Hot Streets

Client: Adult Swim
Agency: North Kingdom

This is a multiplayer, pixel art video game that Jude created for Adult Swim to promote the launch of their animated series, Hot Streets.

Pixel art title screen for Adult Swim's Hot Streets: Chubbie in Troubie video game featuring 8-bit typography, 3 small pixel art faces of human characters, and one giant pixel art illustration of a angry, red anthropomorphic dog

Project Goals

To celebrate the premiere of Hot Streets (a show about supernatural FBI investigations) Adult Swim wanted to create an online game that captured the chaotic and surreal energy of the series. The concept called for a clever subversion of the classic Pac-Man formula: an asymmetrical multiplayer experience where three players (playing as the humans) hunt a lone player (playing as the dog), flipping the script on the standard maze-chase dynamic. In order to capture this retro video game concept, they looked for an illustrator who does 8-bit art. They needed a pixel artist who not only understood the medium, but how to translate the show’s dark humor into pixel art illustration, so they commissioned Jude to create all of the 8-bit illustrations and typography.

8-bit pixel art animation of French battling Chubbie for Adult Swim’s Hot Streets.
8-bit pixel art animation of Chubbie attacking French for Adult Swim’s Hot Streets.

Project Realization

The pixel art game, Chubbie in Troubie, was released directly on the Adult Swim website to coincide with the show's debut. It allowed fans to inhabit the world of the series, playing as either the team of three FBI agents or the talking dog, Chubbie Webbers. While the browser-based game is no longer online, it successfully extended the show's narrative into an interactive, competitive space.

Creative Process

Jude created all the pixel art game assets, translating the show's hand-drawn characters (Agents Branski and French, niece Jen, and the titular Chubbie) into distinct pixel art style sprites. He also created the game’s 8-bit typography, such as the title screen.
Designing the environment required expanding beyond the single-screen constraints of 80s arcade classics into a sprawling, scrolling map based on one of the exotic locations from the series. He also animated unique sequences, such as the game’s "power pellet" moment: the "Murder Powder," which temporarily transformed the vulnerable dog into a fire-breathing menace capable of turning the tables on his pursuers.

Animated pixel art portrait of Chubbie from Hot Streets, face only, on a yellow background.
Animated pixel art walk cycle of Chubbie from Hot Streets, shown front, back, left, and right, on a yellow background.
Animated pixel art portrait of Branski from Hot Streets, face only, on a muted purple background.
Animated pixel art walk cycle of Branski from Hot Streets, shown front, back, left, and right, on a muted purple background.
Animated pixel art portrait of French from Hot Streets, face only, on a dark green background.
Animated pixel art walk cycle of French from Hot Streets, shown front, back, left, and right, on a dark green background.
Animated pixel art portrait of Jen from Hot Streets, face only, on a red background.
Animated pixel art walk cycle of Jen from Hot Streets, shown front, back, left, and right, on a red background.
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