game on

Move over, Mario. Waka waka out of the way, PAC-MAN. There’s a new 8-bit side-scroller in town!

*Yes, technically PAC-MAN is of the maze-chase game variety, but we’ll spare you the details.
Thank you—I know WAY MORE about 8-bit video games than I should now.

It’s been…a year…to say the least. This made us think, ‘Why not make the best of the worst possible timeline, and make something really special?’ Soooooo we sort of made a video game…just a video without the game part…a video of a game. Before we show you what we made, here’s a little more detail on exactly what the heck you’ll be looking at.

Now, if you thought making a video game or even a video of a video game was somewhat easy and not time-consuming, and at some times not confusing, well then, you’d be like me…and you’d be wrong. But I will admit, we enjoyed every second of this process—all 432,000 seconds!

If you don’t know what “8-bit” means, you probably either don’t play a lot of video games, or you’re Gen Z, so here’s a pint-sized explanation: Maaaaaany years ago (possibly before dinosaurs walked the earth), eight bits was the maximum amount of data that could be stored and processed on a computer processer at one time. So, you were limited on the number of colors and the complexity of shapes you could display with the hardware you were using. For us, 8-bit seemed like the simplest, but also most nostalgia-bomb-inducing option available.

Recently, there’s been a resurgence of that retro, 8-bit style, in music, videos, art, etc. There’s really no shortage of 8-bit-inspired content out there. Nonetheless, we’ve thrown our hats in the ring with a very accurate *ahem* depiction of our typical workflow process.

It didn’t happen overnight.

We needed props, backgrounds, and character animations for everything. Did I say everything? Oh, good, because I meant everything: running, walking, idling, running carrying item, running carrying weapon, floating, shooting, dancing, moonwalking (“needed” is subjective), and so many more.

It took quite a bit of time, but rest assured every last pixel has been animated with care. Overall, this was a challenging but enjoyable process, and I wouldn’t trade 8-bit of the time we spent on it.

Please enjoy this special, high-quality, low-bit production of an average day in the CVW office.