Conversation with Aleks

Sorry for the poor formatting, I wasn't sure how to best go about this.
Structure:
[Subject]
[To/From]
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Would you be interested in a short interview for school?
to AleksandarK

Hey there! I'm a high school student in Pennsylvania learning pixel art for a school project. I've been looking around for someone to interview for said project, and your work looks really cool. I've seen some of your work posted on /r/PixelArt and it looks incredible! If you have time today, could you answer a few short questions for me?
Thanks for your time,
Matt

re: Would you be interested in a short interview for school?
from AleksandarK

Hi Matt, thanks for the kind words.
If you just leave the questions here I'll do my best to answer ASAP. Thanks!

re: Would you be interested in a short interview for school?
to AleksandarK

Thanks again for your response! Below are the 6 questions. If you have a name you'd like me to refer to you as, or a website you want me to link (I wouldn't recommend the Steam page, as it is blocked on my school's network) just let me know in your response.
1. What got you interested in learning pixel art?
2. What was your biggest inspiration for the art direction of your game?
3. How did you find a personal style when creating Unworthy?
4. How long did it take you to create the sprites for your game? Do you go through a lot of revisions?
5. What was the most challenging obstacle to overcome in Unworthy's development?
6. What would you recommend for a beginner just starting out?

re: Would you be interested in a short interview for school?
from AleksandarK

I actually started out trying to do 3D and HD art, but found that it wasn't very efficient for small team projects. I really jumped into pixel art because out of necessity. It's still very doable to work on a solo game project (more or less) when working in the pixel art medium.
The original B&W idea was actually inspired by an LDJAM entry by a friend of mine (Benjamin Anderson). I saw the potential in using silhouettes to create meaningful images while leaving a lot of room for mental extrapolation / imagination on the player's end in order to fill the holes.
Honestly... I kind of just went with it. Took a mouse and fired away in an image editing software and away it went.
The background and prop sprites are pretty straightforward and I have a reliable workflow for those, so I don't really go through that many revisions (often it's out on the first bang). The animated enemies are very time consuming though and often go through several revisions. I use a really high frame count to achieve smooth animations since I can leverage the fact that the sprites are a single color (sometimes 2) to create animations relatively efficiently. As mentioned I go through several revisions with animations since sometimes the timing just doesn't fit the game balance so I have to remove or add frames in order to fill the holes.
Honestly... the most challenging is just staying disciplined and motivated to work every day. When you're working the same hours, on your own project, seeing the same thing day in and day out, it can be emotionally and mentally exhausting. Other than that, everything is just about putting the time into it.
If you are completely starting out I would encourage copying all the sprites you can. Obviously do not put these out publicly and claim as your own work or something. When you copy, make sure you think about every pixel. Why did the artist put it there? what would be the consequence if it were a different color? what would be the consequence if it were moved or just deleted? how would this impact the form and silhouette? If you're copying and answering these questions, at a certain point you'll begin to understand the process or create one of your own. Honestly the hardest part is discovering what works for you.

re: Would you be interested in a short interview for school?
to AleksandarK

These answers were really interesting, thank you! Out of curiosity, do you participate in LD as well? I've been doing it for a few years now and it's always a fun experience - highly recommend.

[End of relevant conversation]