January 23rd was our eighth annual Pixel Day on Newgrounds, a celebration of pixel art, animation, games and chiptunes!
It was a day filled with wonder, basically Christmas morning for anyone who likes pixel art. We offered up prizes for our favorite entries, here are the winners!
Top Eight Games
🏆1st - $450
“What appears to be a simple platformer at first turns out to have really tight and deep mechanics (without being overwhelming with the control scheme). The level designs are also very well-thought-out, I especially enjoyed the "racing" level where the end doors become closed off based on how fast you go. I really wish this one had gamepad support because my hands started cramping up with the current keyboard control scheme.” -@BoMToons
“I dunno exactly who said it, Miyamoto or somebody like that, but apparently the key to a great platformer is ensuring that its core movement mechanics feel so fluid and dynamic that you could have fun even in an empty room. Such was the case for how I lost hours as a kid just goofing around in the starting courtyard in Mario 64, and such was the case for Gappy's Playground. It's still in development so some of the controls are subject to change, but overall the game felt very good to control and, despite the levels being just test levels with no big story or ending to them, nevertheless created such a fun, addictive and challenging experience.” -@FuturecopLGF
🏆2nd - $250
“Silly good, outrageous, fun. The controls on this were really easy to pick up and play and felt very intuitive to me. I love seeing a boss battle! A game with a wacky sense of humor always tickles my fancy. The variety of weapons was really fun to explore, kept me wondering what was coming next. Also, I loved the music in this.” -@BoMToons
“What other game can you mow down enemies with a stampede of soldiers summoned by your dulcet tunes, or bludgeon enemies with a flailing phone while there is someone on the line trying to speak to you? Heck, even without those powerups, it's still so satisfying to run around saving the world by poking and slapping enemies until they flop over, only to pick up their body and chuck it to knock someone else down!” -@FuturecopLGF
🏆3rd - $200
“Fun word game with an original concept. The daily challenge is a really neat feature. The thing chasing me from above freaked me out! Intuitive controls and concept and nicely polished as we've all come to expect from Jack!” -@BoMToons
🏆4th - $150
“So much charm in this with the simplified graphics/animations and the unconventional story line. Every character had its own unique and interesting/funny personality and the ending was heart-warming. This game distilled a lot of what's great about a Metroid-vania into a small, easy to complete package, but with a real story! I had a genuinely good time playing this, but now I want a sequel where we see whether the adventurers or monsters win in the end and what role the little goblin cook plays in it all!” -@BoMToons
🏆5th - $55
“The art of the rage game is a fine art indeed: the more challenging the game, the more the developer has to ensure that the controls and structure are that much more refined in order to ensure that it feels not only fair, but satisfying so as to make all of the player's time worthy of investment. When it came to head hunting, my time felt very well invested as despite a rough start, the more I played had me getting absolutely addicted to the swinging physics as it put me through even more intricate obstacles. An excellent short and sweet 'getting over it' experience.” -@FuturecopLGF
🏆6th - $50
“This was a surprisingly fresh puzzle game. It's a great example of how limitations (no jumping) can foster creativity and unique level designs. The calendar week progress map was also an original and engaging detail. Definitely check this one out!” -@BoMToons
🏆7th - $50
“It's a bit rough around the edges and still under development, but the broad strokes of the game are pretty solid and attractive: a dark and mysterious world and aesthetic, a subtle story elegantly told through minimal cutscenes, a nice combat system that has you strategically go back and forth between melee and ranged, and some incredible boss fights with all sorts of crazy moves to challenge yourself against! Overall a cool enough spectacle that has you forgive its missteps.” -@FuturecopLGF
🏆8th - $50
“An excellent example for why games do not always need to be 100+ hour epics with all sorts of fancy raytracing effects and overwrought cinematics. Look at Kitten Cannon, look at Cookie Clicker, and then look at good: baseball and tell me it doesn't feel so damn satisfying to get a perfect SMASH hit and knock that ball straight outta Fenway Park, woo!” -@FuturecopLGF
“This game goes to show that you don't need a lot of complexity to make something really fun. The connection between bat and ball felt truly satisfying/solid and the varied timing of the pitches kept me on my toes. I played this a lot longer than I probably should have trying to beat my high score. Easy to pick up, hard to master!” -@BoMToons
Thank you @BoMToons, @FuturecopLGF and @ThatJohnnyGuy for game judging assistance!
Top Six Movies
🏆1st - $250
🏆2nd - $150
🏆3rd - $100
🏆4th - $50
🏆5th - $50
🏆6th - $50
Thank you @PhantomArcade and @ThatJohnnyGuy for movie judging assistance!
Top Seven Art
🏆1st - $200
🏆2nd - $150
🏆3rd - $75
🏆4th - $50
🏆5th - $50
🏆6th - $50
🏆7th - $50
Thank you @JohnnyUtah and @ThatJohnnyGuy for art judging assistance!
Top Five Music
🏆1st - $200
🏆2nd - $130
🏆3rd - $75
🏆4th - $60
🏆5th - $50
Thank you @ThatJohnnyGuy for music judging assistance!
Shout out to @Dieswyx, @Dry and @TeraVex, who made entire albums / soundtracks!
Thank you everyone who participated in Pixel Day and @ThatJohnnyGuy for suggesting this event event!
Thank you @moawling for our beautiful site skin and promo banner!
Thank you to our Pixel Day Sponsors!
The Funkin' Crew - $400
@LumpyTouch - $200
@josephbourgeois - $200
@DrSevenSeizeMD - $104.28
@heyopc - $100
@Jack - $100
@NamelessNathan - $100
@wheezl - $100
@Graeme - $100
@olskoo - $50
@liefhebber - $50
@Miroko - $50
@Dry - $35.26
@53xy83457 - $25
@SketchToPen - $25
@MigMoog - $5
Newgrounds - $1,400
Something that has been on my mind, maybe for this June: Low Poly Day?
