Announcing 32×32   17 June 2009

Alternately titled: “And now for something completely different.”

32×32 is my next project, and it isn’t a game at all. It’s a pixel art editor for the iPhone/iPod touch.

The mantra behind 32×32 (read as: “32 by 32″) is simplicity and usability. Basically, I took the idea of drawing pixel art and stripped it down to its core actions. After that I stripped it down even further. The resulting app is joyfully simple to use, but still pretty powerful.

(click to enlarge)

The canvas has a fixed size of 32 pixels across by 32 pixels down, thus the name. The drawing tools are simply pen, erase, fill and undo/redo. Full RGB support got the axe pretty early on. It would be clunky and pointless, and not about drawing at all. Instead, 32×32 provides 5 shades of grey, a neutral set of colours.

Clearly, 32×32 isn’t interested in being the ultimate pixel art editor. It would end up being bulky, complicated and slow to use. Instead, it is a quick and painless way to get all that pixel art goodness onto a digital canvas, wherever you are. The idea is that you’ll create pixel art on your iPhone, but more advanced work (such as animation) can be done on your computer.

Check out the 32×32 page for more details. I’ll be posting more about 32×32 on here, so stay tuned. The tentative release is July 2009 for only $0.99.