How To Fail at Game Art
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- čas přidán 21. 11. 2023
- Art is very important, probably, so lets see how we can do it, but really bad.
Special thanks to CreoMaster for the Neon Nights image, you can check his Instagram out here: / creomaster_official
And a big thanks to Fightered man, Nexreon, bruhs, and kkairos, for contributing variations of the guy explaining things on the discord server. couldn't have done it without them as it is surprisingly difficult to draw in a different style. If you want to join my discord server here's the link: / discord
Contact:
artindigames@gmail.com
Twitter(x): / theartindi
itch.io: artindi.itch.io/
Music:
Doh De Oh by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license - Zábava
![Eminem - Houdini [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22tVWwmTie8/mqdefault.jpg)
Alternatively, just make the game a black screen & claim that the protagonist is blind. People love lore being tied in with the story, so nothing can go wrong with this . . . Right?
an excellent idea! Think outside the box! I like it. :)
some scam game ACTUALLY did that, it was a fake arg game that was like 200$ on steak and needed a ridiculous number of people playing at once to "progress". the game was called something like "i need x people" (x was the arbritrarily big number)
found it, its called "i'm looking for 3,024 people" and the dev was so desperate they lowered the price to 2$ lmao
@@candycaneannihalator2708 THAT'S WHAT I WAS REFERENCING LMAOO
@@candycaneannihalator2708yoo tf, he must be out of his mind thinking PPL buy that crap 😂😂
At first I thought I sensed a bit of sarcasm in his voice, but by the end of the video he had said the same thing in so many different ways that he must have been serious, so I've fired all of my artists and replaced them with simple colored rectangles. Tbh the new style is very refreshing and I don't have to work with the annoying creative people anymore. Overall a huge win, appreciate the kick in the right direction!
Ha ha. Rectangles don't talk back, glad I could help. :D
Thomas Was Alone leaked development:
Remember that the issue isn't when art is simplistic, it's when it lacks appeal. You can make simple art still look nice, you just have to know what you're doing.
Eddsworld and Henry Stickmin agree
The further you are from something familiar, the more artistic talent/intent has to go into it to make players notice & care. I'd argue art/aesthetic is harder to pull off well the more stylized & abstract it becomes.
Just Shapes and Beats moment
I'll also add that if you're trying to draw and/or depict something that already exists, it's a bit harder to do so. Even if you're going for a more stylized approach, people have expectations of how something is supposed to look. If you're going for something more "alien", so to speak, you can get away with doing certain things you'd otherwise get roasted for.
That being said, it's still important to make sure you make something that *DOESN'T* look like someone slapped it together in five minutes, in MS Paint. And if you actually _want_ something to look like vaguely pixelated vomit, then that's fine; just don't be surprised when people think it looks like vaguely pixelated vomit.
as a gamedev who sucks at art yet is too broke to hire an artist, i appreciate your accurate description of me
I feel noticed.
as a pixel artist who sucks at gamedev yet is too broke to hire a developer, I relate as well
@@PhantomOfficial07 aiteletsdoit
@@AoAlfaric huh ?
Don’t forget, if you want to save on animations, just make a character with no limbs!
Slimes, balls, snails, robots on wheels; there are endless possibilities out there, so go nuts!
my first player character was definitely not a robot on wheels. no siree.
but, what about rayman? 🥺
@@DyaMetR Rayman is both an example of "know the rules before you break them", and he also gets a pass because his moveset is actually based on his floating limbs! (shooting his fist off and such)
Right.
Because not having the slimes, snails, balls, or robot's wheels animate will make them look completely static. And that's exactly what we want.
No need to add shading or anything. That might make it look nice.
I think you forgot to mention that if you use pre-made assets, it is very important to mix them up which each other so your game won't be to consistent looking
I did a game jam once with the requirement to use a specific asset pack. And one of the guys you couldn't even tell he used it because of how how much he meshed everything together. It was quite impressive.
How how much?@@Artindi
@@1980woodpixie whoopsy. I like to think think faster than I can type type. ;)
If you want to fail, there's still one pitfall. Your art might look like coherently inconsistent.
So make sure that using random assets doesn't make sense in context of the game and its themes/tone.
