Someone else was making a tower defense game. I was the artist. Three themes, 16×16 pixels each, every tile drawn separately so they could build whatever map they wanted.
when 2023
type pixel art · tileset
for a classmate's tower defense game
tool pixilart.com
my part artist (all tiles)
What it is
BandiA collaboration with the Game Design class. I got a reference picture and a brief: make the assets for a tower defense game. Not a finished background, but the pieces. Blank tiles, straight paths, turns, tower bases, decorations, and the towers themselves.▼
BandiThree themes. A grass world with slightly-too-vibrant greens and glowing towers. A water world with coral paths. And a dark stone one. Each path comes in two sets so the client could pick a look.
the towers — sun, moon, and plain
The tiles
BandiEverything is 16×16. Towers are drawn at 32×64 and used at half size, one tile wide and two tall (that's how they're shown here). Shown here at 4× so you can actually see them. Path tiles are drawn once and the client rotates them.
theme 1 — grass. two path sets (1 and 2), each with an A and B varianttheme 2 — water and coraltheme 3 — stone in the darkthe plain tower, used by themes 2 and 3
Sample maps
BandiThese are demonstrations, not what the client built. Same path in all three themes so you can see the tiles do the same job in different clothes. The fourth is the demo I made at the time (theme 1, path set 2), rebuilt from the original tiles so it isn't blurry anymore.
theme 1theme 2theme 3my 2023 demo, rebuilt tile by tile from the originals
What I learned
BandiHow graphics work inside a game, not just on paper. A tile has to look right next to every other tile, from any side, in any order. So I stopped drawing pictures and started drawing pieces: ground, edges, corners, paths, towers, each one made to fit the others. Then the fun part, putting them together into maps and seeing a place appear.
BandiAnd a first taste of working with someone else. The game wasn't mine; the tiles were. I had to draw what another person's game needed, in the size and format his code expected, and hand them over in a way he could use. A small thing, but it was the first time my work had to fit into someone else's.
