I'm making a game. As a newbie, should the sprite size be 8x8 or 16x16?

[Capta1n_Henry]

I'm working on a game with my cousin who has created over 100 designs for characters and monsters, and expects most of them to be put into the game. My question is how big those sprites should be. Were kinda going for a Persona 4/ Final Fantasy battle system.

[lachrymose]

Follow your heart. 

Nobody knows what is best for you more than you do.
Are you more comfortable doing 8x8 or 16x16? Answering that question will give you the best response.

[Mathias]

8x8!?

How is that remotely large enough . . .

At least 16x16.



See the favicons used for all your browser bookmarks and/or to left of the URL or page title - that's 16x16.

[yaomon17]

It should be enough to represent the most common and favorite monster, the dreaded Single Green Pixel.



But seriously 8x8 is very restrictive, and unless you really, really need save time and resources, I wouldn't go with 8x8.

[PypeBros]

an example of 8x8 sprite.

This is *really* tiny. Things are recognizable only because they are iconic a priori. If you had to identify item on row 1, column 8 without having the other items of row 1 to use as a context, you'd likely be lost.

at 16x16, even randomly generated, monochrome concepts can have distinguishable limbs and eyes. But the canvas should really be guided by the style you aim for. 16x16 is fine as long as you're doing some stylized proportions.

[SARS]

I'm with Lachrymose here, you should go with whatever size you feel most comfortable with. Depending on the way you're going about making your game and the application you're interested in (Are you using RPG Maker? Writing your own engine? Is it for mobile devices or is it designed for a computer screen?) you may find some sizes easier to work with than others, but the truth as I know it is that you can pick your size and adjust your code to fit.

If you don't know what you're most comfortable with, pick a simple concept and try both to see which you like the most.

[MAVW]

something else to consider, what kind of animations those sprites will have in general? depending in the kind of motion they have, 8x8 might not be enough resolution to convey your intentions.

[Gragh]

On modern displays, 8x8 is microscopic when displayed at 1:1 resolution. 

at 16x16, even randomly generated, monochrome concepts can have distinguishable limbs and eyes.

Off-topic but...I'm rather curious.   How does this generator work?
EDIT:  nevermind I read the source code.   I just didn't actually believe it was random at first.

[Boomy]

Do what you like. The screen size nowadays is almost unlimited so everything would fit. As a beginner, 16x16 and 32x32 sound more sensible as you're less limited. One good way of doing it would be to look at your favorite pixel art games and checking out how big are the sprites in them. I mean, if you like them you probably want to make something a bit similar, right? Those days you have games like Duelyst where sprites are about 50x50px!