This is one of the most important things about indie game design! The key is to get as many different asset packs, and also individually bought assets, as possible... hi-poly, low-poly, gory zombies, comical characters, nightmare fuel, failed hilarious attempts at nightmare fuel, wholesome characters (to still totally shoot with your in-game gun), eerily realistic human characters... and just jam them all in a big random spawn pattern with no regard for the health, damage and other parameters you set for them!
Honestly there are so many ways to do art for a game, I probably could make a part two one day. Or even go into particular art styles, like pixel art, low poly, voxel art or other art styles.
I don't understand why everyone is trying to do pixel art tbh. There are wonderful art styles out of pixel art. Like Darkest Dungeon.
@@idle.observer I think it's because people think it's easy. And to some degree it is easier than some art forms. But yeah. It's can often look cheap now because of how common it is. :/
Your channel needs more recognition solely for its Game-Boy-like art style!
Yes but animating especially for higher resolutions like Blasphemous style much harder as far as I know@@Artindi
Thanks for the opinion btw@@Artindi
The part about the pull chain reminds me of the first time I played Bioshock. There's a section where you need to hit a button for the elevator, but up until that part the buttons had only been decoration and all elevators didn't need any interaction to work. I literally spent over a week backtracking and trying to figure out what I was meant to do before I looked up a walkthrough.
I love how you implemented the discord server's work into the video. very smooth. (I'm the guy who did the animation btw)
Thanks for your contribution! (like i said, it's very hard to draw in different styles, and the animation was a great addition!) :D
Speaking on skyrim ... my first game I brute forced the combination for the first claw door because I had no idea the combination was in a book or that you could look at the model of the claw. And of course it was the last combo you can have for the door.
Great design... great times.
And there was my biggest roadblock for me as a game dev. Using stock assets and stuff like that just ended up bugging me so much while I worked at the mechanics. I'd end up getting distracted from working on the mechanics or map or level design because I'd end up getting so annoyed with my placeholder circles and I'd end up getting distracted and looking for more tools to draw stuff better, and getting discouraged due to my lack of experience with art.
I'm generally the type of man who plays minecraft and just builds things for function, while struggling to settle on an aesthetic later. Especially in Survival mode.
I'm the same. Very logically oriented, instead of what looks nice. so when it comes to making art its just "that'll do", but most people dont like that lol
Just use stock stuff as placeholder you can always change art later when the rest is done.
Such a great vid! Now I deleted Aseprite and started doing pixel art on Excel. The results is mindblowing.
You’d be surprised just HOW much unique stuff you can draw with 16 colors, counting “invisible” as a color. Granted, I lucked out with my player character’s palette being more or less a “Red-Blue-Yellow” scheme with the blues being more grayshifted and most of the “Red+Yellow” shades being browns and tans, but that aside, a LOT of what we see in a color can depend on the context of surrounding colors. RGB code (0,0,24) is technically just the darkest pure Blue setting, but it can also appear as Purple or Black when different colors surround it. A sandy color can be used for the main hue of a Cowboy boot, it could be a shaded area on something bright yellow, or it could be a brighter area on somewhere dark red
Obviously, the whole GAME doesn’t need to be locked to a single 15-16 colors, but the more unique looking things you can figure out how to build with the same color palette, the more consistent you can get your game’s art to look
Also, it can be helpful sometimes not just to use fewer unique colors per Sprite, but to deliberately limit the color DEPTH available: for example, while RGB sliders usually have 256 unique values per color, older systems often had far fewer options: the Genesis only had around 8 options per slider, and the SNES had 32, giving 32,000 colors to the Genesis having only 512. Yet Genesis games actually don’t look much less colorful than their SNES counterpart
16 ain't 4, and 4 can also look exceptional if you're skilled enough
@@kolskytraveller1369 that's true, but it leaves FAR less room for detail, and general requires an unshaded artstyle
It should also be noted that many later NES games actually "cheated" the limit a little by layering 2 sprites together. For example, Megaman's NES Sprite consists of 2 parts, allowing the use of 2 colors for the armor, a black outline/pupil color, a transparent color, AND 2 colors for the face&eyes (tan&white)
@@spindash64 Fun fact: Shovel Knight actually uses the exact same approach as well
I've made several games using limited sets of 16 colors, often with a self-imposed "soft limit" of 3 colors per sprite or 4 colors but only if the 4th is a black outline. Both palettes I've chosen myself and palettes supplied to me by others.
