the Twitter page here.

GraphicsGale

Price: Free

Available for: Windows

GraphicsGale is another solid program designed specifically for pixel art was developed. It has the same main features you would expect for drawing and animating: onion skinning, layer control, and color palette management. The main disadvantage of GraphicsGale is that it is only available on Windows.

Aside from being the right price, GraphicsGale has two big features to consolidate your workflow. You can import images from scanners and digital cameras if you prefer to sketch by hand before applying pixels. It uses TWAIN imaging supported devices, which luckily means most scanners and cameras these days. Probably the most notable feature is the ability to preview an animation while editing. You don't have to stop working to export a GIF or even pause your preview window. Getting instant feedback as you work can help you feel more confident experimenting while you animate.

A remarkable professional game made with GraphicsGale: the beautiful Duelyst.

Promotion NG

Price: $40 or feature-limited free version

Available for: Windows

Where GIMP and Photoshop are repurposed tools, Pro Motion is the high-end choice designed specifically for pixel art was developed with some impressive professional games like Shovel Knight. Pro Motion has strong capabilities for both sprite animation and tileset editing. Like Pyxel Edit, Pro Motion lets you edit all the same tile from one instance. It also features automatic dithering for shading large parts of a drawing.

Pro Motion is only available natively for Windows, but specifically mentions running the program on Linux and OSX through Wine. The free version of Pro Motion offers many Pixelart-Needs: support for drawing tile patterns, a tile map editor, color palette editing, and layer effects. If you give it a try and decide to take it on, the paid version adds plenty of power-user features, like the ability to change keyboard shortcuts, automatic backups, and being able to open multiple projects at once. Pro Motion is possibly the best compromise between price and performance, designed specifically for pixel work.

You can also buy it through Steam.

Photoshop

Price: $20-30/month

Available on: Windows / OS X

Adobe Photoshop doesn't need an introduction, but I'll give it one anyway. As the leading high-resolution photo editing software, Photoshop will cost you $20 per month (annual is cheaper than monthly) depending on the subscription price you choose. Students can get it cheaper, at $10 a month. If you're lucky enough to already own a copy thanks to an educational license, or own a pre-subscription copy, using it to create art on a budget immediately becomes more viable. The benefit of using an Adobe product is the sheer volume of resources available. If there's a feature you need to learn, you can bet there's official documentation and endless text and video guides are just a Google search away.

As far as features go, Photoshop should have everything you need and more. Like the free alternative GIMP, it's not specifically for pixel art done, but there are plenty of tutorials for working with Photoshop pixel art set up and get the most out of Photoshop. It sometimes gets a bad rap for working with low resolutions, but it can be extremely effective in the hands of someone who is comfortable with it. The ability to manage layers, layer styles, custom brushes, palettes, and your edit history can greatly improve your workflow.

Len Stuart, the lead artist for Pixel Noir, uses Photoshop not only for its versatility, but also because it's familiar. "Personally, I've been using Photoshop since I was in school, so it was just the program that made me feel naturally comfortable."

GIMP

Price: Free

Available on: Windows / OS X / Linux

GIMP is a well-known high-resolution image editor, but that doesn't make it any less popular for low-resolution work. Although GIMP's most well-known quality is "free Photoshop," it has other powerful features that require less talk time. In particular, it is customizable with multiple programming languages. There are quite a few community-made plugins available, which means you can make GIMP's feature set your own with some effort.

If for some reason you're switching between pixel work and high-resolution graphics, the GIMP is a good way to make sure you don't spread your efforts across too many different programs.