Pixel Perfect - Extra Life 2024
The creation of my latest Secret Lair Drop
1. PRESS START
Today I'm excited to share with you the story of how the art was created for 2024's Extra Life Secret Lair drop, Pixel Perfect. This would prove to be my most ambitious Magic the Gathering project with many elements to juggle and unique problems to solve. So grab a controller and press start!
Before we begin, if you want to know more about the Extra Life charity and what they do please read this official Wizards article, first. Once you're familiar, go on ahead…
Pixel Perfect was another project I worked on closely with art director Jacob Covey, soon after completing Just Add Milk 2. It would be a series of 5 pre-existing cards featuring a pixel-art aesthetic reminiscent of old 2D side-scroller video games. The art for these cards was to appear as if the viewer was progressing through a video game. This “game" was to feature Fblthp as the player character and Nicol Bolas as the end boss.
2. THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Like most card commissions, I started with some rough sketches to map out each composition and lay out the requested details. This project had the added challenge of needing to tell a story chronologically, as if it were a short comic. Across the 5 cards I was asked to depict:
Fblthp jumping over a lava pit outside the boss lair.
Nicol Bolas attacking Fblthp with a Lightning Bolt inside his lair.
Fblthp reflecting back the lightning attack from Bolas.
Bolas struck by the reflected bolt, creating a fiery explosion.
And finally, Fblthp’s victory over Bolas and claiming his prize.
There were several components to figure out in order to make this set of cards work. We had to design 2 separate rooms but also make sure they would immediately read as connected spaces. To differentiate between the 2, I color coded the “outside” with a gray platform and a reddish background, and the “inside” with a golden platform and purple background. The double doors serve as the bridge between them.
The lava room outside the boss chamber only appears in one card, so I had more freedom to explore that design. As the first card in the series, I wanted to foreshadow Nicol Bolas as our villain with architectural details that echo his design.
Inside the boss chamber itself would require more careful planning. Since this would act as a stage for the remaining 4 cards in the set, I had to design the room to work across 4 different shots. In an effort to play up the domineering nature of Bolas, I staged him on a platform above Fblthp beyond a pit of spikes. I made sure the planeswalker symbol was visible just behind Bolas to hint at this being the guarded prize. If it only appeared in the final frame, there might be a disconnect as to how we got from A to B.
*Pixel redesign explorations.
3. THE NEXT LEVEL
After some feedback, I had a new set of problems to solve...
The characters appeared too small. Printed at card size, these scenes would be hard to read, so we zoomed in where we could. The boss chamber spikes were removed to better allow for this…a fun detail lost, but ultimately worth the cost.
Next, the 4 cards featuring the boss chamber looked too similar. They needed to be clearly discernible between each other and highlight the focus of each card…
I gave 'Lightning Bolt' a reddish glow, bringing attention to the bolt itself.
'Fierce Guardianship' got a blue glow and a larger, more detailed shield effect to highlight the contrast between it being a defensive response to the bolt attack.
For 'Delayed Fire Blast', I had the idea of using inverted colors to imitate the flashing screen effect common in old video games depicting a dramatic scene like this in which the boss monster is defeated. As much as I like the idea, it never quite felt like it worked as a still-image. Instead, I pushed the background to a deep red palette to give the scene some of the drama I was looking for.
And for 'Solve the Equation' I wanted to apply a more victorious tone with brighter lighting and colorful effects.
I was also asked to include Ajani somewhere if possible, due to his role as the Extra Life mascot. The original idea was maybe he could congratulate Fblthp on his victory in the final secret card (you can see this explored in the sketches) and I thought a speech box featuring his portrait might be cool. I used a graphic from one of my favorite Sega Genesis games to pitch the concept.
4. DO A BARREL ROLL
This led to Jacob suggesting the brilliant idea of an Ajani head narrating the mechanics box of all 5 cards. The plan from the start was to stick with the regular templated borderless text box (sans name / mana cost bar), but Jacob also pitched the idea of having me redesign the name bar, rule boxes, and type in matching pixel-form, so this added another layer of intrigue.
At this stage we were really honing in on what the final product would look like. Character designs were locked in, and the compositions were pretty much figured out as well. I was still narrowing down some options for a few cards, but these were just small details, like the HP indicators. At this point I had already fully constructed the dialogue rules boxes, the design of which I drew inspiration from dialogue boxes and dropdown menus found in various RPG games.
5. BLOCK BY BLOCK
Throughout each round of sketch revisions, I was also designing the various pixel-art environment assets...
I made repeatable tile sets for the lava, platforms, and boss chamber background, just as you would find them in any old sprite sheet from a classic video game. Below are the final, isolated poses I created for Fblthp. These include an unprinted basic standing pose I used as a size/style guide for the other poses, a head icon appearing next to the hearts used to represent his HP, and the shield he conjures in Fierce Guardianship.
For Ajani’s portrait, I again designed a basic stationary version from which I would create the other in-motion versions printed on the cards. For fun (mostly for myself), I actually fully animated the portrait…
Below are the final isolated poses for Bolas as well. I designed each on its own layer to give myself maximum flexibility when staging each scene. Sometimes a character being moved even just 1 pixel can make a huge difference. I used the face-forward Bolas pose from my initial design explorations as the guide for the rest of these poses as well.
The background Bolas elements were created very early on, as soon as we knew they would be carried through to the final.
6. YOU MADE IT TO THE END!
I loved working on these cards. Knowing this project would be used as a vehicle to raise funds for a good cause, I wanted to do everything I could to make it as special as possible. Combine that with my love of classic video games growing up and Pixel Perfect felt like a perfect match for me. I have so many fond memories centered around video games and these cards have become yet another. It’s been a very rewarding experience. If you’re like me and you’d love to see Wizards do another project like this, let them know however you can and hopefully we can get another!
Thanks for reading…
Pixel Perfect Artist Proofs are now available in my webstore. In the spirit of the Extra Life campaign, I’ll be donating 10% of all AP sales (including sketch commissions) to the 2025 fundraiser event later this year. Thanks so much for reading and game on!