Currently I'm trying to force myself to expand out of this, so I'm doing character _designs_ that only use five colors, black outline, tiny bits of white (extreme shine, teeth, eye sclera) and one extra shade for each of the five colors in the "palette". The fox wizard has a coppery orange coat with some cream highlights, a red robe and cloak with purple inner lining and gold trim, and a cane of the same color as his fur; change the fox to the wolf's palette and he's a gray fox with a brown muzzle wearing blue robes with red trim, change the wolf to the fox's palette and he's a coppery wolf with a bronze spear and bright red armor. I want as many palette and sprite combinations as possible to be compatible because it's meant in large part for newbie developers to goof around with and edit.
these instructions are great! i can't wait to make my new indie platformer game filled with dull, pillow shaded sprites! it'll have a great story!
I honestly want to try out whatever kind of game would come out from the influence of all these videos.
New Game Jam idea. Make the WORST game possible but in the most creative way.
Fittingly, the almighty algorithm just recommended this video and channel to me while I was watching a Terrible Writing Advice video...
Not sure if your work was inspired by that channel, though if so you clearly found your own fun spin on it, and I am liking what I'm seeing here.
Will be sticking around for more of sarcastically good (bad?) advice.
Partway through working on the first episode I recognized the similarities so I gladly took some inspiration, and hopefully put my own spin on it. :)
what I have learned for my game:
I'm fucked.
I've been really excited about this episode! Happy to see I could contribute a tiny bit as well :)
It was very helpful! :D
1:33, not going to lie, I think that looks cool
this reminds me of the time i tried to draw a man in jojo style when i had 0 experience, it was not a good sight to see at all, I'm glad i gave up on drawing and watched this, this is 100% better then any drawing tutorial.
I absolutely ADORE the way you draw humans, it's so silly and nice.
Thanks!
When I was making game assets, I used my skills in 3d game asset creation to create rendered 3d objects with a unique style and shading method and turned them into isometric tiles that gave the game a unique aesthetic. Well, that was a terrible idea because it was taking forever. So I looked for alternatives, opened up ass sprite (I think it's called that), tried my hand at pixel art (way easy... Just draw coloured rectangles, outlines and shadows) and within a week I replaced everything with side-on, pastel coloured pixel art. And what do you know? The game was much easier to develop! Assets were much quicker to make and the side-on nature of the game meant I didn't have to think too hard about depth and user experience because there was only one depth plane to think about. Another victory for efficiency.
thanks for skyrim segment, I wasn't able to complete first dungeon on all my playtroughs
I was a little worried it was only me. :)
I just found this channel. I am not a game developer, indie or otherwise. And yet I feel compelled to stay.
Please do! :D
Art is a tough one. I postponed making games to learn animating
Animation is so hard but so much fun
Whelp, just binged watched this entire series in one go after being randomly recommended. Nice stuff, mate! Hope you keep making more 😊
Pixel art has been my go-to as it just holds that MS Paint level of nostalgia for me
During the 7th console gaming generation, there was another advice to fail: Remember, realism equals brown and light bloom!
Dont ever worry about creating a consistent pixel size for your sprites! If you complete a sprite and it ends up being a bit too big or small, just rezise it! Dont worry about the messed up pixels afterwards, it just makes your artstyle more original, even if its the only spite with that error!
I'm learning game art. I just quit hand drawing yeah pixel art seems easy. In the last 3 mins, I already reached Sea Stars level art, thanks for the tips!
excellent... or wait, maybe that's a bad thing? I'm very confused now. :)
I don't know if you complaining or your grateful?
I only care about the money, let's see if I become a millionaire next week.@@Artindi
I'm being sarcastic...@@Soroosh.S83
Here's a really helpful tip I've learned when trying to fail at game art: Be sure to find super talented artists who want to work with you and then get unnecessarily frustrated with them and boot them off the project after only a few weeks of work. This is a fool-proof method for failing at game art, it's never let me down in the past!
what game did that happen with?
