Hi! I'm currently developing a non-commercial Mega Man X5-inspired fan game/demake in Godot, and I'm looking for a pixel artist to help with game-ready character and boss sprites.
This is an active project, not just a concept or recruitment idea. I'm handling the programming/gameplay side myself and have already been working on:
- Player movement and game-feel prototyping
- Character/gameplay systems
- Boss behavior and state planning
- Boss sprite sizing and in-game implementation requirements
- Animation workflow and Godot sprite integration
- Studying the open-source Mega Man X8 16-bit Demake as a technical/game-feel reference
I will also include a current Godot screenshot or short gameplay/prototype clip with this post so you can see the project itself.
What I'm looking for
Pixel art is the part of development I cannot produce at the quality I want, so I'm looking for someone comfortable with:
- Mega Man X-style character and boss sprites
- Late SNES / early PlayStation-era pixel art
- Mechanical / robotic characters
- Action-platformer animation
- Idle, hover/movement, attacks, hurt and defeat animations
- Clear silhouettes and readable animation at actual gameplay scale
The main visual references are:
- Mega Man X5
- Mega Man X1–X3 sprite readability
- Mega Man X8 16-bit Demake
I'm more interested in good in-game animation and readability than highly detailed standalone pixel illustrations.
Starting small — paid test commission
I'm not asking someone to commit to an entire game's worth of artwork immediately.
I'd like to start with one boss as a small paid test commission.
The initial job would most likely be:
- One finalized game-ready boss sprite
- A short idle/hover animation
- If we're both happy with the result, possibly a movement animation afterward
If the collaboration works well, I may commission additional animations, enemies or bosses later.
About AI-assisted prototypes
I also want to disclose this upfront.
While prototyping, I experimented with AI-assisted concept/placeholder imagery because pixel art is outside my skill set.
Those images are development placeholders/design experiments, not final artwork, and I'm not looking for someone to simply clean up AI-generated sprites and call them finished hand-drawn art.
My goal is for the final game sprites to be created by a human pixel artist.
If you do not want to see or use AI-generated material even as a reference, that's completely fine. I can work with you using only:
- Written character/design specifications
- Palette and color descriptions
- Original Mega Man X5 sprite references
- Mega Man X8 16-bit Demake references
- Gameplay and animation requirements
Just let me know which approach you're comfortable with.
What I can provide
For each character/boss, I can provide:
- Gameplay role and behavior
- Approximate sprite dimensions
- Animation requirements
- Color/design specifications
- Official/non-AI visual references
- Godot implementation requirements
- Feedback throughout the process
I'm primarily looking for an artist to handle the part I'm missing: actually turning those requirements into good game-ready pixel art and animation.
If you're interested
Please reply or contact me with:
- Your portfolio
- Examples of animated game sprites
- Mechanical/robot character examples, if you have any
- Your rates
- Preferred contact method
- Whether you're comfortable working on a non-commercial fan project
- Whether you accept AI-assisted concepts as references or prefer strictly non-AI references
I'm especially interested in seeing sprites actually animated at game scale, rather than only static pixel-art illustrations.
If this sounds interesting, feel free to message me here or on Discord:su3bao
Thanks for reading!
