16×16 Slime — Character Example
Why the classic slime works at 16×16: a single-mass silhouette, a 4-color ramp with hue-shifted shadow, and eyes placed for instant readability.
palette · 4 colors
01One mass, no limbs
The whole character is a single rounded blob. That silhouette survives every animation frame — squash, stretch, land — without redesign. At 16×16, characters made of many small parts fall apart in motion; the slime cannot.
02Ramp structure
Four colors, one material: dark outline (#1a1c2c), deep green base, light green top, and a single white glint. The light green sits on the upper surface as a connected cluster — a top-left light — not scattered. The white highlight is one or two pixels only.
03Face placement
Eyes sit in the upper half, 2 pixels each with a gap — the minimum configuration that reads as 'looking'. Below the midline they would read as a mouth; above the top quarter they read as antennae. Position does the character work; no detail is needed.
04Why it animates well
Because the design has no thin parts, a bounce animation only changes the outline's width/height ratio. Colors and face never move relative to each other — exactly what low-frame-count animation needs.
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OpenPaletteRetro Game Palette
An 8-color arcade-style palette with a warm mid tone, deep shadow and a punchy accent — the safest all-purpose starting point for 16×16 game sprites.
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