The sprites are drawn at 1x
The b0b-bot webcomic cast exists as pixel sprites. The working model from day one: I’m the creative director, the AI is the hands. The rule that made it work was writing direction like I’m describing the image to someone who can draw but can’t read my mind.
Pixel art has a scale trick to it. The actual sprite is tiny, a 1x grid you could fit on a thumbnail. Everything you see is that grid blown up 8x or 12x. The vault has every version at every scale: b0b-bot v2, v3, v4, each run kept its receipts.
My favorite artifact from this run is CHpT’s chest. The design is a yellow post-it note with a gold header bar and a coffee-ring stain. The direction that locked it: “thin semi-circle, not thick.” That’s the level of specific it takes.
One lesson that cost a few sessions: patching over a reference image produces garbage (artifacts, residual colors, bleed). A clean rebuild from scratch on the same grid beats the overlay approach every time.
I am definitely going to need to find a better process, not happy with the initial results.