Legacy of the Copper Skies Isen and Tir work together in Pendon’s pixel art style.
Pixel art had always appealed to Joe Pendon, though he has dabbled in three dimensions before and hopes to again. Right out of school and looking for work in Toronto he saw a demand for 2D pixel art from some of the local game companies and so it made sense to him to follow his passion down that route.
After focusing on building a pixel art portfolio he applied to the one local Toronto studio looking for a pixel artist and got the job. With that Pendon notes, “My career in gaming began. Pixel art got my foot through the door and I continue to strive to get better at it every day.”
A fan of Super Nintendo RPGs he’d been exposed to some of the industry’s high watermarks for pixel art. Even today he’s excited when talking about when I ask him about his favourite games, “Earthbound, hands down! It was my first RPG and a game that I still play at least once a year. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI are close seconds.”
An image from The Pocalypse II, a game set in The Pocalypse, a pixel art Flash web comic created by Pendon.
Next he created Green Pixel, a game development turned freelance pixel art company, and the long running Flash web comic The Pocalypse which he still maintains. To teach himself coding he created the game The Monolith which as seen success on web and mobile.
The prospect of new challenges drew him to join Horrible Unicorn Game Studios.
“I’m most excited about creating all the worlds that the game (Legacy of the Copper Skies) takes place in. Having multiple worlds with very different aesthetics lets me play around with varying styles and techniques. I’m also excited about all the modern effects we can utilize that will visually complement my pixel art,” he explained when I asked him what he was most interested in about the work he was doing.
“Oh, and robots, I’m always excited to design robots,” he added.
