Overview
Pixel art (ドット絵, dotto-e, lit. dot picture) is a general term for pictures drawn in units of one pixel (dot). This section introduces pixels as a graphic expression used especially in game software.
It is also a tag used for graphic-like illustrations of retro games from the 8-bit era (e.g., NES) and the 16-bit era (e.g., SNES).
This technique was developed to display good-looking images while covering the low resolution and small number of colors that could be displayed on old screens. In particular, game screens, with the exception of adventure games and wire-frame games, were almost entirely made up of pixels.
From the 1970s, when video games began to become common, until around the 2000s, when full-color and 3DCG expression became easier even on handheld devices, it was used in many game software titles.
Today, it is widely used in situations other than computer games as a kind of unique retro and warm expression method, not so much related to hardware limitations.
It has many unique techniques such as tile patterns and anti-aliasing.
