Retro, Pixel-Based Design Comes To iPad
by Joe White
June 2, 2010
If you're an old school icon designer and can remember the days of creating icons in ResEdit - or just simply enjoy creating RPG characters pixel by pixel - then Sprite Something from Terrible Games is for you.
The application allows the user to create icons on a minute scale, The maximum image size you can create with either a solid or transparent background is 512 x 512 pixels. Even so, on the relatively small screen of the iPad, this leaves pixels looking pretty tiny.
Rotating the device so it's in landscape mode does increase the size of each individual pixel (depending on the size of your canvas), yet currently, users do not have the ability to zoom or pan. Obviously this can be annoying if you're working with a large canvas. Hopefully this feature will be added in a future version.
The four tools you use to actually create the art are the pencil, eraser, paint bucket, and color picker.
And you're not just limited to 8-bit color. By adjusting the red, green, and blue sliders you can pretty much create any color you want.
All saving is automatic, though exporting is done through iTunes File Sharing - which can be a pain. The exported files come in the portable network graphics variety (PNG), and can then be viewed on your PC or Mac.
For more information, check out the developer's page on Sprite Something here. You can also view a demo video from YouTube below.
Overall, for $2.99, Sprite Something seems to be a pretty good purchase - especially if you can implement it into your work. The developer apparently uses the application for his own design, so expect future updates to appear in iTunes until the app is near perfect.