Thank you for calling out my number one pet peeve, lazy dynamic squash and stretch
about art asset packs, make sure to go out of your way to use multiple, all with diffrent styles only thing connecting them is the fact theyre in pixel art, inconsistent sizes of pixel art are a delight too, make the player 16 bit and 4 colors while the trees you took from the asset pack are 64 bits, hope this helps!
man i binge watched your playlist yesterday and you gave me a bonus video today? well thank you
I was thinking of you mate. Glad you enjoyed. :)
i can finally complete my failed game!@@Artindi
happy to see you back at making these interesting videos on games
Dude, your "How to Fail at _____" series is amazing. Got me to subscribe and join the discord. Keep up the good work!
Love all the different art you made for this one!
Thanks! It ended up being over 100 new stills. I was very done doing pixel art by the end. :)
Thanks! It ended up being over 100 new stills. I was very done doing pixel art by the end. :)
I just discovered this channel a few minutes ago and it's legendary.
Oh shucks. Thanks. :)
"This is my art style"
It sure is! :D
Better yet, if your game has combat, make it so you have no discernible visual cue that your enemy is dead until several seconds pass so that way the player's time is wasted whaling on corpses.
How to fail at game art: let me do any of it.
I would never expect that the whole idea of game art can be so hard. even when simplifying things as much as possible it just takes ages to get something done. I bow to all of those who do it for a living
Bro j'adooooore ce que tu fait c'est excellent !!!
Thanks! Glad you liked it. :)
Honestly, this one is weird.
I actually think many of the ideas cited here are valid and can be good IF they are well executed and used with an actual purpose.
In other words, if the developer actually thinks about what they're doing.
Inconsistent artstyle can be used to signal that a character, object or place is different from the rest in some way.
It could be used to hint that a character is a villain or an impostor, or maybe they're a different type of creature who's more powerful than those around them.
Using simple sillouestes with just the shape of the character can be used to add a paint-like feeling, or indicate that they're under a weird sort of lighting.
Using dull and repetitive colors could be used to signal emotion.
Maybe the main character is sad because they lost something or someone.
Or maybe the area is a city full of people who are sad.
Maybe the city is ruled by a merciless tyrant, who could also be the game's main villain, and life there is miserable because of them, so having a dull pallete for that city while the other areas have more vibrant and varied colors could be used to signal the contrast between these two places.
The opposite could also be useful. Having most of the game use moderate colors while one area has vibrant and exagerated colors could be used to signal that that one area is a "crazy" or "wacky" place, compared to the other, more "normal" places.
The same can apply to characters. Maybe one character can have duller colors to signal that they are sad or depressed because something bad happened.
Or it could be used to signal that they are scary, angry and serious, and you don't wanna mess with them.
Or maybe it can signal that a character is a manipulator or a liar, and you shouldn't trust them.
Or maybe one character has more exagerated and varied colors to signal that THEY are "crazy" or "wacky".
Like I said, I can see there being good and valid uses for many of the ideas cited here.
In these cases, it's a matter of how they're used and why.
I think Artindi would agree with this. The expressed purpose for a lot of the actions described in the video was either “taking a shortcut” or “ehh don’t worry about it”. That implies that you should totally do these things without any serious intent (if you want to fail)
@@heckYEAHman. Taking shortcuts is a very important part of indie gamedev. These aren't AAA games, they're low budget games and taking shortcuts is essential. There are plenty of games with very simplistic art styles which were successful.
@@NihongoWakannai So you think that these “shortcuts” can be good for game art, as long as they have some artistic intent behind them? In other words, “it’s a matter of how they’re used and why”?
If so, it looks like everyone in this thread agrees on that. And so does Artindi.
The original comment I replied to is just rephrasing an idea already implied by the video, and presenting it as if it is a disagreement with the video. In reality, everyone’s on the same page here (except maybe you, but hopefully you are now). That’s all I was getting at with my response.
Same thing with the 'Just use three or four colors and claim it's your artstyle' thing. The difference here is obviously intent, but I think a limitation like this is not only a valid artstyle in some cases (Game Boy-Style Graphics, Black & White/Monochrome graphics, Virtual boy graphics, etc.), but can also be an interesting challenge that helps you improve as an artist, while also potentially giving a unique look to your game.
Obviously art is subjective, and that really came through in this video.
Yup, use whatever works and ignore the "terrible advice" clones of Cinema sins, as nothing will ever be good enough with this level of nitpicking and lack of media literacy.
