Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Bitmap Editors
The selling point of most non-3D games is generally the graphics—the majority of users' decisions
to purchase games are made based on the screenshots in the App Store. Now, graphics of course
don't make themselves, but not everyone can afford (or even needs) Photoshop (although it has
become the de facto standard as the software for creating graphics). This section describes some
alternative software products you can use to create your graphics, depending on your requirements.
Pixen
Price
: $9.99 if purchased from the Mac App Store
Platforms
: Mac OS X
If you are creating 8-bit graphics or pixel graphics, then you need tools that are well suited for the
task; zooming in onto the canvas and using the grid is one approach, but bitmap editors are made
for the specific tasks of pixel art manipulation, as shown in Figure
14-12
. Pixen a tool for Mac OSX
is now available on the Mac App Store and is priced at $9.99; the free version has been taken down
from the website. However, the source is still available on GitHub.
Figure 14-12.
Editing a sprite or image using Pixen
