Selecting the perfect screenshot to show the world your new game must be a tough decision. How can a game developer encapsulate their vision in a handful of static images? Nicky Hunt has come up with a novel way of showing off his new iOS title FIST OF AWESOME (never in lower case, NEVER), with animated screenshots.

Speaking to Past the Pixels Nicky explained how he came up with the visually striking concept: “It was a lucky accident really! I was hammering away at the pause button, trying to get some cool looking regular screenshots, when I noticed all the particle effects were still running in pause mode. I thought ‘oh, that’s actually quite nice’. Some fiddling with video capture software later and BOOM, animated screenshots.” As you can see from the screens, the pixellated sprites and backgrounds Nicky has come up with are lovingly retro-tinged, and aren’t easy to produce. Nicky said: ”It’s definitely of a labour of love making the art for FIST OF AWESOME. Trying to pack personality and humour into characters while fitting into the (totally self-imposed) restrictions can be a tricky challenge. The animation especially is very time consuming, but it’s hugely satisfying watching the little guys run around the screen, each with their own silly walk, odd mannerisms and frequently totally ineffective method of attacking.”