This is Comedy Gold Jerry!
bruh the reality hits hard
can you make how to fail at making a metagame (as in making a game about the game)
hooray
also it was interesting how you went into what you SHOULD do instead of just what you shouldn’t
nuh uh, I was only explaining what not to do in great and specific detail. ;)
@@Artindi oh yes, i apologise, you are completely and absolutely correct about everything. 😔😔😔
Great as always! Was that a Thomas was Alone dig in the middle there? 😆
If it sounds like it was, sure, (I actually don't know what Thomas was Alone is, probably a game right?) :)
1:19 tbf, if done rights, having different art styles can help make a game feel unique and make the player want to see more of the game. Though, if done right!
I can't tell you how many indie games I've seen use a cheap looking pixel art style. Now I hate pixel art unless the game has a good reason to use it
I only want Undertale as pixel art
@@PersonallyIdonthateyou I was thinking more like Infernax (it's loosely based on Simon's Quest) and Freedom Planet (it makes it look good)
Underrated channel
Thank you for helping me fail upwards
Loved the ROTMG representation at 1:20
Thx for the tips of what not to do im working on pixal art
I loved the guy changing looks.
It turned out pretty great! Glad I had people to help me out with that. :)
0:54 Yeah I head about a game that left the purple prototype blob as playable character... Imagine the gall, that Kirby thing will never take off, right? 😅
I'm trying to make a game where part of the point is to teach other people how to make games, so I'm trying to keep the art style simple enough that completely new developers can easily imitate its shading style (things are round or boxy for the most part, almost "pillow shading" but with a distinct top and bottom to the objects implying lighting is generally from above, but centered for each graphic). I want people to be able to add new sprites easily, edit the existing characters into their own protagonists and villains, add more weapons or spells, all that.
Other indie devs really aren't "getting" this as my mission and trying to get me to up the detail level of the sprites' shading. I do want interesting poses and shape language, but I very much _don't_ want a lot of details that do fancy things.
the best way to do video game art is to buy a big super high detail asset pack off the unreal engine store and then slap it into your game with no regard for stylistic consistency. Style doesn't help with realism at all! The easiest way to find realistic models is to find ones with the highest polygon count. Just remember the tip: More polygons = More real! Also don't bother with optimization. Make sure to pack your environment to the entity limit and beyond. FPS doesnt matter, all you need is those precious precious screenshots for the steam store page
Thats how i discovered how to proceed in skyrim, four years after abandoning it
Wait but the three color one looks kind of dope.
to be honest, I like the 'simple art style'. It's really cool and abstract.
this is jus what i needed all my games are ugly thank you
Wait, this was only uploaded 2 hours ago? I’ve only seen one of your videos on random yesterday and somehow I found this new one within a short time. I’m gonna say that my art “style” looks like it’s been drawn by a child and even though people may not like it, I still like it and I’m still gonna do it.
To be honest. I had a hard time figuring out this episode at first because art is so objective, really almost anything can work if done right.
Finding something so unique like your content is really rare! Really a breath of fresh air :)
Thanks! Your profile pic makes your comment ten times better. Lol. :D
Or make inconsistent sizes , such as the character being 64 by 64 , the tiles 8 by 8 and so on.
also i feel attacked in 0:44 lmao
in the original script I mentioned this, but then it wasn't flowing well with the rest of the video so I cut it out, but a great point! I've seen plenty of games do this (including my own) and it's not always the best choice. :)
yeah it looks a bit off@@Artindi
Personally.. i think your pixel art from 4 years ago is better :D.. (i can see the "skill" improvement.. but I see this in my own work too, often the first time is actually simpler and better, in your case I think although you've added perspective and stuff, the reflection from the overlap makes the silhouette confusing, and the blue is a bit much.. if you were to do it a third time, I would tone down the blues and make the silhouette even lower contrast, and closer to the glass colour so it doesn't interfere, if you want it to overlap). awesome videos, they are hilarious.. the music one encourages me to actually learn to make songs
It's a good thing I have stumbled on this channel. It reminds me a lot of Terrible Writing Advice, except it's for game developers.
Thanks for the video. Can't believe I've only found this channel today. Have you by any chance thought of making a video about RTS?
Eventually I hope to do a video on most every genre, and I've always enjoyed a good RTS, so one day that will be a thing. :)
I love your humor sir
I love your comment sir.
