Everything You Need to Know About 2D Video Game Art

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear these words — two-dimensional game art? It's something old-school, probably pixelated, and original. Such moments can make you feel like a gaming connoisseur who has unraveled the truth unknown to others. However, this feeling has another side, with many nuances hidden behind simple but heart-warming graphics.

In 2D video games, developers use a flat graphic design based on sprites with zero 3D geometry. Sprites are visualized on the screen as flat images, and the camera lacks perspective (orthogonal projection). Let us better talk with some examples instead of convoluted terms. Look at Hollow Knight, Children of Morta, or Tiny Bubbles to understand the subject

Not all games with 2D art stick to the limits of two dimensions. Some titles successfully combine 3D environments and characters with two-dimensional gameplay. For instance, in some games, the camera can show you the world from the side, cruising from left to right, while your character moves only in two dimensions. This combination creates a cool 3D effect that adds points to the visual style, albeit not directly impacting gameplay mechanics.

In addition, there are games with 3D geometry and depth, where the camera shows everything in orthogonal projection instead of relying on perspective. This popular game solution uses a bird-eye camera combined with an isometric view (Disco Elysium, Path of Exile, etc.).

With 2D animation, every movement you see on the screen is created frame by frame. These frames are often compiled into a sequence or a sprite sheet, essentially a collection of images that animates your characters or objects.

Traditionally, animators would create 24 unique frames per second (fps) to achieve smooth and lifelike motion. This standard is still used for many high-quality productions. However, to save time and resources without losing that fluid feel, many animations today use 12 fps. Each frame is displayed twice, cutting the workload in half while still delivering the same visual flow.

Although animating each frame individually falls under the classic approach and was exemplified in the game Cuphead to attain that smooth vintage cartoon aesthetic, modern 2D animation uses many innovative techniques for efficiency and stylistic variation.

A popular alternative is rigging-based 2D animation, which takes its cues from 3D skeletal animation. Here, artists do not draw frames for each movement but rather create a "rig" or bone structure for their 2D characters and animate by manipulating these bones. Spine and DragonBones are widely used in this approach, particularly in indie games like Hollow Knight, where smooth animations are crucial and cost-effective solutions. This allows developers to reuse assets more efficiently and achieve complex animations with significantly reduced time and effort.

Another advanced technique is cut-out animation, where characters are divided into parts—like arms, legs, and torsos—animated individually and then reassembled. This approach has been notably used in the game Don't Starve, resulting in a paper-cut look combined with smooth animation and giving the game a striking visual identity. Cut-out animation works best for quirky and stylized designs, particularly when fantastic movements and textured layers are essential to the appeal.

Finally, procedural animation techniques are becoming popular in 2D games. Instead of animating all the movements by hand, developers design algorithms that dynamically simulate the animations. Though this is rarer for character animation, it is preferred for environmental features like water flow, tree movement, or particle effects. Combining traditional and procedural methods creates a visually rich but performance-friendly result.

It is a popular career choice for many artists because 2D art is often used in various marketing promos, cartoons, and presentations, not just games. It can be very demanding, though, as it requires understanding the rules of composition, experience with staging light and shadow, academic drawing, and knowledge of color mixing basics.

Furthermore, creators who work on characters and models must be more than familiar with human and animal anatomy (even if they do simple visual art). It can be more difficult to convey motion with two-dimensional art, so artists must be creative with effects, poses, and animation sequences. Key responsibilities include:

• Design characters, environments, and props that fit the game’s style.
• Create concept art to guide visual development.
• Animate characters and objects for lifelike movement.
• Develop UI elements like menus, icons, and buttons.
• Collaborate with other teammates to integrate art seamlessly.
• Maintain consistency with the art direction.
• Produce promotional artwork for marketing.
• Optimize graphics for different platforms.
• Stay updated on trends and techniques in 2D game art.

Therefore, an experienced artist must be equally skilled at hand drawing and digital art, armed with an analytical mind, and ready to learn from others.

