2D Character Sprite Size?

I’m hiring an artist to do my character sprites and animations for a metroidvania. The overall map will not be as large as something like Hollow Knight, but still rather large.

So i’m wondering what size should the artist make the characters/animations? I’m asking them to do the work in HD if that matters. Which I think it does.

Thanks for any help.

You need to decide what resolution you want the graphics to display at and what size you want the character to be on the screen (percentage wise). Then you simply multiply one by the other.

For example: if you wanted the display to be 1600x900 and you want the character to 1/8th the height of the screen, then 900*(1/8) = 112.5 so 112 or 113 pixels tall.

Although, if you are not going for pixel-perfect, the artist could create it at any resolution as long as it was a higher resolution then it’s drawn on the screen.

I would recommend the highest resolution possible (if it’s not pixel art).
Why? Because you can always scale it down without losing quality, whereas if they are too small and you want to enlarge them they lose detail.

Thanks for the replies. I was looking at this to get an idea.

Sundered