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Show HN: I made a pixel art editor for Windows desktop

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Re: Show HN: I made a pixel art editor for Windows desktop

#11
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Additionally, Aseprite runs on Linux, which is a big pro for me.

Aseprite is also open-source and free if you compile it yourself. https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite

Aseprite is source-available now, not open source [1]. Libresprite [2] is a fork of a past GPLv2 version of Aseprite.

[1] https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/blob/main/EULA.txt

[2] https://github.com/LibreSprite/LibreSprite

Re: Show HN: I made a pixel art editor for Windows desktop

#13
post #8

Does it support a practical stylus-oriented workflow? Can I use all its functions in a purely touch+stylus mode, without reaching for the keyboard at all? I'm looking for such a pixel-art tool, not aware of any at the moment. (Also, I'm totally an absolute amateur, so I might be missing some.)

Yes it does support non-keyboard usage through the stylus and touch, I tested on a Wacom tablet and a Surface Pro during development - I recommend downloading the demo first to be sure that it fits your requirements.

Re: Show HN: I made a pixel art editor for Windows desktop

#14

Amazing! I dabble in isometric pixel art, and I use MS Paint - which puts art on "Hard Mode" for me. I love the idea of an "isometric grid!" I will buy this software once I figure out how to use Steam.

Thank you for the encouraging comment!

Re: Show HN: I made a pixel art editor for Windows desktop

#15
post #9

I am saying this in a very good way: I was 10 years old(give or take) when I started fiddling about with Macromedia(later acquired by Adobe) Flash 4 and the screenshots gave me so many flashbacks, like making dumb animations, fiddling with scenes and the strange animal that was action script. The UI looks soooooooooo familiar..

I'll take that as a compliment, and if I've achieved nothing else, glad to give you flashbacks.

Re: Show HN: I made a pixel art editor for Windows desktop

#16

I make game developer tools for fun and to fill a need that I myself might encounter when trying to make a game. I figured creating a pixel art editor would be a good challenge (graphics programming is hard), I wanted it to be fast and as easy to use as possible, something that Photoshop users could comfortably use as a replacement. A 99% fully functional free demo is available for download (you just can't save the l…

My biggest question is "why would I buy this and not Aseprite?". Aseprite is very well established in this space and this new tool doesn't seem like it has anythign unique to offer. Not that building a new tool isn't a good project, but when you're selling it you probably need some distinctive features, certainly if you want to win over existing users.

I think both Aseprite and Graphics Gale are great tools for pixel art. If you have Aseprite on Steam, you can try the experimental branches to try features before they are fully fledged. I've been using the tile branch and playing with it for some time now.

You can also compile for yourself if you want - even though I have bought it on Steam I have my own build too that I use in an old Linux computer when I want to draw in non-distracted almost offline way.

Re: Show HN: I made a pixel art editor for Windows desktop

#19
post #17

The interface looks very clean. Would you mind sharing a bit about the tech behind it, assuming it isn't a proprietary secret? At first glance it looks like a C# .NET application.

It's all MFC C++ where most of the UI controls are custom ones that I created to achieve the kind of interaction I was looking for. I used LodePng and gifanimcplusplus for processing png and gif files, the rest of the code is all in-house. I learned a lot in terms of processing RGBA as fast as possible.
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