“Game artist” in big studios is a broad collective term that unites multiple specialties under one umbrella. It includes concept art creators, illustrators, character designers, environment artists, UI/UX designers, and other creative positions. Let us explain what they do.

These are specialists who visualize the idea of future art. They draw crude sketches to explain how a character, object, or particular location might look. This job requires an open mind and unbounded vision to search for relevant materials from games, movies, cartoons, or just real-world photos to use as references.

Concept art creation is about variability and searching for multiple options instead of producing final pieces. Sketches are just the foundation, the very first step of visualization. Others will take approved images and finalize them without the help of concept artists. So, if you have ever seen concept art and wondered why it looks unfinished, now you have an answer.

Artists of this kind work on static images—for example, those seen on loading screens, covers, and promotional materials. Their creative minds also produce posters with the game's main characters, which are included in various deluxe editions or virtual postcards for the community.

Every game needs a user interface with numerous screens, menus, panels, pop-ups, etc. UI designers take care of all these seemingly mundane visual elements. They know where to place buttons and how those should look to catch the gamers’ eye without interfering with gameplay. They understand how to make the interface consistent and synchronized with the game’s settings. Honestly, it is much harder than you think because artists must understand the gamers’ logic and needs.

The action in games takes place somewhere. So, you need to draw a digital world where everything happens. Call in a team of professional environment designers, and they will create realistic landscapes, futuristic cities, medieval buildings blended with hi-tech, and anything you can imagine. To do that, environment artists must have a deep knowledge of architecture and masterfully work with perspective and lighting.

These artists will provide humans and humanoids, animals and aliens, cyborgs and robots, mutants, and other god-forsaken creatures — whatever characters you need. No character designer can draw a basic figure without solid anatomy knowledge of different species. Character artists enliven half-baked concepts, emphasizing the unique features and traits of personages (for example, adding clothing and weapons according to the fighting style) and adding a special flavor to them.

Jacks of all trades and masters of some. These well-rounded professionals have tremendous drawing experience that allows them to fill the gaps in every department, from concept art creation and illustrations to character and environment design. Usually, such pros are needed on small projects (or limited teams), where one artist creates 2D art, makes textures, does modeling, and does basic rigging.

2D art for games comes in various forms and shapes that form different styles. Some call them visualization concepts, but we prefer to say “visual art styles.” Here are a few popular examples you probably have seen in games.

Early game consoles and computers lacked the processing power for complex visuals, so developers used pixel sprites—tiny, grid-based images of individual pixels. Despite these constraints, game creators achieved remarkable levels of detail, crafting rich, intricate worlds with limited resources. Early 2D game art styles from this era, like those in Super Mario or The Legend of Zelda, set the standard for visual storytelling in games.

Pixel art games have been getting a huge resurgence in today's land, particularly among the indie game development community. Although these games use the same basic principles of creating images from pixels, modern technology has allowed for enhanced visual effects like blur, ambient occlusion, and dynamic lighting. The unique charm of creating 2D game art in pixel style is its ability to evoke nostalgia while offering modern gameplay experiences.

Modern 2D games rely heavily on vector art graphics, especially since many titles aim for a clean and sharp visual style. Unlike pixel-based images, vector graphics are composed of paths defined by mathematical formulas, making them scalable without losing quality. This is essential for games to be played on different sizes of screens and resolutions to make the artwork look higher quality when viewed on a mobile device or a large monitor.

In minimalist 2D game design, vector art is often the go-to choice due to its simplicity and efficiency. The smooth shapes and uncluttered vector graphics designs enable developers to produce pleasing, fresh games. Many 2D game art software programs, such as Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape, specialize in vector design, enabling artists to efficiently create scalable, high-quality assets.

The hand-drawn style reflects the true art of classical workmanship applied here in a digital context. At its most basic level, it is the creation of assets done purely by hand, with each line, texture, and frame created anew. It is labor-intensive but provides unmatched flexibility in shaping the game's aesthetic.