Pretty much cracked the code
as an artist seeing you call pixel art easy while listing common beginner mistakes hurt so much
Ouch! After a week of working on the art style and workflow of my game assets I realise now how far I have to go. I guess I should just give up and return to the free, mismatched sprites I started with!
legends say that this was the very same video that helped toby fox make the sprites for undertale
Alternatively, make the whole enviorment gray/brown/piss colored and make every interactable item a bright unnatural eyesore yellow
Pro Tip: if you’re making a rhythm game, make sure all the note types are similar to one another! that way the player can focus on both reading your annoying system and playing the chart!
Bro this is just a reverse tutorial at game design. Him pointing out what not to do tells me what to do simultaneously
These Neon Nights girl is sooo fine. Wouldn't betray Green Shirt Woman my beloved though
2:05omg when you back tracked I remembered that area, literally 5h, almost gave up thinking my game is bugged until my big brother told me "just pull the chain" how did I send 5h and never once looked at the chain
I know! I think in the end I had to watch a playthrough to find it. :)
2:08 wait there was another way out and i didn’t have to walk back out the way i came
Ghyat... These videos are getting better and better
Thanks again for letting me use your art, it was perfect! :D
o h i o
I spent five minutes looking around that pull chain room.
Good to hear. I was worried a little that no one would relate. Lol
@@Artindi old games had it worse. I hate it when the thing that stops you from progressing in some mindless boomer shooter is not knowing which of the same looking halls has the next door.
"Alegria" is the most offensive art style, and so far we don't have many games using it. Because it's so universally f*cking hated.
Remember, games aren't about *your* creativity- it's about awakening the creativity of the player! So just use a blank screen and a text-based adventure and let them see all the limitless, beautiful compositions your words are sure to inspire in their own minds!
so this is just Terrible Writing Advice, but instead its Terrible Game Advice
and i love it
Instructions unclear, made every asset with the graphical limitations of the Commodore 128
A worse way for me to fail is to stare at the blank canvas for an undetermined amount of time.
Also, some people actually used only 4 colors as an artstyle, due to the hardware limitations of the target platform they're developing their game for.
(Speaking of which, how to fail at choosing platforms to release your game on)
I'm an artist and pixel art is so difficult for me. Every time I hear a game developer say pixel art is easy i immediately ditch the video or post. I've heard devs say that pixel art is somehow easier to animate when you can use a sprite sheet for any 2D image. The only difference in that regard is that pixel art doesn't need as much resolution, but I would say that makes it far harder to define the shapes, lines and charictaristics you want or need.
P.S. I also struggled so much with that chain
in some aspect pixel art is simple, but it is for sure it's own art form and is just as hard as any art form to learn to master over time. Your right, people don't give it it's due credit. :)
Imagine someone takes all of the advice in these videos to make the most horrific video game ever made.
i'm not good at games and i get stuck in them a LOT. but i have to say. i did not struggle with that pull chain.
the thing that drives me crazy the MOST is when a platformer has a character that's just a shape with zero animations. grr. that's frustrating.
If I ever get started with game dev (like I want to), I feel like the prepubescent (aka underdeveloped) artist in me would try to make assets for the game from scratch.
It would be part of the process for me anyways. I will try to wade through this info if or when I start.
“use pixel art since it doesn’t take any talent”
Meanwhile Rain World having the best pixel art of any pixel game i’ve ever seen
Rain world uses procedural animation, so it's made with programming not drawing skills.
@@NihongoWakannai what does procedural animation have to do with rain world’s art, you think all the backgrounds and set pieces are AI generated?
You know youre in trouble when you start agreeing with artindi for more than half the video
ha. :)
Task unclear made rainworld
I feel kinda called out from 1:02
oh and don’t forget, if you have the budget make sure to add every fancy graphical flourish instead of spending that budget on, say, testing the game for bugs. also never use a style that isn’t hyper-realism, the shareholders won’t like that
Color theory is just a theory
Hear me out: that "artstyle" at 1:09 that's meant to just be cutting corners and not look good actually looks pretty cool. Although i admit it probably only works with pictures, not gameplay/animation.
That actually works BETTER in motion, see Another World / Out of this World.
And remember kids: If you like a sprite from a well-known game, be sure to steal it!