Graphics Hand Drawn digital art

[Efis Evisule]

So I already have some game mechanics down and use some pixel art as place holders. Would I have to change my game's resolution if i wanted to throw in art that is not pixel art. What would I save the sprites as (ex. vector, jpg, etc.) and what would be a good size for the sprite of a main character in a plat-former (resolution wise, and character would be relatively small on screen). I know Crashlands went from pixel art to a more cartoony artstyle and I was always thinking of taking that route as drawing helps me envision my game. Please and thank you for any help.

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

It really depends on the resolution you already have. I'm assuming since you're using pixel art that your resolution is small, so I would say that if you wanted to use non-pixel art that you really should consider increasing your resolution. I always make most of my games with the resolution of 1920x1080 in mind and sketch a quick screen mockup to gauge how large my assets and backgrounds should be. Some of my player sprites are up to 256px tall for instance.
So I recommend just sketching out a screen, a mockup of how you think the game should look amd then make your decisions about sprite sizes from that.
Good luck, I'd love to see more non-pixel art games going around.

 

[Efis Evisule]

It really depends on the resolution you already have. I'm assuming since you're using pixel art that your resolution is small, so I would say that if you wanted to use non-pixel art that you really should consider increasing your resolution. I always make most of my games with the resolution of 1920x1080 in mind and sketch a quick screen mockup to gauge how large my assets and backgrounds should be. Some of my player sprites are up to 256px tall for instance.
So I recommend just sketching out a screen, a mockup of how you think the game should look amd then make your decisions about sprite sizes from that.
Good luck, I'd love to see more non-pixel art games going around.

Thank you so much! This really helps out as i had my game scale up to 720p from 360p, but my sprites were 48x48. I'll start to make it in 1920 x 1080 since that can be considered a standard now. 256px tall seems like a very good number that will help me play around with my sprites until I am ready to change it up. Do you use another program for your sprites or do you just use game maker( if you don't mind me asking)?

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

No problem. I use a bunch of programs depending on things. I use MSpaint for quick mockups sometimes, or an oooooold version of Photoshop. Other times I use Medibang on my Android tablet when I feel like drawing by hand.
I rarely use GM's sprite editor.