Aseprite

The best pixel art program, easy to use and does everything I need it to.
Don't buy this on Steam, buy it on itch.io or Humble Bundle, since you'll get DRM free downloads as well as a Steam key.

If you are interested in doing pixel art, this is definitely the Software I would recommend using.
I started doing Pixel Art a few months back and I went in with no experience in art or drawing in general. I was always bad with drawing and I felt you need some sort of "talent", but in reality everyone can learn anything. You just have to put time and effort into it. I have improved a lot since then and I get better everyday.
Its very easy to learn and it has everything you need for doing pixel art. You can use your mouse or a drawing tablet. I started out with a mouse, but got myself a drawing tablet recently (XP-Pen Deco 01 V2) and it works well in Aseprite. You can do basic static pictures or animations (perfect for game development).
When I first opened it up, I thought it looks very basic and there isnt that many tools available, but actually there is a lot you can do and it isnt overwhelming to learn like other drawing software.
There is a bunch of tutorials on Youtube that I would recommend watching that give you a lot of tips, tricks and shortcuts that are very useful. But at first I would just play around a bit and see what you can find on your own,
I got the hang of it pretty quickly, but I always learn new stuff that the Software has to offer.
They keep updating it freequently and hopefully their are gonna add a bunch new stuff in the future.
I would also recommend checking out "Pixel_Dailies" on Twitter if you want to challenge yourself. They post a theme everyday and you have to make pixel art out of it. It is rly fun and you can learn a lot from the community there.
If you decide to buy it I would recommend getting it on their offical website since it is gonna be DRM free + you will get a steamkey there anyways (thats what I did) So in case it will not be available on steam anymore (for whatever reason) you still have access to it.
My goal is to make a 2d platformer game in the future and I will definitely use Aseprite for my art.
Anyways if you made it that far, thanks for reading, go make some pixel art and have a nice day (:

10/10 gameplay, but they should add an easy mode where it like does it for you because im not very good

I have many, many years of experience with Photoshop and using Photoshop for pixelart. Within a day or two I was already more productive and having more fun with Aseprite for pixelart creation than I ever was with Photoshop. Aseprite is simply THE tool for the task.

I'm here to buy dev a coffee.
Spent 200+ hrs taking a bite: it's powerful and light enough AND OPEN-SOURCED (let's not talk about the royal pain in compilation). A handy army knife which helps you directly dive into the world of pixel art without any bloating issues - launch and paint whenever you want (also possible to shoehorn it into your unity/godot workflows).

This is a very fun, easy to learn system that i wish more systems would utilise. After a 10 minute tutorial on youtube, feels like the world is at my fingertips (also im real not a bot)

From the perspective of a game developer, Aseprite for pixel art is essential for a few reasons.

- It is lightweight and has almost no overhead, unlike full-featured programs like photoshop. You can switch between creating art and developing almost instantly.
- It is highly customizable, with extremely good hotkey options. Saves me a ton of time.
- It has incredible animation and layer systems.
- It has been around for a long time, so everything is well documented in any form you need to learn

If you are a game developer making pixel art, this program can save you hours every week if you customize it to your workflow. Absolutely worth every dollar!