Which do you prefer: Pixel Art or "Polished" Art?

i am finishing up my game (2D action platformer), and wanted to know what to update the placeholder sprites with: pixel art characters/environment or contemporary/polished art?

I know different folks have different preferences, likes, and dislikes...but assuming the same game, the same mechanics, which graphic type do you prefer, which graphic type attracts you and peeks your interest in wanting to give it a shot and play?

if you have already made, sold/distributed games what is your first-hand experience on what the mainstream, casual gamers prefer based on your experience?

any suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated.

ehh.. style might determine what kind of people are attracted to the game, but if it is drawn terribly it might not attract anyone.

So I would do whichever style I have confidence in creating- whichever is better for development, etc, if it doesn't matter who your audience is.

If you can do both I would prefer high res art....

It makes look the game more professional - but of cause it's way more work to create a game with stunning gfx looking good.

With pixel art IMHO the gameplay must be something 'special' to gain interrest (there are so many little games put together with pixel art).

I personally prefer pixel art but I don't have the time nor patience to learn it so I use Vectors.

I can only speak from preference though.

I have not made a decent game yet.

At least not decent enough to have attracted a good amount of downloads.

Personally, I can't draw at all, I have pretty much zero artistic ability but I can produce okay pixel graphics and I can 3D model.

So when working on other titles, I have produced a 3d model and then run renders and normal maps through photoshop to produce the textures for it with good results. Currently I am moving away from this and trying to produce pixel/sprite art for 2d titles entirely by hand but the results are very mixed and sometimes inconsistent.

So, I would say use whatever art style you can produce best and that you think fits with the game

You want your game to look the best it can, so produce whatever style you have confidence in.

I prefer pixel art, for taste and because it is easier to work

"polished" art is not real what you think, there a lot of different styles such as photography, ink, vectors, watercolor, etc.

It depends on your creativity of your game.

Pixel art is much more easier and less time consuming , But if you are a hardcore creative art designer go for polished art

I prefer pixel art, if it's *good*. It requires polish and skill to look appealing, just like any game art.

I prefer pixel art, if it's *good*. It requires polish and skill to look appealing, just like any game art.

Exactly this. There are different qualities of pixel art, just as there is for vector art or any other type of art style.

I prefer pixel art too, I do pixel art and for me it's easy and quicker than vector art.

I can't explain why but, for the moment, I prefer buying and playing indie games with pixel art.

Pixel Art is not easy. Crappy pixel art is. As it seems easier to get away with mistakes. But these mistakes will obviously be perceived by Players and your game will end up inevitably suffering from it.

In Pixel Art is much more important to have a good understanding at how colors work. Since there's less colors, their interaction becomes really important.

And no, a pixel art game doesn't look in any way less professional than any other type of game. At the end is all a matter of presentation.

Pixel art representing golden gaming era and somehow resemblance mosaic art. No doubt pixel art always associated with something related to video games.

Different story for my own game project, good-enough looking graphics will be my concern to do art. It can be vector art or something else since the graphic software support vector & raster creation.

Depends. Actually as any other style. Graphics in every style could be good looking or not. Personally i prefer to draw pixelart

Pixel Art is not easy. Crappy pixel art is. As it seems easier to get away with mistakes. But these mistakes will obviously be perceived by Players and your game will end up inevitably suffering from it.

In Pixel Art is much more important to have a good understanding at how colors work. Since there's less colors, their interaction becomes really important.

And no, a pixel art game doesn't look in any way less professional than any other type of game. At the end is all a matter of presentation.

that is your point, I feel good for being easier to build the game in pixel art, but I agree what you said about the colors, actually pixel art only has colors and squares, so you need to have some skill to do cool things (as like any other area)