Books : Character Design for Mobile Devices

Rating: - Deceptive title, but still a good book
Judging by the cover of this book, which features numerous sprites from old 8 & 16-bit consoles, it's hard to tell what this has to do with character design or mobile devices. In actuality, "mobile devices" has more to do with old portable gaming systems than cell phones, (plus there's virtually no mention of PDAs or their content) and there's really no mention of any aspects of character design outside of compensating for any resolution or color limitations.

A more appropriate title might've been "Sprites: The Book" This book's purpose seems more geared towad pixel art in general and the mobile content angle was added because it's the platform where pixel art is still a technological necessity rather than an artistic choice.

But don't let all that dissuade you. Considering how little literature there is on pixel art & sprites outside of webpages, this book is a must-have primer on the history and mechanics of sprite work.

Sections include an overview of raster graphics, a brief history of portable gaming devices, (which if nothing else made me appreciate my old Atari Lynx a little more) breakdowns of the limitations of cell phones and LCD screens, profiles of popular pixel artists, quotes from mobile game developers, walkthroughs of creating a few sprites, examples of porting sprites between platforms, histories of pixel-heavy video game genres, (RPGs, Fighting games & platformers) as well as histories of classic sprite characters Mario, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Bonk, Arthur from "Ghouls & Ghosts" & Castlevania characters. There's plenty of knowledge to glean, even if it's not what the title might suggest.

If you're looking for specific instruction on developing mobile content, look elsewhere. But if you're in the market for a broad overview on sprites and pixel art, you've found a winner.