Hi! We're a small three-person team working on FORWARD, a TRPG with a steampunk setting. Battles take place on a 3D isometric board where the characters are 2D pixel art sprites. 

It plays like a classic grid tactics game with some twist to it.

We're looking for a pixel artist to create our character sprites.

WHAT WE NEED

- About 9–10 characters.

- Animations per character: Idle, Walk, Attack, Hit, Death, Cast (skill). We may need a few extra ones for specific characters; we'll agree on those together, character by character.

A NOTE ON THE ORDER

We know the ideal order would be character design / concept art first, and sprites after. But the pixel art sprites are the heart of the game, so we want to start there and find the right solution for them first.

Later on we might also need character portraits (bust, for dialogues) and splash art, but that's not decided yet: this post is about the animated sprites.

TECHNICAL SPECS

- View: isometric three-quarter view (our camera sits at 45°).

- Only 2 directions drawn per character: three-quarter FRONT and three-quarter BACK. We get the other two by mirroring in the engine.

- Size: our placeholder assets use 128×128 px frames, with the character body about 52–70 px tall, and animations of up to 15 frames each. These are just placeholders: we'll choose the final size and frame count together with you. Right now we're leaning towards a body height of at least 64 px (we also like bigger characters, around 84 px), and we'd love your advice on what works best for your style. Whichever size we pick, we want one consistent size for the whole cast.

TERMS

- Paid work, one milestone per character.

- You'll be credited in the game, and you're free to show the art in your portfolio once the game is out.

- We'd like to be able to make small changes to the delivered art (for example color variants). We're open to talk about it.

- Hand-made pixel art only, no AI-generated art.

HOW TO APPLY

You can reply here, or contact us by DM or email (antoniosimonettiantonio@gmail.com). Please send your portfolio and a first cost estimate per character.

Thanks for reading!

Hi! I’m Abiodun, a freelance artist. I’m interested in your project and would love to learn more about it

My discord:- abiodun_0

I’d be happy to discuss the project and see if my skills would be a good fit.

Hello,  I would love to work with your team on FORWARD. I can create hand-made isometric pixel art sprites with smooth Idle, Walk, Attack, Hit, Death, and Cast animations while keeping the entire cast consistent in style and size. I’m also comfortable working character-by-character milestones. I’d be happy to share my portfolio and discuss your preferred sprite size and style before getting started. Here is my discord name: kenith0886

Hello! I would like to apply for the pixel artist position as well. Here are a couple of examples of recent work of mine:

Here is my secondary PORTFOLIO as well.
You can reach out to me via Discord by the tag Rojatzo. 

Hope to hear from you soon so we can discuss if my skills are up to par with you.

Hi Antonio, FORWARD caught my attention because the sprites are clearly a major part of the game’s identity, not just assets placed on the board.

What interests me most is the consistency challenge: building 9–10 characters with different designs while keeping the same proportions, readability, animation language, and visual weight at the chosen resolution. I’d also be happy to help determine whether 64px, 84px, or another scale gives the characters enough presence on your 3D board.

I can handle the animated sprite work and would be happy to start with one character as a visual benchmark before moving through the rest of the cast.

Here's my discord for better discussion :adam_121south

If you send me one of the character concepts/placeholders, I can also tell you how I’d approach translating it into the final pixel style.

Hi Antonio, I came across your post for FORWARD and the combination of the steampunk setting with the isometric tactical gameplay caught my attention.

The scope is quite clear, especially the need for a consistent pixel style across 9–10 characters and their full animation sets. I’m currently connecting with indie teams and artists, and I may be able to point you toward a pixel artist who could be a good fit.

Before I do, are you already set on a particular pixel-art style, or are you open to seeing a few different approaches for the character sprites?

If it’s useful, you can also reach me on Discord: brandon_c0569.

Hi! I saw you’re looking for a pixel artist for FORWARD to create animated character sprites. I’m interested in working on the character animations and keeping the style consistent across the cast.
Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8vbL0E
Discord: code._.phantomstudio

Hey! I’m interested in working on the pixel character sprites for FORWARD. I’m sending over some of my pixel animation and character sprite work for reference. I’d love to work with you on the characters and their animations.

Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nd0zJr
Discord: samokafor.

Hi! I’m interested in working on the 2D pixel character sprites for your game. I’m a 2D artist and I can create pixel art character sprites in a game ready style. I’ve attached some of my previous work for you to check. Do you have any character references or designs you can share?

My portfolio https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8vBoEw

My discord gustavohn3773

Hello! I am an experienced pixel artist specializing in detailed isometric character sprites and fluid combat animations for tactical RPGs. I loved the steampunk direction of FORWARD and can deliver hand crafted high quality sprites tailored precisely to your engine's framing needs. Would you prefer a 64px or 84px body height for the initial character sprite milestone test?

DISCORD: bimplee

MY PAST WORK: https://www.artstation.com/tangel

Hey! I saw your post and I’d be happy to work on this project. I have experience with pixel art and animation. If you have any specific references, I can follow them, or I can also create something unique for your game. I attached some examples of my previous work for you to check out.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q0Qann
Discord: rinaberry1