Artists begin with concept sketches that are refined into detailed line art, which is subsequently augmented by shading, color, and texture layers. In animations, this style often employs frame-by-frame techniques where each movement is painstakingly illustrated. An excellent example would be Cuphead; thousands of hand-drawn frames were needed to achieve seamless animation and the vintage cartoon look.

For decades, Photoshop has remained the tool of choice for many professional artists. Most studios praise Adobe’s software for its ability to perform various routine tasks with scripts in one click.

Despite being the golden standard, Photoshop is not the only tool for creating 2D art. Here are a few popular alternatives to consider.

• Affinity Designer — a graphics editor by Serif, which was originally developed exclusively for macOS but eventually got both iOS and Windows versions. Positioned by the creators as "the fastest graphics editing software," it supports many image formats and comes with a large set of settings and features.
• Autodesk SketchBook Pro — a raster graphics editor software that allows you to work with animation and supports import/export to PSD files. It is available for free for personal use.
• Pixelmator — this software is available only for macOS and iOS and, therefore, fully integrated into the Apple ecosystem. What's interesting about it is that it uses machine learning to work with images most efficiently.
• GIMP — a free graphics editor that can be a good alternative to Photoshop. Rather flexible as it supports third-party plugins.
• Krita — is an open-source drawing tool. Has a huge and active community that constantly works on improvements and adds new features to the program.

In a world of high-resolution graphics, 3D, and realism, there is still enough room for original 2D projects made with a passion for the craft. They don’t need ultra-realistic designs and complex visual effects to immerse you in the process. Let us suggest a few fantastic titles we played and thoroughly enjoyed.

The developers from Vanillaware have created a side-scroller RPG with incredibly beautiful animations. They have intertwined traditional fantasy motives with loveable heroes and stunning imagery. All that together gave us an epic action-packed adventure, where every cutscene is nothing short of a Hollywood masterpiece. Characters, monsters, locations, and even simple objects in Dragon’s Crown are made for classic games and books (e.g., Conan the Barbarian).

Cuphead is a game that truly brings to life the feeling of a 1930s cartoon, with all the frames hand-drawn and every background meticulously painted in bright vintage detail. In the story, Cuphead and his brother Mugman find themselves in a devil's deal that forces them to battle through wild and imaginative boss fights to win back their souls. The winning art comes with an engaging jazz soundtrack of toe-tapping tunes and intense "just one more try" gameplay that challenges players without ever feeling unfair. It’s a masterpiece of style and substance that keeps players hooked.

This game draws much inspiration from Minecraft but throws in many other good features from well-known games. As a result, you get an action-adventure game with open-world, sandbox, and platformer features. So, if you love platformers, you are in for a treat. To succeed in Terraria, you must be efficient with many movement tools and learn to avoid enemy attacks. It will be hard, but mainly due to constantly being distracted by gorgeous 2D art in each zone.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Terraria/comments/16g8sph/boreal_wood_walls_or_regular/

The surrounding world in Braid pleases the eye with colorful imagery that shimmers with different shades and tones. The melodic music harmoniously complements the juicy picture. Braid does not spell primitivism as many other platformers do. Two-dimensional art here works perfectly; with any added depth, the game would lose a hefty chunk of its magic.

Braid is yet another indisputable proof that indie games play an important role in today's electronic entertainment industry. While established studios and publishers are chasing after realistic graphics and special effects to make games more like movies, talented creators demonstrate that there is an alternative approach to digital art.

When hunting for a 2D art production partner, you need a studio that showcases jaw-dropping work and understands the nitty-gritty of game development—where creativity meets technical precision. Look for a team with experience in creating scalable graphics, ensuring that assets can be adapted to different resolutions and platforms without losing quality.

Beyond artistic skill, the ideal partner will collaborate with your team, ensuring that 2D assets align with your overall game design and narrative vision. Look for studios with strong communication practices, flexibility in adjusting to feedback, and a proven track record of delivering on time.

At Argentics, we focus on crafting unique worlds and memorable characters that resonate with players and enhance your game’s vision. With a dedicated team and a deep understanding of game development, we’re ready to bring your ideas to life. Reach out to us and have a nice chat!