Our monthly Microproject competition continued this past month with the challenge to make an animated GIF in the 8-Bit pixel art style. We were astounded by the many creative and vibrantly playful submissions we received that all showcase the vast potential of digital art. Pixel art played an important role in video game history but you all showed us it still has quite a future. Thank you for your wonderfully pixelated submissions!  

Grand Prize

Taking the top spot as our Grand Prize winner is caiiseni at St. Edmund Preparatory High School in Brooklyn, New York! This entry really embraces all the things that make pixel art unique and interesting. Caiiseni worked on the same detailed and small scale that a true video game artist back in the 80’s would, focusing on the features of the character’s outfit and eyes to keep the look simple and fresh. The snow falls like glitter all around and the added coffee cup and cloud of steam rising from it really impressed us. Awesome work, caiiseni!

1st Runner Up

Our 1st Runner up is actually two submissions from the same school, the first made by storrey and the second made by hhirsch at Robert F. Wagner Middle School in Manhattan, New York! These two students clearly took inspiration from the city where they live and learn to create their detailed pixelated entries.

Storrey’s submission captured a busy city street with moving cars, busy pedestrians and even a quaint city tree shedding leaves amongst the urban sprawl, while hhirsch sought to give viewers an idea of how the city never really sleeps as morning sunlight comes in at dawn and transitions to fading building lights throughout the evening. Fantastic work, storrey & hhirsch!

2nd Runner Up

Our 2nd Runner Up is this immensely impressive entry by SamsonC from Rogers Middle School in Long Beach, California! What’s not to love about this awesome dinosaur recreation? SamsonC made a finely detailed depiction of a velociraptor that would feel right at home on the Super Nintendo video game console. Every movement in this submission, from the narrowing eyes and opening mouth, to the shifting nostrils, shows a level of care and precision that borders on professional. Even the teeth are nearly perfectly aligned! Amazing job, SamsonC!

Our honorable mentions go out this month to:

To say we were blown away by the quality of your submissions would be a bit of an understatement! Here are a few students who made a significant impression and deserve some extra recognition for their work: 317stevene, 321dianaz, chuang167, Illuminated and vbejarano167. You’ll find their submissions along with a few others (and our winners) in the featured Microprojects section of the Project Gallery!

Our Grand Prize winner will receive a $50 Adafruit Gift Certificate for their school, and our 1st and 2nd Runners up will each win a prize of their choice from our new prize chest!

The holidays are approaching but the monthly Microproject competition will go strong into 2018! This month your challenge is to program a choose-your-own adventure in Mozilla Thimble!